High on my Laboratory to-do list is to figure out which merchant gift cards are easily upgradeable. As I discussed in the post “The Art of Gift Card Churning,” some merchants will let you use their gift cards to buy other gift cards. I’ve done this successfully many times at Kmart, Sears, and Walgreens, but I’d like to find more options. The more options we can find, the more we can save money and/or earn points and miles.
Today, I ran over to Walgreens and used a Walgreens gift card to buy Marshalls, Best Buy, and Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards. I plan to visit each of these merchants to see if I can use their gift cards to buy others. Here are a few others I plan to try:
ToysRUs: I’ve been told that you can buy gift cards with ToysRUs gift cards. So, I’ll go through uPromise to ToysRUs to buy a gift card. Hopefully I’ll earn 5% cash back. Once the gift card arrives, I’ll go to ToysRUs to see if I can upgrade.
OfficeMax: Can OfficeMax gift cards be upgraded in-store? One reader said “no,” another said “yes.” I just need to try it myself. First, I’ll go through the UR Mall to see if points are awarded (probably not). Second, I’ll pay with an Amex business card with OPEN Savings to see if I get 5% back (10% back for $250 or more). Finally, I’ll take the gift card to OfficeMax to see if I can upgrade.
Michaels: A few people have told me that they were able to buy gift cards with gift cards at Michaels. I’ll find a good deal through GiftCardGranny.com and order a Michael’s gift card. Then, I’ll take it to the store to see if I can upgrade.
I’m looking forward to trying out all of the above. As always, I’ll let you know how it turns out, and I’ll update the Frequent Miler Laboratory. Do you know of other stores that should be tested? Comment below.
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About michales, last week I run into a store and stopped in front of the GC shell, a nice girl said hello to me and told thatI could not use a michales gc to buy gc. I had to say thank u let me know and went away.
@johnny
Spend a little time on this site and all questions will be answered
I would really like to find a way to buy MoneyPak cards using a credit card to increase bonus spending. If there were a way to upgrade a gift card bought with a credit card to a MoneyPak card would be awesome for me.
bexho2000: thanks for the JCP info! I’ll update the Lab table. Regarding Kohl’s: that is consistent with my experience too.
JW: I hope that has changed since I have one on order
benji: That’s great! Thanks for sharing that info.
I went to Office Depot and had my girlfried buy a $50 gift card. Then I went in with her gift card and bought an AMEX prepaid with $50 loaded on it, and a collapsible rolling cart. I paid $50 of the total with my gift card and put the rest on a credit card.
I just tried using Kohl’s gift card to purchase restaurant gift cards but the system would not let the cashier proceed…Same thing when I tried to use a Kohl’s merchandise store credit.
FYI –
At least based upon past personal experience, Michael’s does not allow GFs to be used to buy other GFs.
JCPenney does not accept gc purchases with another gift card or ecard….took advanateg of the 30% discount on cardpool but could not buy gift cards at the store. I simply purchase nontaxable items (closes in my state) and then returned them and got a new real gift card.
I tried buying 100 dollars of ebay gift cards at grocery store and it stated not activated but the charge still went through my card. Since I was doing regular shopping I did not realize it till I went to use them the same day. had to get refund the next day on my card
I tried Michael’s when they had the discounted lowe’s cards. The register would not accept payment will gift cards.
@Paul Ahn — The same failure notice for ebay gift cards happened to people who bought them at a local grocery store during a recent promo. Someone got to the bottom of it, and found that the ebay gift cards were no longer supposed to be sold at the grocery store. So maybe ebay pulled the gift cards at other retailers as well.
what is the point of buying gcs with gcs? Other than using a card that you don’t intend to use at the intended store how does this leverage things?
I have purchased Kohls gift cards using Kohls gift cards, but that’s at least a year ago.
Randy: Interesting. I tried about a year ago in-store to buy a Bestbuy gift card with a Kohl’s gift card, but it didn’t work. The cashier tried, but the register didn’t allow it.
Bacc: Other than the obvious use that you point out, it can be a way to upgrade to more valuable cards. So, buy gift cards at a discount, upgrade, then sell to break even or for a profit. Basically, it’s a complicated way to pump up credit card spend and potentially earn a few bucks.
jcmitchell21: Uh, oh. I have a card on order. Hopefully not all Michael’s are the same…
mike: sounds like a big hassle.