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Finally found: Better value from Discover rewards.
This is the fourth post in a series in which I’ve analyzed options for maximizing Discover Card rewards. With Discover cash back rewards, cardholders have the option of redeeming for partner gift certificates rather than cash. Upon first glance, these certificates appear to be great deals, but when we look closer we find that some are not as good as they appear.
In each of the three prior posts, I was disappointed with what I found. Deals that appeared at first to be too good to be true were in fact mediocre at best. The Universal Orlando Resorts certificate, in particular, is a really terrible deal. For more info, please see these prior posts:
- Maximizing Discover rewards: car rentals
- Maximizing Discover rewards: Hyatt
- Maximizing Discover rewards: Universal Orlando Resorts
Merchant Gift Cards
Mixed into the pile of “Partner Gift Cards” are savings certificates of dubious value like those I covered previously, and real gift cards with real value that can be used pretty much without restriction at the named merchant.
Discover offers a large selection of merchant gift cards, each with different savings associated with them. For example, most restaurant gift cards cost $45 for a $50 gift card. Retail gift cards (such as Sears, Staples, CVS, etc.) range more widely in cost and value. One of the biggest discounts is Brookstone where you can get a $60 gift card for $40 in Discover rewards (a 33.3% discount). With other merchants, $50 gift cards range in price from $40 to $45.
Whether these gift cards are good deals or not depends not just on the percent savings from face value, but also on how much you could have saved if you had bought the gift card elsewhere. For example, if you use your Discover rewards to get a $50 gift card for $45, you haven’t really saved $5 if you could have bought the same gift card elsewhere for $45 or less.
To figure out if Discover offers any real deals, I picked an assortment of well known brands and compared the Discover savings to the savings I could get by buying the same gift cards at a discount via gift card resellers. I used the site GiftCardGranny.com to determine the best resale price for each merchant’s gift card. Note that resale prices fluctuate regularly, so this is just a point-in-time estimate. I calculated “real savings” by taking the difference between the Discover card savings and GiftCardGranny savings.
My findings are shown in the table below. The table is sorted with the best real savings at the top:
|
Merchant |
Discover price / Card value |
Savings % |
Giftcard Granny Savings % |
Real savings % |
| Brookstone | $40 / $60 | 33.3% | 15.9% | 17.4% |
| Zappos | $40 / $50 | 20% | 5% | 15% |
| Staples | $20 / $25 | 20% | 5.5% | 14.5% |
| Bed Bath & Beyond | $40 / $50 | 20% | 7.2% | 12.8% |
| Lands’ End | $40 / $50 | 20% | 9% | 11% |
| Champs | $40 / $50 | 20% | 9% | 11% |
| Foot Locker | $40 / $50 | 20% | 12% | 8% |
| Panera | $45 / $50 | 10% | 4% | 6% |
| Whole Foods | $70 / $75 | 6.7% | 2% | 4.7% |
| Shell | $70 / $75 | 6.7% | 2% | 4.7% |
| Chipotle | $45 / $50 | 10% | 6% | 4% |
| Sears | $45 / $50 | 10% | 6% | 4% |
| Lowe’s | $45 / $50 | 10% | 7.2% | 2.8% |
| CVS | $45 / $50 | 10% | 7.3% | 2.7% |
| Eddie Bauer | $40 / $50 | 20% | 19.9% | 0.1% |
| Cheesecake Factory | $45 / $50 | 10% | 10% | 0% |
| Macy’s | $45 / $50 | 10% | 11.1% | -1.1% |
Real Savings
As you can see in the table above, there are real savings to be had with some of these gift cards! It’s possible to save as much as 17% over the cost of discounted gift cards. If you plan to shop anyway at Brookstone, Zappos, Staples, etc. you can stretch the value of your Discover rewards by redeeming for these gift cards.
Trading Up
In some cases, it is possible to use a merchant’s gift card to buy other gift cards. For example, I’ve successfully done so in the past at Staples, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Sears. This could be a way to get 20% off and trade up to a more valuable gift card (such as a gas station card, for example). With any store, your ability to do this depends on store policy, whether the cashier allows it, and whether the register allows it. Checkout the Frequent Miler Laboratory to see how people have fared in the past.
