GiftCards.com Ends Free Shipping & Raises Fees
I am going to admit something right off the bat. If I can purchase something online without having to go to a store, then I am a happy person. For that reason I really loved buying Visa gift cards at GiftCardMall, however they butchered that opportunity earlier this year when they lowered their maximum denomination to $250 per card.
Some people including myself then shifted to GiftCards.com. For a long time they really weren’t a huge player, however free shipping codes, a rewards program and fairly reasonable card fees made it an attractive option. That seems to be changing.
40% Fee Increase & Free Shipping Ended
Earlier this week it was reported by readers that a free shipping code that was supposed to work until the end of the month had died. Now I have some bad news about fees. The cost of a Visa gift card (up to $500 in denomination) has been increased from $4.95 to $6.95. I’m not going to outright say this kills the deal, but barring a new shipping or other type of promotion, it severely limits its value.
My guess is GiftCards.com started receiving more orders than normal and in a case of supply and demand (or simply to shut us down), they decided to cash in. Either way each card costs $2 more, which starts to make the grocery or drug store look like a more attractive option. Still, these cards are customized with your name, so I know they are definitely useful for people whose cashiers love to check ID.
Conclusion
The early end of free shipping and the 40% increase in fees is definitely a bad move for us and one that will make me shift my strategies elsewhere for the time being. Hopefully we will see more discounts come our way soon, but I am sort of doubting it will happen.
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[…] today Pauline left a comment on a previous post about Visa gift cards and the GiftCards.com rewards program. Here is what she […]
There was a free shipping code from 11/23 to 11/27 (for Thanksgiving), so we signed up for the G rewards program and bought several thousand dollars of VGC over a few days. After the transactions went through, we noticed that no G Rewards were given. We called customer service, and they opened a ticket. Then, they sent an email saying that the G Rewards program was suspended on 11/24 and no rebate would be awarded. We are still arguing with them, since the program was still being advertised on the website (and you could still sign up for it) when we purchased the cards. Any suggestions on how to deal with this vis-a-vis giftcards.com? Thanks for your input.
I’m not sure. I would escalate to a supervisor, but it seems they have now removed references to it from their site. Hopefully the supervisor will realize that they were in transition. They aren’t the easiest company to deal with. I’m not sure how much you purchased, but at some point I would consider if it is worth the time and effort if they keep denying you.
I bought 2 Visa gift cards at WM today and they had rfid chips in the packet. This is very curious and I am now wondering what the intention is since this my first time seeing these chips. I threw them away in the trash at WM after loading the cards to BB.
[…] I wrote about a couple of negative changes from Giftcards.com. (Hint: There is some good info in the comments of that post.) First off, they killed a free […]
Hello Team. Lets make sure we all remember the first rule of Fight Club. We DO NOT talk about fight club.
Hint. Hint.
This $6.95 fee may be a new industry charge. I noticed that Visa Cards in my local grocery today from MetaBank now are 6.95 fee, where they had always been 4.95.
Shawn, please correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you leaving out the value of their “cashback” awards you can apply to the following order? Combining that with the still valid free shipping code shown in the comments above, it still seems noticeably cheaper than the average in-store options… Am I missing something? You just have to place single card orders now… (but still seems like a net plus over in-store options for minimum spend purposes at least)
“supposed to work until the end of the month”? It was all over the internet, so it had to die. And anyway, the code was “FREEUSPS915″… the last day it worked (for me) was 9-15, which makes sense. I agree that the 6.95 fee is disappointing.
Free Shipping Code: VIP921
Only discount it for 1.99 so need to Order only one at a time
Thanks Alex – worked for me
I wonder if they realised that the loyalty programme was effectively paying for the processing fees after the first purchase. My first gift card cost 504.95 with free shipping and earned 505 points. My second order cost 499.95 with free shipping, as my 505 points became $5.05 off, cancelling out the processing fee. I still earned 500 points on that order, and so on…
Now a first time order of one card would cost $508.94 (500 + 6.95 + 1.99) and earn 509 points, making the second order cost $503.85 (earning 504) and then $503.91 for the third order, and so on…
Makes even more sense now to buy 4 x $500 cards, and 1 x $465ish card and pay the $7.45 for USPS tracking. Cheaper than paying $1.99 x 5 for 5 separate orders.