When you’re about to buy something, you may be able to save money or earn extra miles by first buying a merchant gift card and then using that gift card to make your purchase.
Often, though, gift card deals take time. You may have to wait for gift cards to arrive in the mail, wait for an emailed gift card that comes hours or even days later, or drive to a different store to purchase the discounted gift card. The purpose of this post is to list options for buying gift cards right now. Whether you’re in a store checkout line or making a purchase online, you’ll find options below for saving money or earning extra rewards. We’ll be keeping this post updated in the coming months and years, so keep it bookmarked.
Caution: When purchasing items with gift cards you won’t get credit card protections such as extended warranties or price protection.
Best Gift Card Deals for use at store register
The options listed here let you specify an exact dollar amount that you need for your gift card and deliver the gift card instantly. The idea is that you can wait for the cashier to ring up your items so that you get a total amount owed and can then instantly purchase a gift card for that amount in order to save money or earn extra rewards.
| Gift Card Seller | Details |
|---|---|
| United MileagePlus X App (earn miles) |
United’s MileagePlus X (MPX) app is designed for use at the register as a way to earn extra miles on many purchases. The number of bonus miles earned varies from merchant to merchant. Credit cards with bonus categories sometimes (but not always) award bonuses based on the type of gift card bought. For example, if you buy a restaurant gift card then it’s best pay with a credit card that offers a bonus for restaurant purchases. If you have a United credit card, you’ll earn 25% bonus miles on gift card purchases. That’s based on the standard earning rate, so if they normally offer 4X, cardholders will earn 5X. |
|
Fluz (earn cashback) |
Fluz works in a similar way to MPX in that you can buy a gift card for a specific amount (e.g. $14.89), rather than having to buy a gift card for a whole-dollar amount (e.g. $25). Fluz rewards you with a percentage of your transaction as cashback. It’s also one of the only options we’re aware of that rewards you for buying Amazon gift cards because most apps and sites are no longer able to offer that as an option. Similar to the MPX app, Fluz often passes on merchant coding. This information is displayed on the checkout screen before entering your PIN to complete the transaction, so you can adjust your payment card accordingly. |
|
DoorDash (Save $) |
DoorDash sells third party gift cards; you can find these by doing a search in the app for ‘Gift Card Store’. If you have a DashPass subscription (available as a free benefit on many Chase cards) you should also have access to gift card deals. These are sometimes discounted by 10%-20% (including high value brands like Southwest and Best Buy), while other times you’ll get a bonus DoorDash gift card free when buying select brands (e.g. Buy $100 Airbnb gift card, get a $10 DoorDash gift card free. There are monthly limits for how many gift card deals you can take advantage of. Also be aware that there are max discounts (usually $25). That means that if you’re buying a gift card that’s 10% off, you’ll max out the deal when buying a $250 card, although you might be able to buy another discounted card in a separate transaction. Gift card purchases in the DoorDash app code as dining, so it’s worth paying with a card that bonuses in that category. |
| Samsung Pay |
In the past you had to have an eligible Samsung device in order to use Samsung Pay, but there’s now a standalone website when you can buy gift cards from them even if you don’t have any kind of Samsung device. Important note: purchases using Samsung Pay on a Samsung device are instantaneous. Purchases via the website are processed quickly, but aren’t instant. They used to sell discounted gift cards, but those haven’t been offered in a number of years. |
|
Raise (earn cashback) |
Raise is an app that used to be called Slide and is created by GCX which was formerly called Raise. Although GCX/Raise is more commonly known for reselling gift cards, it also sells first-hand cards. When it first launched they offered a flat 4% cashback rate on all gift cards as well as a 1%-2% bonus when prefunding your account. The bonus for prefunding your account was removed in late 2023 and cashback rates for brands are now variable rather than being a fixed 4%. The cashback is earned in the form of Raise Cash which can only be redeemed for more gift cards in the Raise app. Raise allows you to purchase gift cards for specific amounts which can be helpful when checking out in-store, although it doesn’t have as many gift card brands available as some apps. GCX also has a website where it sells both first-hand and third party gift cards, but delivery isn’t always instant. |
|
(earn cashback) |
The Ibotta app has a feature that was once called ‘Pay With Ibotta’ but which is now simply labeled as ‘Gift Cards’. It works in a similar way to MileagePlus X, Fluz, and Raise. You can buy gift cards for many different retailers, buying specific amounts rather than being limited to whole-dollar amounts. Ibotta sometimes boosts the cashback rate it offers for select brands in the app (e.g. 20% for DSW, 10% for Gap, etc.) One of the best uses for buying gift cards from Ibotta is at Walmart seeing as Walmart Supercenter purchases don’t usually code as groceries, so earning cashback from Ibotta can be good. However, you can only pay with debit cards, so you’d be missing out on credit card rewards. You can earn 1% cashback on the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard though, as well as other rewards-earning debit cards possibly. |