Sears / Lands’ End
It’s interesting that Lands’ End gift cards are available for 20% off whereas Sears’ gift cards are 10% off. Since Sears owns Lands’ End, the Lands’ End gift cards can be used at Sears (and at Kmart, Sears Outlet, Kenmore, PartsDirect, etc.). So, if you need a Sears gift card, get the Lands’ End one instead!
Cashing Out
Suppose your goal is to get cash instead of gift cards. You could always simply get cash back from Discover directly. The question, though, is whether you could get more cash back by redeeming for gift cards and then liquidating those gift cards. Let’s look at a few options:
Sell to reseller
I used GiftCardGranny to check the current rates that gift card resellers pay for gift cards from each of the above listed merchants. In most cases you would end up with less money than by simply redeeming your Discover rewards for cash in the first place. There are a few exceptions though where you could make a profit:
- Brookstone: Buy $60 gift card for $40, resell for $44.40. 11% profit.
- Staples: Buy $50 gift card for $40, resell for $43. 7.5% profit.
- Bed Bath & Beyond: Buy $50 gift card for $40, resell for $41. 2.5% profit.
- Lands’ End: Buy $50 gift card for $40, resell for $40.50. 1.3% profit.
The Brookstone option looks appealing, but keep in mind that resell prices change all the time, so your profit is not at all guaranteed.
Amazon twist (13% off Amazon gift cards!)
An interesting twist here is that some gift card resellers offer larger payments if you accept Amazon.com credit instead of cash. So, if your real goal is to get an Amazon.com gift card you could do the following:
- Redeem Discover rewards for Brookstone gift cards
- Sell Brookstone gift cards to reseller in exchange for Amazon credit
Currently, for example, ABC Gift Cards offers $45.99 in Amazon credit for a $60 Brookstone gift card (you must mail in the gift card):
Since you paid only $40 to get the Brookstone gift card, this is a convoluted way to get Amazon gift cards for 13% off! Personally, I wouldn’t do this because I’d rather get the cash (with an 11% profit) and then use my Chase Ink card to buy Amazon gift cards at an Office Supply store (for 5 points per dollar). But if you don’t have another good way of getting Amazon gift cards at a discount, this could be a great option.
Free after Rebate
Another option for cashing out gift cards is to use them to buy “free after rebate” items. Staples, in particular, often offers “free after easy rebate” items. These are great because Staples has an extremely easy online form for filling out these rebates. Usually there is an option to get the rebate as a check (rather than a Visa gift card). It takes a while, but eventually your rebate will arrive in the mail. Keep in mind, though, that you usually have to pay sales tax for the “free” items, so you won’t really get the full face value of the gift card back. On the other hand, you will have gotten some stuff at Staples that may or may not be valuable to you.
Trade up to Visa/MasterCard
Now that Visa and MasterCard gift cards have PINs, it is pretty easy to cash them out (see “Gift card PINs“). So, one option here is to get merchant gift cards at a hefty discount and use them in-store to buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards. Of course, Visa and MasterCard gift cards usually come with a hefty fee, but it is still possible to do pretty well overall. $100 gift cards typically have a 6% fee, and $200 gift cards typically have a 3.5% fee. You can potentially find the $100 gift cards at Bed Bath & Beyond or Sears (see “The mysterious case of the secret gift card rack“). $200 gift cards can usually be found at Staples.
Keep in mind that your ability to buy gift cards with other gift cards is highly dependent upon the rules of each store, the cashier, and whether the register allows the purchase.
Cash out in-store
If you live in (or travel frequently to) California, you can cash out any gift card with less than $10 balance. Several States have laws in which merchants must allow customers to cash out their gift cards when under a certain balance. In California, any gift card containing less than $10 qualifies. Other States have $5 thresholds including: Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, and Washington. Look for your State’s rules here: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/banking/gift-cards-and-certificates-statutes-and-legis.aspx
Regarding Staples gift cards
Staples gift cards appear to be one of the better deals shown above, but it is important to know about a few restrictions:
- Staples gift cards cannot be used online (What?! Yep, its true)
- The Discover card page for the Staples gift card says “No more than five cards may be used for any single purchase.” I don’t know if this is really enforced, but if so it can be a problem if you want to make large purchases since Discover only offers $25 face value gift cards from Staples.
