McDonald's Gift Cards - 20% Off For a LImited Time

Through this week, GiftCardRescue.com is selling McDonald's gift cards at 20% off.  They are even throwing in free shipping with the purchase of $90 or more. Make Ronald McDonald a happy clown, and make your Happy Meals a little happier by saving some cash.

Bazando No Longer Offers Cash Back at Plastic Jungle

Bazando, is one of the leading cash back portals that I have recommended, and the best if you shop online in the UK, France, or Germany.  It has also been my favorite "go to" site for buying gift cards at Plastic Jungle, a discount reseller of gift cards which I have also recommended.  Bazando offered 3% cash back on top of the already decent discounts offered by Plastic Jungle.  Well, that relationship apparently is no more.  That is too bad for us consumers.  However, one can still get 1% cash back through Mr. Rebates for purchase of discount gift cards at Cardpool.  Cardpool's discounted prices often matched or even exceed those of Plastic Jungle, so there is still some hope out there.

Amex Daily Wishes: 50% off Ford Fusion hybrid + 50% off Whole Foods

This week, American Express Daily Wish is serving up some fine gift card deals for Whole Foods.  If you are an Amex cardholder, you should check out these deals, which are coming up on Wednesday, and see if you can grab one.  The offers are limited in quantity, so you have to be fast!  For example, Amex is offering ninety $100 gift cards to Whole Foods when you spend $200; one hundred seventy five $50 gift cards when you spend $100, and three hundred $25 gift cards when you spend $50.  Each translates into a 50% savings on your next trip to the grocery store.

  On Thursday, they have come up with an even more spectacular deal.  They are offering 2 2011 Ford Fusion hybrid automobiles at 50% off MSRP.  This represents a potential savings of $14,450! Now wouldn't that be a nice Easter present, and easy on the environment as well.  To see all of the Daily Wish offerings, just go to their website at http://dailywish.amexnetwork.com.

Lowes Gift Cards on Sale - 8% off

For the next 48 hours, the gift card reseller Cardpool is offering Lowe's gift cards at 8% off their face value.  Remember that if you go through Mr. Rebates first, you can pick up an additional 1% cash back.  These cards won't last long!  Remember also, that Discover and Chase Freedom cards are offering 5% cash back starting today at all home improvement centers.  While not as good as the gift cards, there should not be any reason why you pay full retail this month for your lawn and garden needs.  Spring has arrived!

Merchant Cashback Strategies: Walmart - Everyday 7% savings!

This week I am going to talk about getting cash back at the king of retailing kings, Walmart.  Walmart prides itself on having the lowest prices, day in and day out.  Quality may be a different issue, but I am just going to focus on how you can trim your Walmart bill by another 5-10% after you are done shopping.  First, let's discuss cash back rewards credit cards.  Unfortunately, virtually all major credit card holders exclude Walmart from any special 5% cash back promotions.  They refuse to categorize Walmart as a grocery store, or a clothing store, or an electronics store because it is all of the above, without really specializing in any of the above.  One does get the default cash back of 1% or 2% for using the rewards credit cards, depending on the card you are using, but that is about the best that one can hope for. 
   Now, on the other hand, Walmart gift cards can routinely be purchased through Cardpool, Plastic Jungle or other gift card reseller sites for 3% discount.  If one uses the cash back portal Bazando to reach the Plastic Jungle site, Bazando will pay you an additional 3% on your gift card purchases.  Finally, pay for the gift card with your cash back credit cards to realize a bottom line savings of about 7%.  Remember that this discount is after you have taken advantage of coupons, in store savings and the like.  If you are purchasing from Walmart online, look for the eCode gift cards, as you do not need a physical gift card there, just the code to enter at checkout.
I bet you didn't know you were paying 7% too much every time you shopped there, did you? 

OK, if you are ready to start saving an extra 7%, make sure that you are signed up at the gift card stores first.  Sign up for the biggies, Plastic Jungle and Cardpool by clicking on the links here or at the right on my blog.  Then sign up for the cash back portals, like Bazando mentioned here. (Click on the Bazando logo here and Bazando will give you $3 just for signing up!).  If you prefer to use the Cardpool site, then use Mr. Rebates first to get an extra 1% by going through them to the Cardpool site.  Then purchase your Walmart cards and check your mailbox a few days later.  As a side note, discounted Walmart gift cards are obviously in high demand and short supply.  The best time to find them is early in the morning or late at night.  I always carry at least $200 worth of these with me for my shopping forays. Depending on your shopping needs, you may want to get more cards.

