Quick Warning – GiftCardMall Visa Gift Cards & Portals

GiftCardMall Visa Gift Cards & Portals

A couple of weeks ago I published a post about purchasing Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall through a portal including the economics. In that post I talked about Simply Best Coupon’s .4% cashback rate and Top Cashback’s .5% rate. (Simply Best Coupons upped their rate to .5% since the post.)

Since that post I have heard from a number of people who were eager to tell me where they found even better cashback rates. That is all good, except that they were/are all wrong. Let me give you a an example.

One reader commented: “Mainstreetshares pays 1.2% for GCM. Much better than .5% from TCB!!” So I went to MainStreetShares and at the time their language was vague and did not exclude Visa gift cards or any of the normal exclusions. I then emailed them to clarify.

Here is what I wrote:

Can you confirm that Visa gift cards purchased from GiftCardMall will earn 1.2% cashback? Your terms are not clear and other portals exclude the Visa gift cards. Thanks.

And here is their initial response:

Hi Shawn. We’re here to help. We are in the process of verifying the rate for them and will let you know as soon as we hear something. Thank you for you patience.

And then the follow-up:

Hi Shawn. Thank you for your patience while we looked into the GiftCardMall rate. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We have updated the merchant’s terms which now exclude Visa purchases.

And here are their new terms:

Cash back not offered on Visa gift cards, Simon gift cards, Gift Card Mall eGiftcard, Hess Gasoline, Gulf, All Macerich Visas, Arco, Safeway, BP, Best Buy, Target Physical/eGift Cards, Choice Gift Cards, Customization Fee, and Shipping Fees on all gift cards.

Other Portals

I have received emails and comments from others talking about different portals paying out higher rates as well. Each and every time I check them out, Visa gift cards are excluded. Since I don’t want anyone to miss out on cashback, I went to each of the portals listed on Cashback Monitor and checked their language. In doing this I actually made a couple of discoveries.

• BeFrugal:  “Cash back excludes Visa Gift Cards.”
• Panda Cash Back: “Cash Back is not available on gift cards for Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Safeway, BP, or Best Buy; or on Visa gift card, Target,Arco, Macerich Visa, Visa purchase Fee, Customization Fee, Shipping Cost, or Tax”
• Ebates: “Cash Back is not available on gift cards for Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Safeway, BP, or Best Buy; or on Visa gift card, Visa purchase Fee, Customization Fee, Shipping Cost, or Tax.”
• Coupon Cactus: “0.2% cash back on Items under Visa Gift Card Net Purchase Fee Category”
• Extrabux: “Cash back is not available for Visa purchase Fee, Customization Fee, Hess Gasoline, Arco, Safeway, BP, Visa, Target, Best Buy, Choice, Macerich or Gulf Cards.”
• Mr. Rebates: “Cash Back is not available on gift cards for Gift Card Mall eGift, Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Safeway, BP, or Best Buy; or on Visa gift card, Visa purchase Fee, Customization Fee, Shipping Cost, or Tax.”
• ExtraRebates.com: ” No Rebates for Gift Cards of Gulf, Arco, Safeway, BP, and Best Buy. Use of coupons may void ExtraRebate.”
• My Deals & Coupons: “0.40%Visa Gift Cards”
• FatWallet: “Cash Back not available on VISA gift cards. Cash Back not available on Safeway, Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Arco, BP, Best Buy, Target, Choice, or Macerich Cards.”
• Marriott Shop My Way: “The following gift cards are not eligible to earn Marriott Rewards Points: Visa Gift Cards…”
• Memolink: “Points will not be awarded for the purchase of the following gift cards: Simon, Macerich, Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Arco, Safeway, BP, Best Buy, Visa, GCM, Target, and Choice.”
• Swagbucks: “Hess Gasoline, Gulf, Safeway, BP, or Best Buy; or on Visa gift card, Visa purchase Fee, Customization Fee, Shipping Cost, or Tax are not eligible for Swag Bucks”

Analysis

As you can see in bold above, I found two new portals that do pay for Visa gift cards, although they don’t pay as high as Simply Best Coupons or Top Cashback. I also italicized both Extrabux and ExtraRebates.com since neither has a rate for Visa gift cards nor excludes them. My guess is this is an oversight and I wouldn’t count on cashback from either of them.

The moral of the story here is that GiftCardMall doesn’t pay out for Visa gift cards unless the portal specifically spells it out. All four of the portals I found that do pay out specifically list Visa gift cards with their own payout rate.

Conclusion

I know this may seem minor, but I didn’t want people to order thousands of dollars in gift cards without earning any cashback. I received enough feedback that I thought this post was warranted. Without the cashback the usefulness of this deal is really lacking. In the future, it isn’t a bad idea to verify things with portals before making a large purchase.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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