Update 10/29/24: This opportunity didn’t last long in its original incarnation. When it went live a couple of days ago, Giftcards.com wasn’t charging the purchase fee of $5.95 and was offering 2% back in Giftcards.com Rewards. Both of those positive features have been reversed – possibly. The $5.95 fee is now being added and Giftcards.com had advised that these cards shouldn’t be earning Giftcards.com Rewards. Despite that, when adding a card to my cart it says that if I sign in I’ll earn 400 points (i.e. 2% back). I (Stephen) don’t need to purchase these and so I haven’t tested this out, but be aware that you’re apparently not supposed to be earning 2% back, so if it is still working I suspect it won’t last much longer.
That changes the value proposition a lot, but it might still be worthwhile for some people. The purchases can still be stacked with shopping portal rewards and 4% back from the Citi Offer which more than offsets the 2.98% fee if buying a $200 card, not to mention the credit card rewards you’ll earn on the purchase. It’s just sadly not as rewarding as it was for ~24 hours.
~
GiftCards.com is currently offering $200 Gift of College savings gift cards without an activation fee (H/T to GC Galore). This is a great deal for anyone saving for college or paying off student loans as there are some ways to stack this and come out a little bit ahead while saving for the future. There is also a Citi Merchant offer that could get you an extra 4% back (up to $32 back).
The Deal
- GiftCards.com is offering $200 Gift of College gift cards
with no activation fee - Direct link to this deal (our affiliate link, but alternatively go through a shopping portal to stack more rewards)
Key Terms
- Note that the card Terms and Conditions list a $5.95 activation fee, but GiftCards.com is not currently charging this
Quick Thoughts
We have a Miles for College guide showing how to use these cards to fund a 529 College Savings plan. I believe that you should also be able to pay student loans from a 529 plan, which means that you could potentially take advantage of this even if you’re beyond your college savings years and into your college repayment years.
Until now, the best option for buying Gift of College gift cards has been to find one of the limited grocery or gas station chains offering $500 physical gift cards. Those gift cards come with a $5.95 activation fee, which represents about 1.19% of the value of the card. Given the best category bonuses for grocery and gas, one could easily come out ahead of the fee if you have a nearby gas or grocery chain with these cards. Unfortunately, the options for buying $500 cards have been highly geographically limited.
While there have always been options for buying $200 eGift cards online, the purchase fee long made purchasing a $200 eGift card unattractive. However, GiftCards.com is offering these cards without an activation fee. While GiftCards.com probably won’t trigger a category bonus on most cards, there are some potential stacking opportunities.
For starters, if you join the GiftCards.com rewards program, you’ll get 2% back in rewards from them. Stacking on top of that, some Citi cardholders currently have an offer for an extra 4% back at GiftCards.com up to $32 back, which could sweeten the pot a bit more yet. Furthermore, GiftCards.com appears on shopping portals. Current best rates at the time of writing including 2 points/miles per dollar in some programs or as much as 4% back. We’ve seen targeted Capital One Shopping offers for 12-20% back recently — if you’ve got one of those, that could make these a fantastic deal.
It’s worth noting that we don’t know how long this will last. The card terms and conditions still note a $5.95 activation fee, but that isn’t currently being charged. Also keep in mind that most portals say that you will earn rewards on a maximum of $2,000 in orders per month. In my experience, some portals will allow rewards for multiple orders, but only up to a maximum of $2,000 in purchases per order. GiftCards.com will also likely limit you to no more than $2K in gift cards per rolling 48 hours.
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they now killed the $100 cards — down to $75 max it looks like. mathematically can still profit with portal hijinks, but the workload keeps increasing that it is not sustainable. maybe it is just for today with the higher portal payouts?
Now no longer earning ANY giftcards.com points, just started today 12/2
was 2, then 1, then 2, now 0
giftcards.com is 3x on AA and AS portals today, maybe others
still getting 9% from C1
these are back to earning 2 giftcards.com points per $
And that was fast…. Looks like max is $100 now still $5.95 fee
Yep. Kills the deal. Double the fees and double the work to redeem = no way.
Yup. $100 max now. Boooo
When redeeming on GoC website, how long does it take for the website to send to the 529, and is there any additional step we need to take once redeemed on the GoC website to get it to be sent to the eligible 529 (vanguard in this case)?
It may differ by state, but in my state (Maryland) it’s usually almost instantaneous.
Thank you, for me, it’s a Nevada plan administrated by Vanguard. I would assume it takes at least 2-3 business days just to get from GoC website to Vanguard and that Vanguard will email me when funds land?
I’m going to update my previous statement. I looked back at my transaction history. Although there is a quick acknowledgment, it does take several days to actually be credited to the account. In one case it took almost a week, I think because there was a weekend in between.
I just purchased $1400 worth of these with the $5.95 fee. BeFrugal had 4% back (still waiting to see if this purchase qualifies) and I received 2800 GiftCards.com Rewards. So as of today (10/29), it seems to still be a good deal.
7 x ($200 + $5.95) = $1441.65
$1441.65 * 0.04 = $57.67 (cash back from BeFrugal)
$1441.65 * 1.5 = 2162.48 (Chase UR) – [this also allowed me to reach my MSR for 90k SUB and this was all on a 12 month 0% APR card]
2800 GiftCards.com Rewards = $28 toward gift cards
So yeah, overall a pretty good deal for something I was funding directly from my checking account and getting no rewards for previously.
thanks for ruining this
I live in a state with tax deduction for my children’s 529. When buying GOC gift cards and funding my children’s 529, I should still get a tax deduction?
Yes. I just specify the amount contributed to 529s on the tax forms, I don’t think my state’s dept of revenue cares about the mechanics of how the funds made it there.
It’s back in stock but seems like it’s charging the activation fee now
Yup. there is a fee. bummer.
Does not appear to be offering Giftcard.com rewards on those purchases either. Still, if you can get a portal to eat the fee, there’s a potential to save 5-6% with Citi offer or CF + PayPal.
Still worth it for using 5% on PayPal categories + 2-3 points back with shopping portals. AAeshopping, in particular, helps to boost loyalty points too.
Out of Stockey!!!
Has anyone successfully redeemed these digital cards at giftofcollege.com? I purchased cards from giftcards.com but when I attempt to redeem them at giftofcollege.com it keeps telling there is an issue with the card. I called but they gave me the excuse that I need to wait and try and again later. I’ve done giftofcollege.com redemptions several times before and never had an issue, although those were physical cards from grocery stores.
Had to wait overnight for my cards to become redeemable, but was able to load them into my account.
Thank you Dima! I hope I have the experience as you!
I was able to only buy 2 without the activation fee. the 2nd one I had to wait 2 days to be able to redeem. today, there is that activation fee.
I redeemed 4 of the digital cards and had no problem.
Reporting back that I was able to successfully redeem all 10 digital cards this morning (day after purchase)
Showing as out of stock already
Gift of College looks like it’s out of stock 🙁
Does Chase shopping portal have the $2000/mo limit? I could not find the monthly language. Only the $2000 per order limit.