Update 7/7/20: As reported last week at GC Galore, GiftCards.com affiliates have received notice that the monthly cap will reduce from $60K per month in orders to $2K per month in orders tomorrow (7/8/20). If you are placing an order today that will put you over the $2K/month cap that will be instituted tomorrow at GiftCards.com, I’d highly recommend taking a screen shot and savings records as was originally noted below.
Update: In addition to portals having decreased the cap on GiftCardMall, Doctor of Credit noticed that TopCashBack has decreased the monthly cap for GiftCards.com to $2K per month. While we had speculated below that this could happen, we hadn’t yet seen any indication that the $60K monthly cap had changed for GiftCards.com. If you are still ordering from GiftCards.com through a portal that shows the $60K per month cap, I’d recommend keeping screen shots of the terms in case this changes without notice.
Bad news on the manufactured spending front: Stephen Pepper reports at GC Galore that GiftCardMall is reducing the monthly cap for orders that qualify for cash back from $60K per month down to $2K per month. This change is officially effective on June 29th, though individual portals could of course change their own terms at any time. That’s a huge change that doesn’t bode well for online MS at the moment.
A few months ago, when we broke the news about Simon Malls making their $1K gift cards available for online purchase, we noted that the Simon cards would not be the cheapest form of MS (and indeed some readers chimed in to say the same). That’s because sites like Gift Card Mall have long been available through cash back portals, which reduces net cost considerably (See our guide to the Best options for buying Visa and Mastercard gift cards). While payout rates and caps have varied some over time, the current monthly cap for Gift Card Mall purchases has been up to $60K in orders per month. Affiliates have been notified that the cap will be reduced to $2K in orders per month as of June 29th. It is possible that some affiliates (i.e. shopping portals) will make the change sooner than that.
This is certainly bad news. While GiftCards.com also caps portal rewards at $60K in orders monthly, this new reduction thus far only affects GiftCardMall. Since both sites are owned by Blackhawk Networks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar move from GiftCards.com, though it hasn’t happened yet.
If you were planning to place a GiftCardMall order before this change takes effect, I would strongly recommend taking screen shots of the cash back terms / caps listed on your shopping portal of choice when placing your order. Since we know the cap is going to change before you receive payment for the cash back and we don’t know if all portals will change the cap on the same date, I’d definitely want to keep good records (and also take a screen shot of any pending activity).
Hopefully this shift is temporary given the current economic environment because it would certainly be a disappointing change otherwise.
H/T: GC Galore
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] with the recent demise of GiftCards.com and GiftCardMall.com given the new monthly caps on portal earnings for those sites and the fact that those sites now sell a max denomination of $250 per gift card, Simon is looking a […]
[…] Portal rebate available? Yes. Portal rates are sometimes better for Mastercard gift cards than for Visa gift cards. Find current portal rates here (but note that you’ll have to click into each portal to find Visa/MC specific rates). Cash back may be earned on up to $2K per month through portals (this changed in July 2020). […]
[…] fee, making them much more expensive (shipping is additional). That compounds with the fact that shopping portals began limiting rewards at GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com to $2,000 in purchases per…. Going forward, the value proposition and scale will be very […]
This is such a big change in their marketing strategy and coincident with an increase in frequency of $0 fee or $10 off deals at groceries and office supply, that it certainly looks like they are pivoting in their marketing spend.
[…] recent hits to manufactured spending due to both GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com reducing the amount of cashback that can be earned through shopping portals from $60,000 of spend […]
[…] recently reported the news that GiftCardMall has reduced the monthly cap on orders that qualify for shopping portal rewards […]
I have two questions, what’s the best way to liquidate $9500 in Gift Cards?
Secondly, i got a weird message that my freedom couldn’t used for the above purchase on Gift Card Mall, is this a know thing?
I thought it may have very my cards fraud prevention but I didn’t get any emails about it.
If you have to ask the 1st question you shouldn’t order $9500 in vgcs until you’re very sure of the answer.
Go to bed or take a walk. Clearly you’re not here to help. Practice being nice and helpful sometimes.
The cap is calculated strictly based on the date of purchase, right? Not when the portal approves the CB or anything like that?
[…] hits keep coming. There was bad news for manufactured spending a couple of days ago when GiftCardMall announced that they’d be limiting the cashback you can earn through shopping portals from $60,000 of […]
About time. I don’t blame people for taking advantage of the opportunity. I blame companies for not changing their policies when it comes to MS. Hope to see more of this.
[…] Ugg: GiftCardMall cap reduced from $60K to $2K for cash back […]
Does anyone know if American Express awards points for VGC purchases at GiftCardMall. I realize the Amex terms say no, but in practice points are awarded for VGCs at grocery stores but not Simon Malls. Just curious about GiftCardMall, before the change goes into effect.
yes, amex has awarded points for these purchases till now. might change its mind tomorrow or even retrospectively so YMMV…
is the current limit of 60 K based upon GCM account or portal account? i assume the former which i guess would continue now making it pretty much a dead website for MSing except for meeting minimum spending…
Limited by GCM, so you are correct. Pretty much a dead deal.
The current cap is per person across both sites? I.e., if you buy 60k worth of cards on GCM, you can’t get any cash back from GCs.com?
No, but I can see how the wording could make you think that. I’ll edit that sentence. Each site has a separate cap.