|
Upside (formerly GetUpside) – my referral link (earn cashback) |
Upside began life as a way to save money when filling up with gas but has since expanded their offering to include cashback at some restaurants and retailers too. As part of this, they launched a Pay With App feature that lets you buy instant gift cards for some restaurants/retailers. The gift cards expire after four hours unless it’s a brand you can merge with an existing gift card (e.g. Starbucks and Dunkin’). The most useful parts of this feature is that it can trigger Chase Offers for eligible retailers and seems to pass on merchant coding (see this post for more). That said, I’m not 100% sure if this feature is still available. |
|
(earn cashback) |
TopCashback launched its own gift card portal in June 2022, offering cashback on a wide range of brands. They don’t guarantee that gift cards will be delivered immediately, but the test purchase I made arrived in my email inbox straight away. TopCashback usually offers bonuses when redeeming cashback earned through the portal via various payout methods (e.g. 5% bonus by cashing out via virtual Visa gift card), so that can be a good way to juice the cashback rate earned when buying gift cards from them. |
Best Gift Card Deals for quick online purchases
The following gift card sellers offer options for buying gift cards quickly, but we wouldn’t use these at the register:
| Gift Card Seller | Details |
|---|---|
|
(save $) |
Sells second-hand discount gift cards. Email delivery is often nearly instant (but not always). You used to be able to earn 5X rewards by paying with certain cards when checking out through PayPal, but that option no longer works. CardCash has an app, but Greg had a lot of trouble using it as it kept asking him to log-in over and over (this was some time ago, so they might have improved its reliability since). CardCash only guarantees the cards is sells for 45 days, so be sure to redeem them within that time, otherwise you have no recourse if the cards subsequently get drained. |
|
(earn points) (save $) |
Giant Eagle is a grocery store that has a presence in a few states. In addition to selling gift cards in-store, they sell a wide range of third party eGift cards online. They tend to run new gift card deals every week starting on Thursday; you can find the latest Giant Eagle gift card deals here. The deals are sometimes for bonus Perks (their loyalty program which offers savings on groceries or gas), but other times they run discounted gift card deals (e.g. $50 Bath & Body Works gift cards for $40). Giant Eagle used to process payments themselves which was great as it meant they coded as grocery purchases. However, Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCards.com and GiftCardMall) took over the processing of payments in 2020 and so gift card purchases no longer code as groceries. |
|
Discover (Redeem Discover It Cashback) (save $) |
Redeem Discover It Cashback for discount gift cards. eGift cards can be used instantly, but regular gift cards are sent via mail. The Discover iPhone App lets you send eGift cards to your iPhone Wallet. |
|
(earn cashback) |
Sells first-hand gift cards. You can choose which currency you’re rewarded in via Prodege’s various sites. e.g. Swagbucks, cashback via Upromise, InboxDollars, MyPoints, etc. Swagbucks and MyPoints can be redeemed via PayPal, so they’re as good as cash, although you’ll need to earn enough to reach a payment threshold. PayPal redemptions start from 500 Swagbucks ($5), so it shouldn’t take long to reach that payout threshold. MyGiftCardsPlus sometimes runs gift card deals that offer much greater rewards (e.g. 15% cashback on Hotels.com gift cards, 10% cashback on Lowe’s gift cards, etc.). Delivery of the gift cards can range anything from a few hours to 2-3 days. |
|
(save $) |
This app and website is designed to let you buy new gift cards instantly and at face value. They very occasionally run deals offering discounts, but they don’t offer cashback or rewards otherwise. Gyft used to earn 5X rewards on certain credit cards when checking out via PayPal, but that no longer works. |
|
(save $) |
PayPal Digital Gifts usually sells gift cards at face value, but often has sales on select gift cards or offers bonus gift cards. You can find any current PayPal Digital Gifts deals here. You used to be able to earn 5X rewards by paying with certain credit cards, but that no longer works. |
|
(save $) (earn cashback) |
