UPDATE: During the day, GiftCardMall changed the upper limit of their gift cards from $1000 to $500. This can still be a money maker at 2%, but it’s not as good of a deal as it was.
Today only (Monday, April 29 2013), the cash back portal, TopCashback, is offering 2% cash back when buying gift cards after clicking through to GiftCardMall. TopCashback usually offers 1.5% cash back for GiftCardMall, but the rate is going to dip down to 1% as of Thursday, May 2nd. So, the expected cash back schedule for buying Visa gift cards at GiftCardMall via TopCashback is:
- Monday, April 29: 2% cash back
- Tuesday & Wednesday: 1.5% cash back
- Thursday and thereafter: 1% cash back
PINs
Now that Visa gift cards can be setup with PINs, they have become more interesting since they can now be loaded to Bluebird (see “Gift card PINs” and “Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM” and “Better than free manufactured spend“).
I’ve tested Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall and I found that, once activated, it is possible to simply use the last 4 digits of the gift card as its PIN (you can also set your own PIN online if you prefer). Using the last 4 digits as the PIN, I successfully loaded my Bluebird card at Walmart.
Buy with Amex gift card
If you want to buy these gift cards with an Amex gift card, please read this post: How to use Amex gift cards to buy GiftCardMall gift cards and earn a profit. Many questions you may have are (hopefully) already answered there.
TopCashback Notes
The following information was sent to me by TopCashback. If you’re interested in their business model and how it affects promotions like these, here you go:
TCb makes money through the Google Ads that are dotted around its pages (and clearly marked as non-cashback earning) and by selling on-site advertising space to merchants. In the latter’s case, the merchant *must* also offer an increased rate of cashback – so members are gaining a little bit extra as well.
Cashback rates are always at least 100% (where allowed) of what TCb’s paid. If a cashback rate increases for a period of time, that’s either because a) the merchant has bought advertising space so has had to increase its cashback rate to be in line with the TCb advertising rules or b) there’s some spare TCb marketing budget that can be put towards offering members a higher rate of cashback with a particular merchant for a small period of time.
If a cashback rate decreases, it’s because c) TCb’s spare marketing budget has been removed from the rate; d) the advertising period for a merchant has finished, so the rate’s dropping back to its standard amount or e) the merchant has said it is lowering what it is prepared to pay TCb as standard. Nonetheless, regardless of which reason, the cashback rate displayed will be 100% of what TCb is paid.
Related posts and links
- Sign up for TopCashback: Sign-Up Links
- Read more:
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dealseaker: Maybe. Have you ordered before from GCM? Also note that I received that message once when I was logged into a VPN when I ordered. Apparently it made the IP address appear to be from out of the country.
I ordered 6 $500 visa GCs yesterday and the order got canceled because “…Unfortunately, your order could not be processed as we were unable to verify some of the information provided. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and hope you can appreciate the security measures we take in order to protect our customers. ” Is this because of the large order??
Trevor: Right. GiftCardMall pulled out of all of the cash back portals a couple of days ago. Hopefully they’ll come back!
It looks like TopCashBack is no longer offering cash back on purchases from GiftCardMal.com. When you search for it, there is no mention of cash back. That leaves buying Chase gift cards with free shipping and no activation fee (but have to use a Chase credit card) or just using this for meeting spending bonuses.
TCB is definitely a hassle. I did get credit for the 2.5% AMEX offer 3 weeks back, but I show nothing for 3 separate GCM purchases. Had to fill out a claim for all of them. At least they did record the click-through correctly. I’ve also been waiting 2 months for a claim I lodged for a completely unrelated website purchase.
1 out of 5 purchases tracking correctly is a horrible record. Meanwhile, I’ve had no issues with fatwallet cashback in the 10 years or so I’ve been using them.
Buying VR may still be the cheaper, less hassle option if my TCB click-throughs are not properly credited.
doesn’t worth the hassle, time and energy anymore
@Karen. Ditto for me. I was planning on using Amex GC for VRs instead. Over a week to process and Amex told me the transaction was instant on the 29th. Now we just have to check the mail.
After 8 days, I finally got emails my 5K orders are shipped today. I thought it would be cancelled.
dealseaker: I don’t know. It’s possible that GCM messed up because of your order happening as they switched over to the $500 max.
I made $4K order around 7am CT (4x1K cards)and got my order last Friday. TCB never recorded cashback yet. I have used TCB for smaller purchases before and got $95 cash back so far. I was wondering GCM did not want to report the cash back because I got in the deal when $1K card was still available???
They canceled my two orders too
Called giftcardmall and CS said the $1000 GCs are “stuck.” She offered either a refund or escalated up to the second level to push the order through.
they canceled my orders after a week, very frustrating
I’v received my AMEX card in the mail yesterday and went ahead and ordered some more VISA gift cards with it. I had purchased this AMEX with my Chase Ink Bold two Mondays ago going through TCB. I also had purchase a VISA on Monday through Chase through TCB. Neither has posted yet on TCB. I haven’t opened any tickets or anything yet, because both of these transactions on my Chase Ink Bold showed as posting but never posted! They no longer show in temporary authorizations and they don’t show in posted transactions. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I getting free money or will these show up again in posted transactions? Help?
My orders still show up as ‘not shipped yet’. I have not get any email other than the confirmation one. Have no idea what is going on.