Attention Kmart Shoppers!

Today only, Ebates is offering 8% cash back on all online purchases if you go through their website.  First, pick up a Kmart gift card from Cardpool at a 10% discount, or 11% if you go through Mr. Rebates, then head off to do all your shopping and score a nifty 18-20% cash back on all of your Kmart purchases.  Of course, if you pay with your cash back credit card, the discount is even more.  

Happy shopping!

Bazando - Another Nice Cash Back Portal

I am very excited to announce another fine cash back portal called Bazando.  There are two unique things that I like about this cash back site.  The first is that they offer 3% cash back on all gift cards purchased at Plastic Jungle, one of my favorite gift card discount sites.  That means that you are stacking discounts on top of discounts, a technique dear to my heart!  The 2nd feature of this site is that they represent merchants from all over the world, so if you live in France, for example, you can now take advantage of discounts at Darty, FNAC, La Redoute, etc. to name just a few.  It also has a UK website for UK merchants.  So now, all of my international friends can save money too!  They are even offering to put a few dollars (or euros) in your account just for signing up here.  Just click on the logo or the links for your free enrollment, and enjoy your savings!

Amex offering Itunes gift cards for 30% off.

For you iTunes lovers, on Tuesday, American Express will be selling 50 iTunes $50 gift cards for $35.00 each. This offer is only available to existing American Express cardholders. I suspect they will be sold out in minutes, but it sounds like a nice deal if you can get it.

Click here to find out how to get yours.

Weekly Deals: Ebates Double Cash Back

   This week, Ebates is offering double cash cash back for purchases made at the following merchants:

Dell: Was 2%, now 4% back

HP:   Was 3%, now 5% back

Macys: Was 2.5% now 5% back

Staples: Was 2%, now 4% back.

If you plan on shopping at any of these sites, you may want to go through Ebates to pick up your extra cash back. Whether you use a discounted gift card, or your cash back credit card, you will be putting some extra money in your pocket.

Happy shopping!

Merchant Cashback Strategies: Lowes: How to Get 20% Off on Everything You Buy

With the advent of spring arriving, we will soon hear once again the roar of lawn mowers in the yard, the quiet digging sounds of new flowers being planted, and the rhythmic spit-spit sounds of sprinklers going off.  With that in mind, I thought that I would focus on Lowes, one of the two big box home improvement stores, and how to save almost 20% on everything you buy there. Impossible you say?  Then read on.

Step 1:  Pick yourself up some 10% off coupons on Ebay.  These are the coupons that are given out by the US Post Office on behalf of Lowes when someone changes their address.  There are folks who make a living collecting and reselling these lovely little goodies.  One can usually pick them up for an average of about $1.20-1.50 per coupon.  I save myself some time by looking for the "Buy Now" offers.  The current batch are good through May 15th, 2011, which should get you through the spring cleaning season. Make sure you get the coupons that are good up to $5000 in purchases, and you can save some serious money.  By the way, Home Depot and Ace often honor these coupons.

Step 2:  Sign up at Mr. Rebates.  I will explain why in a minute.

Step 3:  Get ready to purchase some Lowes gift cards at a discount.  They can be had for 7-8% off face value at Cardpool and Plastic Jungle. I have mentioned these websites many times, but if you haven't signed up yet, do it now.  Just click on the links.  While Visa Freedom card and Discover cards are offering 5% cash back on your purchases at home improvement centers starting April 1st, you can get a jump on them and get 7-8% instead by buying these cards.  If you are very clever, you will go through Mr. Rebates (see Step 2) to purchase your discount gift cards at Cardpool, thus nailing an extra 1%.  And if you have truly been following my advice, you will purchase those gift cards with your cash back credit cards, adding yet another 1-3%.  If you are not planning to buy online, make sure you buy the regular gift cards, NOT the electronic gift cards (which can only be used online).  Ohh, and for those of you who read this far, if you go through Mr. Rebates to purchase your coupons on Ebay in Step #1, you will get an extra 3% back on that purchase as well :)

Step 4:  Once you receive your gift cards, proceed to to the store, with your 10% coupon and gift card in hand, and smile when you get to the checkout counter, knowing you have just saved about 20% on everything you are buying.