GCX was, for the longest time, known as Raise and primarily sells second-hand discounted gift cards and has a decent app available. Confusingly, they also owned a gift card app called Slide which was subsequently rebranded as Raise (it’s mentioned earlier in this post.) GCX is a marketplace where you can buy second-hand, discounted gift cards. GCX sometimes releases promo codes that offer additional savings on these already discounted gift cards. Gift card delivery can be very fast, but they sometimes take longer when verifying orders. In addition to discounted gift cards which are second-hand, you can buy first-hand gift cards which GCX calls “GCX Cash Gift Cards”. You pay full price for these cards, but earn a certain percentage back as GCX Cash which can be redeemed against a future gift card purchase. GCX Cash Gift Cards aren’t eligible for the promo codes that are sometimes released. The return you get on GCX Cash Gift Cards can occasionally be larger than the discount available on discounted gift cards, plus there’s no risk due to them being first-hand. |
|
(earn cashback) |
GiftCards.com offers Giftcards.com Rewards when buying third party gift cards, sometimes offering discounts on certain brands when using promo codes (e.g. 10% off Uber, 15% off H&M, etc.). You can click through to GiftCards.com through a shopping portal to earn cashback / points / miles. Buying gift cards from GiftCards.com can trigger shopping portal bonuses. |
|
(save $) (earn fuel points) |
In addition to selling gift cards in-store, Kroger sells third party gift cards online. These purchases earn 2X fuel points at all times, or 4X when there’s one of its fairly frequent promotions going on. They often sell discounted gift cards, so you can find any current gift card deals here. One thing to note is that payments are processed by Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCards.com), so online gift card purchases from Kroger don’t code as grocery purchases. You should earn a bonus by paying with a card that earns more in the Online Shopping category. |
|
(save $) |
Amazon sells a wide range of gift cards—both physical and digital. You can no longer pay for third party gift cards using Amazon gift cards which is a shame, as that had been a good option if you’d bought Amazon gift cards at a discount. Amazon sometimes sells discounted gift cards, plus there are sometimes promotions offering discounts when redeeming 1 Membership Rewards / Ultimate Rewards / ThankYou / Discover point which can be used to get discounts on gift cards. |
|
(save $) |
eGifter sells first-hand gift cards and offers eGifter Points on your purchase which can be used to reduce the cost of future gift card purchases. They sometimes offer promo codes that provide a discount; you can find current gift card deals on eGifter here. Most purchases using a promo code aren’t eligible for earning eGifter Points. Every order that Stephen has ever tried placing with eGifter has been cancelled, so hopefully you have more success. One benefit of eGifter (if you can get an order through) is the sheer number of different ways you can pay. In addition to more traditional methods—credit card, PayPal, Amex Express Checkout, Apple Pay, etc.—you can pay with Bitcoin and numerous other cryptocurrencies. |
|
(save $) |
Newegg sometimes sells gift cards at a discount (e.g. $100 Lowe’s gift cards for $90), or with a bonus (e.g. buy $25 Domino’s gift card and get $5 Domino’s gift card free). Depending on your credit card, Newegg might code in a bonus category (e.g. 4X Membership Rewards on the American Express® Business Gold card if it’s one of your top two spending categories that billing cycle, or 2X on the Business Platinum Card®. |
|
(save $) (earn fuel points) |
Harris Teeter is a grocery store owned by Kroger. Their fuel points program used to run separately, but in 2022 Harris Teeter aligned with Kroger’s program more fully. Despite that, Harris Teeter has its own gift card site whereas Kroger’s other affiliate stores (e.g. Ralphs, Smith’s, Fry’s, etc.) don’t have their own. Similar to Kroger’s online gift card site, payment is processed by Blackhawk Network and so it doesn’t code as a grocery purchase. |
| Office Depot / OfficeMax |
Office Depot / OfficeMax sells third party gift cards on their website, but it’s not as good as Staples’ offering. That’s because Staples processes payments for third party gift cards themselves which means it codes as 5X with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus. Office Depot / OfficeMax’s offering on the other hand is processed by Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCards.com), so it doesn’t code as 5x. As far as we know, they don’t ever sell discounted gift cards, but paying with a card that earns more in the Online Shopping category should reward you. It’s worth clicking through from a shopping portal in case gift card purchases track, but they’ve canceled every order Stephen’s tried making, so he hasn’t been able to verify if it tracks or not. |
|
(save $) |
Best Buy runs gift card promotions at times too. That sometimes takes the form of a reward (e.g. buy $100 Hulu gift card & get $15 Best Buy gift card free), while other times it’s a straight discount (e.g. save 20% on Dave & Buster’s gift cards). Best Buy Amex Offers can be triggered by third party gift card purchases, although Best Buy eGift cards don’t trigger the statement credits because those particular transactions are processed by CashStar. |
|
(earn cashback) |
GiftCardCat used to be hosted on the RebatesMe shopping portal website. It’s now on a standalone site, but I think it’s still owned by RebatesMe. The cashback earned from buying gift cards can only be redeemed towards future gift card purchases from RebatesMe and expires after one year. |
| TheGiftCardShop | This site is owned by the same company that runs VanillaGift.com (Incomm). They sell third party gift cards as well as Visa, Mastercard and American Express gift cards and occasionally offer promo codes giving discounted purchase fees. |
