Apple gift card with purchase: Stack for great deals

Apple is offering a bonus Apple gift card with purchase on many items through Monday. This could make for a great stack if you first purchase Apple gift cards (ideally with a card that earns a bonus of some sort) at select stores and use them at Apple.

The Deal

• Apple is offering a bonus gift card worth $25-$150 (value varies by product) when you purchase select items today through Monday
• Stack this with gift cards purchased from Best Buy or Target (or perhaps from some supermarket chains) to make the deal even better
• Also stack with 5% back on select Citi cards for online purchases and/or other credit card offers

Quick Example

A user on Slickdeals posted the following example — but I’ll show how to take it one step further to come out with an even better deal.

Apple is currently offering the Apple TV 4K 32GB for $179.00 and is bundling with it a bonus $50 gift card.

Step 1 is to purchase two $100 Apple gift cards from either Target or Best Buy as each store is offering a bonus $20 store gift card with a $100 Apple gift card (find links to those deals in our 2020 Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals post). Note that some grocery store chains also currently have great bonuses and/or fuel points offers (like $20 off of groceries with $100 in third party gift cards at Shoprite, which could stack with 20% back via Amex Offer for an even better deal than the one described in the rest of this post).

Assuming you buy at Best Buy or Target, you’ll end up with $200 in Apple gift cards and $40 in store gift cards (Best Buy or Target gift cards). Further, I think it is unlikely but not impossible that the Apple gift card deal may trigger 8% cash back from shopping portal Retailmenot (cash back from Retailmenot is based on “top deals” items, which links directly to the Black Friday sale). I wouldn’t count on this $16, but it is not impossible to imagine getting it.

Here’s the part I’ll add to the stack: use a Citi card loaded with the offer for an additional 5% cash back for online purchases to purchase that $200 in gift cards. You’ll end up with an additional $10 in your pocket plus credit card rewards. If you’re using a Prestige card loaded with the 5x offer for online shopping, you’ll also get 1,000 ThankYou points (easily worth at least another $12-14 or more depending on how you use them).

Next, use your two $100 gift cards to purchase the Apple TV for $179. This leaves you with $21 in Apple gift card money (in reality, less than this because you’ll have sales tax in most states, but since that varies so much we’ll consider this part of your leftover money for the purposes of the example).

You will also receive a bonus $50 Apple gift card from Apple with the purchase of the Apple TV 4K 32GB. Combined with the $21 left over from the Apple TV purchase, you’ll still have $71 in Apple gift cards. At this point, you’ll have spent a total of $200 in step 1 and you will have:

• Apple TV 4K 32GB
• $71 in Apple gift cards
• $40 in Best Buy or Target gift cards
• $10 in statement credit from Citi for online purchases
• 1,000 ThankYou points if you have a 5x offer
• Potentially $16 back from Retailmenot

That’s a pretty terrific deal if you want that product.

If you happen to live in a state without sales tax and you want to get friskier yet, you could then buy another $100 Apple gift card from Target or Best Buy and combine it with the $71 in leftover gift cards plus another eight bucks and get a second Apple TV and have a total of $60 in gift cards for Target/Best Buy left. If you’re going this route, you may want to go with Best Buy and use an Amex card with the Best Buy Amex Offer synced ($25 back on $250). That would be a total outlay of $308 (three $100 Apple GCs plus the leftover $8)  minus $25 from the Amex Offer for a net total of $283 spent. For that amount, you would have two Apple TV systems and you’d have $60 in store gift cards, a $50 Apple gift card from the second purchase, and $15 in Citi statement credits (and maybe 1500 ThankYou points and possibly even $24 in cash back from Retailmenot). That’s not a bad deal at all.

The same kind of thing would be possible on many products.

H/T: Doctor of Credit & Slickdeals

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