There you have it. How to save 20% at Lowes all year long.


BONUS!!  I am trying to build my readership, as this Blog is new.  If you find this information useful, please subscribe to my Blog.  For the first 25 readers who subscribe to Cardpool and Mr. Rebates from this blog, I will send a free 10% off coupon to Lowes for purchases up to $5000.  Just send me a message via my personal Facebook page, so that I know where to send the coupon.

Whole Foods Gift Cards on Sale - While They Last

 Cardpool currently has 10 Whole Foods $100 gift cards on sale for $97.  All of their gift cards are 100% guaranteed for 101 days.


Go through Mr. Rebates first and get an extra 1% off.  These will be gone in 2 hours.  Happy shopping!

Zappo's Free VIP Membership Has Returned

   Periodically, Zappos opens up their VIP Membership to everyone for free. Today, they are doing it again.  This offer will last perhaps for one week.  VIP Membership entitles you to free shipping on all purchases, and a few other perks.  If you know Zappos, you know that they are the best source for hassle free purchasing of shoes at the very best prices.


 Get over there and sign up for their free VIP membership.  Oh, and if you are thinking of buying some shoes there, don't forget my tips on how to get an extra 9-10% cash back for their site by buying a gift card first.  

Pharmacy Discounts for the Rest of Us

     I ran across this website today that offers discount at most major pharmacies for prescription and non-prescription drugs.  If you are uninsured, have a high copay or HSA, are sitting in the donut hole, or simply need prescriptions that your insurance will not cover, then this site is for you.

The company is called Honest Discounts, and it takes 30 seconds to sign up (free) and print out your prescription discount card.  You cannot be turned down, as you don't need to qualify. The savings are real, and their card is honored by Walgreens, Walmart. CVS, Safeway, Kroger/King Soopers and so on. You can check for prices online at your current pharmacy, and see how it stacks up to what you are paying now.


   With prescription drug costs skyrocketing, it is time that the consumer have some help keeping these costs under control.  This may be one of those tools.  And while you are at it, if you aren't paying for the drugs with your HSA card, then I hope that you are paying with a gift card, to score an extra 3-8% off, depending on where your pharmacy is. 

The New Gift Card Law & Consumer Protections

     As of August 22, 2010, the CARD ACT (credit card reform act) passed by Congress took effect for all gift cards issued as of that date.  Substantial consumer protections were part of the reforms imposed on the gift card issuers.  The following article published by the Federal Reserve outlines the changes for consumers and issuers.

Breakdown of a Recent Cash Back Transaction

   Too much talking and not enough doing does not make Steve a very interesting blogger.  So I thought that I would occasionally post a recent cash back transaction that I did, so you can see the thought process and the savings realized.

   I have started to take up cooking, just to throw a little variety into our chicken-fish-meat-fish dinner routine.  Through one of the many "hot deal" aggregator sites on the Internet, I came across a 6 qt. slow cooker at J.C. Penneys, originally $59.95, now on sale for $29.95 plus S&H.  I probably would not have bought it, except that there was a checkout code that whacked another $10 off the price, bringing it down to $19.95.  Now I was interested!

   Here is how I proceeded.  I first went to the evRewards site to see which cashback portal was offering the best deal that day.  Ebates was offering 4% cashback if I used them to make my purchase at the J.C. Penney website.  Then I went to Gift Card Granny to see what kind of discount I could get on JC Penneys gift cards.  It turned out that you can buy these giftcards at a 13% discount through Cardpool, 14% through Plastic Jungle, and 15% through giftcards.com.  I already knew that I could get an extra 1% if I used Mr. Rebates to buy a Cardpool giftcard, which was the only site at the time offering Ecodes.  Since I was buying online and the sale was of a limited duration, I wanted my gift card fast. I paid for the giftcard with my 1% back credit card, bringing the total savings up to 15% for the giftcard.

  So I went ahead and purchased an eCode giftcard to J.C. Penney through Cardpool using the Mr. Rebates portal.  Then I went to Ebates, selected J.C. Penney as my merchant and was directed to the J.C. Penneys website.

   I placed my order, earning 4% back from Ebates on my $26.69 total purchase, and paid with my J.C. Penney's giftcard Ecode, for which I had just paid 85% of face value.  Net savings were 19% off the already heavily discounted price of $19.95.  