|
(earn points) |
There are a couple of different Price Chopper grocery chains in the US; this site belongs to the chain that has stores in New York and Pennsylvania. Gift card purchases earn AdvantEdge Rewards points. However, the site is powered by Blackhawk Network and that’s who processes payment, so it doesn’t code as a grocery purchase. |
|
(save $) |
Target sometimes runs gift card deals online as well as in-store, such as getting a $10 Target gift card free when buying a $100 Apple gift card. If you have a Target RedCard (including the debit card version), you’ll save 5% on gift card purchases. |
|
(save $) |
Sam’s Club sells a variety of eGift cards online that are all discounted to some extent, some brands with larger discounts than others. The Cash App sometimes has a 5% Boost (i.e. 5% instant discount) for online Sam’s Club purchases, while there’s sometimes a 5% Sam’s Club Citi Merchant Offer available. Click through from a shopping portal because sometimes gift card purchases track and pay out. |
|
(save $) |
Meijer’s online gift card portal is another one run by Blackhawk Network, so buying gift cards from them won’t code as a grocery purchase. They sometimes-but very rarely-sell discounted gift cards online, but most gift card deals at Meijer are in-store only. |
|
Gift Card Granny (my referral link) (save $) |
Gift Card Granny offers a nominal cashback rate when buying gift cards, but also sometimes offers discounts on purchase and/or shipping fees when buying Visa or Mastercard gift cards, as well as discounts on third party gift card brands at times. |
|
(save $) |
Card Depot is run by the guys behind The Card Bay, a gift card reselling site. The Card Bay is where you can resell gift cards, while Card Depot is where you can buy discounted gift cards. Most purchases are fulfilled instantly. Some orders go to review for risk verification, but those tend to get resolved within minutes. |
|
Prizeout (save $) |
Some credit unions offer the ability to buy gift cards from Prizeout. This awards instant cash back and there are sometimes promotions that make it an even better deal. Thanks to RH2 in the comments for more details about this option. Per RH2: They have an in-store section and an online section. The in-store section works like any other gift card purchase site. The online section sort of works more like a portal, but it’s still purchasing a gift card that will show up in your purchase history. However with a store like Amazon it’s adding it to your gift card balance at Amazon. Instant purchases with instant cashback in the app which you can then move back to your credit union account instantly if you so choose. |
Other Gift Card Deals that are not ideal for instant use
The following options are not recommended for instant gift card purchases, but may be useful when you’re not in a hurry:
| Gift Card Seller | Details |
|---|---|
|
(earn points) |
Staples sometimes gives discounts of 10%-20% when buying select third party gift cards. This can be a great way to earn 5X rewards on the Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, but eGift cards are usually delivered several hours later, if not the next day. We sometimes see Amex Offers and Chase Offers for Staples which can offer savings on gift cards bought online. |
More gift card deals
We cover the most profitable and/or travel-related gift card deals here on Frequent Miler, so you can find all of those here:
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Excellent overview…outlining the nuances of how to use the various options was super helpful. Sure appreciate you, Stephen!
I’ve recently come across a potentially somewhat interesting new one. CashBack+ Pay from Prizeout which is integrated with a bevy of credit unions and offers instant cash back at varying cashback rates for a number of stores. The only way to pay is with your participating credit union account. It seems nascent for now but if it works I’d expect the credit union footprint to expand. Normal cashback rates aren’t anything to get excited about but they do run decent promotions at times.
Thanks for highlighting this option; I’ve seen Prizeout mentioned in a couple of gift card groups I’m in, but hadn’t looked into it before. You mentioned that you get instant cashback; I take it that means that the gift cards are issued instantly?
Yes, they are issued instantly. There are some oddities. For instance they have an in-store section and an online section. The in-store section works like any other gift card purchase site. The online section sort of works more like a portal but it’s still purchasing a gift card that will show up in your purchase history. However with a store like Amazon it’s adding it to your gift card balance at Amazon. Instant purchases with instant Cashback in the app. Which you can then move back to your credit union account instantly if you so choose.
Excellent, thank you! I’ll get that added to the post.
I really like carddepot.com. GCX is so bad, it shouldn’t even be on the list.
Great point regarding Card Depot – I’ll get them added in.
Doordash
Stephen—Are you sure you can still buy a 3rd party gift card with an Amazon gift card? I thought that option was eliminated a while ago. That was a biggie for me since I used to run up huge Amazon gift card balances.
