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The Upromise Mastercard launched a new promotion this week which is offering up to $175 bonus cashback when buying gift cards from MyGiftCardsPlus. This is a great deal itself, but it gets even better when taking into account all the other ways you could earn cashback at the same time.
The Deal
- Earn the following bonus cashback on the Upromise Mastercard when buying gift cards from MyGiftCardsPlus:
- Spend $50-$199 & earn $5 bonus cashback
- Spend $200-$499 & earn $25 bonus cashback
- Spend $500-$999 & earn $75 bonus cashback
- Spend $1,000 & earn $175 bonus cashback
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Promotion is only available on first purchase with a transaction date on February 25th – March 31st, 2022.
- The qualifying first purchase can be of multiple gift cards and the total amount spent on gift cards in that first purchase determines the cash back rewards bonus.
- Members qualify on first purchase only during the promotional period. For example, if a member makes a purchase of $200 during the promotion, the member will earn a $25 cash back rewards bonus. If that same member makes a subsequent purchase in the amount of $500, the member will not receive another cash back rewards bonus.
- The cash back rewards bonus will be applied to the Upromise Account associated with your Upromise Mastercard. Your cash back rewards bonus will be reflected within 7 business days.
Quick Thoughts
The Upromise Mastercard is a credit card that doesn’t get much attention seeing as its welcome offer isn’t huge and doesn’t represent great value for everyday spend as it earns 1.25%-1.529% cashback depending on how you redeem it (1.25% redeemed as regular cashback or 1.529% when redeemed to a college savings account).
Having said that, it’s increasingly becoming a card worth having on an ongoing basis due to these MyGiftCardsPlus promotions that they’ve started running over the past year. In case you’re not familiar with MyGiftCardsPlus, it’s a site where you can buy first-hand gift cards and earn cashback on the purchases. For example, you might earn 5% on Nike gift cards, 2% for Lowe’s, 3% for Southwest, etc. MyGiftCardsPlus is owned by Prodege which also owns Upromise, Swagbucks, MyPoints and a few other sites. You set your MyGiftCardsPlus earning preference to one of those other sites, so the cashback earned from MyGiftCardsPlus is sent to your Upromise account, Swagbucks account, etc.
The way this Upromise Mastercard/MyGiftCardsPlus promotion works is that when you pay for a gift card purchase with that Upromise card, you’ll earn bonus cashback on top of the cashback you earn from MyGiftCardsPlus. If you spend the top-tier $1,000, you’ll earn a bonus $175 which means you’re getting 17.5% cashback on top of whatever rate MyGiftCardsPlus is offering for the gift card itself. The most important thing to note is that the bonus cashback is only valid on your first purchase during the promotion dates, so you’ll need to hit whichever threshold you want with that first purchase.
That’s not all though. You’ll earn 1.25%-1.529% cashback on the Upromise Mastercard as your standard earnings. If you don’t currently have that credit card, you could easily meet the minimum spend requirement of $500 with a MyGiftCardsPlus purchase in order to earn its $150 bonus at the same time.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
$100 Cash back ⓘ Non-Affiliate $100 cash back after $500 spend in the first 90 daysNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: Expired 10/31/22: $150 after $500 in spend FM Mini Review: This card could be decent for an easy cash back bonus, but there are much more rewarding options for ongoing everyday spend. Earning rate: Earn 1.529% back on your purchases when your Upromise Program account is linked to an eligible College Savings Plan or 1.25% if it is not ✦ Up to $250 cashback rewards per calendar year on gift card purchases at MyGiftCardsPlus Base: 1.25% Card Info: Mastercard issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: When your Upromise Program account is directly linked to an eligible 529 College Savings plan, you'll receive a 1.529% cash back (otherwise, you get 1.25% back) |
All of that adds up for a nice return on your investment. If you apply for the Upromise Mastercard and spend $1,000 on gift cards from MyGiftCardsPlus in one transaction you’ll earn the following:
- $150 – welcome offer for spending $500 in 90 days
- $175 – bonus from this MyGiftCardsPlus promotion
- $12.50-$15.29 – standard cashback on the credit card
- $10+ – cashback earned from MyGiftCardsPlus
- Total = $347.50+
That’s a return of at least 34.75% on $1,000 of spend, although it could be far higher depending on the cashback rate offered by MyGiftCardsPlus for whichever gift card brand(s) you buy. Even if you already have the Upromise Mastercard and so wouldn’t earn the $150 welcome offer, you’d still be earning 20%+ total cashback when spending $1,000.
If you’ve not used MyGiftCardsPlus before, be aware that they like to confirm your identity by sending a postcard with a PIN to the billing address of whichever card you pay with. That can take a few days to come through, so you’d need to apply for the Upromise Mastercard soon in order for that to arrive in time to try making a purchase in time for the subsequent PIN postcard to arrive before March 31. (n.b. The link to the Upromise Mastercard above isn’t an affiliate link, so we’re not pushing it in the hopes of making any money.)
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Is there a way to get Visa or MasterCard gift cards at this store, or is there a third party store that allows the purchase of Visa or MasterCard gift cards with their store gift cards? Do Best Buy or Home Depot allow this? I have a Upromise card but I don’t know how to clear off the $1000 gift card I could buy. Thanks.
No, MyGiftCardsPlus doesn’t sell Visa or Mastercard gift cards. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any stores that MGCP sells gift cards for that would allow you to buy Visa or Mastercard gift cards with their own store gift cards.