  It was a very small purchase, but it illustrates the power of stacking cash back rewards.  My slow cooker was shipped this morning.  Hopefully, by next week, I will be burning my first crockpot pot roast!

Merchant Cashback Strategies: Amazon.com

   Each week, I hope to feature an article detailing the best strategy I use for getting the maximum cash back from a particular merchant.  I have decided to start with Amazon.com, one of, if not the largest retailer on the Internet. During the holidays, Amazon's business soars, and so remember to bookmark this post for when you do your holiday shopping.

   

   Amazon is one of the few major Internet merchants for which there is not a cashback discount offered through any of the cashback portals that I recommend. 

So what options are there? 


   Basically, one has 2 options.

  1.  You can apply for the Amazon Rewards Visa credit card.  If you qualify, you will receive 3% cash back on all of your Amazon purchases, a $40 signup bonus, 2% back on gas station, restaurant and drugstore purchases and 1% back on everything else.  There is no annual fee, and the card carries a variable interest rate of 13.24% to 21.24%, depending on your creditworthiness.  Surprisingly, in my opinion, Lifehacker readers just last week voted the Amazon Rewards Visa as the best cash back Rewards credit card available in the market.  Perhaps it was because of the demographics of their readership, but I find the card relatively unremarkable.  To read the Lifehacker article, click here.

2.  The 2nd option is to purchase an Amazon online gift card Ecode through one of the gift card resellers I have recommended in my earlier blogs, such Cardpool or Plastic Jungle. My experience has been that Cardpool seems to more frequently offer the Ecodes and their discount runs 3%.  There are two other benefits to using this option.  First, if you use the Mr. Rebates portal to reach Cardpool and purchase your card or cards, the Mr. Rebates cashback discount brings the total savings to 4%.  The 2nd benefit is that you receive your gift card Ecode within a couple hours, and if you buy the gift card with a cashback credit card, the total savings can go up to 5-6%, depending on your cashback credit card.  A side benefit is that you do not have to ding your credit rating by having one more credit card in your wallet.  The one negative is that one does not get the onetime $40 signup bonus that the Amazon card offers. As I have recommended before however, do not buy more gift cards than you can use in the short term.  There will always be more available for purchase at a later date.

   The choice is yours, but I recommend using Cardpool via the Mr. Rebates portal.

Discounted Gift Card Sites

   I use discounted gift cards frequently for my everyday purchases. The two sites that I am going to tell you about today represent the most professional of the sites out there.

First, why use discounted gift cards?  Well, they are easily purchased in the amounts you need, the discount savings are significant (up to 30% off), and you don't need to buy a store "loyalty" credit card to get the savings.  It is an easy, safe and guaranteed way to put money back in your pocket. My only caution is to buy only what you will use in the next 2-3 weeks, as your money is locked up in these cards until you use them.


The biggest of the discount  gift card sites is Plastic Jungle.  They offer more cards for more merchants than anyone out there.  They also tend to offer the highest discounts on many of the popular merchants. Register now, because you do not want to take the time to register when your favorite card shows up, or you could lose it.

The 2nd most popular site is Cardpool.  This firm is good at getting some of the hard to come by gift cards, like Amazon, Whole Foods and Walmart. Each morning at 7 a.m. Eastern, they put a fresh batch of cards on their site, and I have found this to be the best time to grab the hard to come by cards.  These cards usually are sold within 10 minutes.

So how do you know which site has the best deals for your merchant?

Well, I use Gift Card Granny.  This site is an aggregator of all of the top discount giftcard resellers, and also includes giftcards being sold on Ebay. I go to this site virtually every day to find giftcards I am interested in, and it is a good way to see who offers the best discounts on any given merchant.

Let me share a bit of advice, however.  I would NEVER buy a giftcard from the Ebay site.  The giftcard resellers guarantee every purchase to be as represented for up to 100 days.  No Ebay seller will do that.  I personally had $388 in Whole Foods giftcards that would not work.  I notified Cardpool and my credit card was credited my entire purchase price the same day.  That is the type of service you will get from these companies, and I can sleep at night because of it.

In a future post, I will go through the analysis of why I think discounted gift cards represent the fastest, cleanest way to big discounts; and if you purchase with a cashback credit card, the savings just multiply.