You’re absolutely correct – I’d overlooked that that section was in there when reworking this post. I’ve fixed that now – thanks for highlighting.
Stephen, Happy Holidays! Are you sure that recommending to cash out TopCashBack via Virtual Visas is a good idea? Right now (12/2025) they have a 5% bonus with this payout option but aren’t they issued by Incomm? Which means they can’t be used at Amazon, Target, etc. Any advice here is much appreciated!
I’m afraid I’m not sure who issues those cards at the moment. If someone has an easy redemption option for them though, a 5% bonus is still good.
How much longer do you think pepper (rates recently dropping under 30x) and Fluz (Amex shutdowns from PoPo use) will be around?
Hard to say. I’ve been surprised by how willing Pepper has been to continually increase the rates it offers on (previously high value) gift cards. If it all collapsed tomorrow I wouldn’t be surprised in the least, but given the way things are going I also wouldn’t be completely surprised if they eventually went to something like 50% back on gift cards for Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. in order to keep revenue as high as they’ll need it in order to continue paying out coins on people’s past purchases.
As for Fluz, that’s harder to know. Their business always seemed to be on a surer footing, but perhaps they’ll have to scramble now that a lot of its heavy hitters have gotten shut down.
Raise has rebranded as GCX
Yep, I included GCX in the post as well. GCX still runs the Raise app though which is the one that offers instant, first-hand gift cards.
I don’t know how I missed that — sorry! I should have known better than to second guess the sultan of savings 😉
Don’t worry – I blame Raise/GCX/Slide/whatever else they want to call themselves as they’re the ones who’ve conducted some of the weirdest ever rebranding efforts that I’m aware of.
Home Depot sells an assortment of 3rd party gift cards online too. While they are fulfilled by BHN, Home Depot processes the transaction and it codes as both an online and home improvement purchase. Rather niche if you care about those aspects but useful if you do.
Thanks – I meant to include that in the post, but forgot to add it when making the other updates. Do you know how quickly the gift cards are issued? I’d tested out ordering one a couple of years ago when they launched the feature, but the order got auto-cancelled.
Unfortunately I do not know as the cards that interested me needed to be mailed. If I order an instant email version I’ll be sure to let you know. Seems like it should be fast? Did have some payment issues with a couple of the orders as well so it’s not exactly a smooth clear process yet. One really bizarre situation where somehow HD was trying to charge my card with my first and last name switched around according to the rep. But I did receive all of the orders in a reasonable timeframe. None were canceled.
Thanks! If it’s fulfilled by BHN, I imagine it’ll be pretty quick.
Actually, I just remembered why I didn’t include Home Depot in the end. They don’t offer rewards or discounts on their gift cards and this post was listing ways to be rewarded beyond just the ability to buy them quickly.
Makes sense. Only really useful anyway for a small number of situations. But quite useful then! Kind of interesting, the cards came in a branded Home Depot letter but the actual return mailing address and name is shown as Blackhawk Network.
The coding changed for Fluz. Used to code as restaurant, now it’s coding as a gift card. Not getting amex Marriott credit this month.
Thanks. I see that too. This has happened in the past and then Fluz changed something to make it code correctly again. Hopefully that will happen this time too.
Great news: Even though Amex shows my Feb 2 purchase as a gift card purchase, I still earned the Brilliant Dining Credit. The gift card purchase coded as dining after all.
I tried to buy a modest gift card (about $50) from Card Cash. It immediately canceled my purchase as being fraudulent. I reached out to the company. No response. Punt.
There was a post today by Nick about ‘Serial Stacking’ that linked to this resource page; please consider adding Rakuten Gift Card Shop as he mentioned. I personally have not used it to verify its speed for at register use. But it does allow exact value purchases, cashback rates seem excellent for merchants I frequent and that’s before considering the increased value possible when earning MR.
As always I appreciate the resources and will bookmark this page.
Thanks for the reminder about Rakuten – I’ll get that added.
[…] Instant Gift Card Deals […]
I’ve used Mileage Plus X before a number of times at OD/Staples paying with an Ink Plus card to get the 5x from the Plus card as well as the M+ miles and store rewards where applicable. Any thoughts on trying MPX with a Freedom card to generate a Walmart card for use at Sam’s Club? I’d love to get the 5x Chase points.
It’s certainly worth a try. MPX sells Walmart gift cards starting at $5, so you could test it out on a $5 gift card to see if you earn 5x.
Another option is buying a Walmart gift card from Fluz as they accept PayPal and offer 0.5% cashback on Walmart gift cards.
[…] Instant Gift Card Deals […]
[…] Instant Gift Card Deals […]