Conclusion
It really is possible to get more than your money’s worth by redeeming Discover rewards for partner gift cards instead of cash. The trick is to find the gift cards that offer the greatest discount compared to whatever alternative discounts are available elsewhere. Also, always read the fine print. Many of the “deals” have restrictions that make them bad deals all around. And, sometimes, you’ll find the fine print amusing such as Whole Foods’ gift card Terms & Conditions:
…You can get our greens but unfortunately can’t redeem for cash unless required by law. A Gift Card will not be replaced or refunded if lost or stolen unless required by law so handle it like a carton of eggs…
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Searching for partner gift vards available for under 3000 reward points, under $30.00 to redeem.
Shop partner gift cards under $30 value
Thank You for opening my eyes to a world of possibilities I hadn’t considered.
I’ve accumulated a lot of Discover cash back, but my real goal is to get United miles for a trip I’d like to assemble…any thoughts or updates to this concept? Unfortunately, the particular store I shop most often pays out minimally to United and UR. Thanks!
You could think of the Discover cash back as a funding source whenever there are opportunities to buy United or UR miles cheaply. Otherwise nothing specific comes to mind.
[…] named Will ran into this issue after redeeming Discover Cash Back for Lands End gift cards (see “Maximizing Discover rewards: real value from merchant gift cards”). When he discovered that he couldn’t use the gift cards at Sears he reports that he had […]
[…] be used for better than 1 cent per penny value (see “Rediscovering Discover Rewards” and “Maximizing Discover rewards: real value from merchant gift cards”). I’ve mentioned in many posts that the ShopDiscover portal works even if you don’t […]
[…] Discover lets you redeem cashback for partner gift cards and in some cases this can be a bargain. Lands End gift cards, for example, are available for 20% off. A $100 Lands End gift certificate will cost you only $80 in Discover cashback. This means that you can get 25% more value from your Discover rewards. See “Maximizing Discover rewards: real value from merchant gift cards.” […]
Mr Cool: In past experiments, people were unable to use CVS gift cards to buy other gift cards (or Vanilla Reloads) in-store. If you’ve found different results, please let us know!
@Greg The Frequent Miler
very interesting:
“CVS $45 / $50 10% 7.3% 2.7%”
i can buy discounted CVS gift cards, use them to buy vanillas, send payment to the card used to buy the initial CVS gift..this was actually yielding a profit?
$500VR= 10x $50 CVS gifts @$45each = $450spent???
Best ever Discover partner offer for me was 50% off at Kia dealerships. A $100 card could be had for $50 cash back. Don’t know if I should wait for something like that again or cash out at Staples.
Great Post! Always great information.
One question: Staples gift cards are available in $25 and $50 increments through Discover? I just checked my own account and $25 gift cards were the only option and as far as I can remember has been the only option.
Torey: Yes, that’s right. Staples gift cards top out at $25.
Chimmy: It will be interesting to see if the Kia offer comes up again. What kinds of restrictions did those gift cards have?
Is there something similar to the Discover Rewards on Citi’s Thank You points?
Dave Op: With ThankYou points, the only opportunity I know of to get better than 1 cent per point value is to use the points to purchase airfare (and even then only if you have a premium thankYou card)
So are you able to upgrade gift cards at Kmart, Sears. From previous comments I thought the register told them not to allow the use of gift cards for purchases.
The best discover redemption I found was about two years ago. A $40 shell gift card was offered for $20. It was available for a short time. I haven’t seen that offered again and I check the site frequently. Lately, the best deal has been using the Brookstone gift cards in conjunction with the Groupon’s offered for Brookstone.
I’d like to report that on two separate locations (one in Florida, one in VA) Enterprise did not honor the coupon. Honestly, I have no idea why – the local joint should be reimbursed by the national chain. Maybe it’s a hassle for them, or they collect less than the full amount.
The first time they told me at the counter at time of check-in, which I thought was bollocks, until the second time when they said sure, but we’ll handle it on the return. They flat out lied.
It was an ordeal to have discover refund me the difference and I’ll never take them up on those rental coupons again. It also tarnished discover’s rewards in general for me.
Conclusion: I generally figure you get cash back only, but I keep holding out for gas cards which they had an amazing deal on once.
Ed: Yes, as I reported in an earlier post, the car rental gift certificates are not generally good deals because they have so many restrictions. Most restaurant and store gift cards are unrestricted though.
Shannon: Too bad they don’t offer the Shell card anymore!
Jayson: Yes, Sears particularly is easy about letting you upgrade, but its harder to find non-Sears gift cards there. With Kmart, many stores have recently cracked down on this.