Two American Express Gift Cards Deals Which May Be Better Than Shopping Through a Portal

Better Than The Portals? Take a Look!

I was having a discussion on Twitter yesterday about how I have almost completely stopped purchasing American Express gift cards lately. I used to use them to buy Visa gift cards on Gift Card Mall, but that avenue dried up. Yesterday’s discussion has inspired me to step up my game a little.

Over the past couple of months, a lot of noise has been made about buying American Express Gift cards through cashback portals. The portals themselves have been publicizing increased cash back offers as well. Yesterday Top Cashback had a 2.25% deal while today Big Crumbs made a big announcement about increased cash back only to offer a sad 1.575% back.

Since portal payouts have not yet made it back to the very lucrative 4% level, here are a couple of smaller in-store American Express gift card deals which I feel offer a great return for people with credit cards which pay certain category bonuses.

CVS Fee Free American Express Cards

I haven’t seen this deal covered anywhere else and I regret not seeing it myself sooner. During a visit to CVS yesterday, I noticed a sign advertising American Express gift cards without a fee. The sale runs through tomorrow 12/6/2014. As you can see from the image above, it seems that all American Express gift cards sold through CVS are included.

I would assume the $2k per person daily limit across all CVS stores applies to these gift cards. Still, if you have a card which earns 5x at drug stores and an easy way to liquidate the cards, this may be a good option.

Office Depot/Officemax $15 Off With Purchase of $300 in American Express Gift Cards

If you can’t get to CVS, Office Depot/Officemax are running a promotion from 12/7-12/13 offering $15 off the purchase of $300 or more in American Express gift cards. I do believe they sell $200 cards with a $6.95 fee, although I am not 100% sure of that.

While certain Office Depot stores have stopped taking credit cards for the purchase of gift cards, every Officemax store I know of still does. Since the companies share the same weekly ad, this deal should be available in both chains.

There is a limit of 1 deal per customer/household and variable load cards are excluded. With an instant discount like this, many people have had success in the past going to different stores or the same store on multiple days to get the discount more than once. If you buy 2 x $200 gift cards, then you should profit about $1 plus the rewards on your credit card.

Conclusion

If you do currently purchase American Express gift cards, this may be a way to get a greater return than buying them online. With quantity restrictions at both stores, the savings opportunity is limited, but I know these deals may be of use to some.

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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