Gift Certificates for Less
Gift certificates, whether you are planning on to buy one for your personal use or for gifting someone, are a good way to save money, especially if bought at the right time and from the right sources. These days many sellers offer discounted gift cards as a strategy to increase their customer base. You, as a customer, can benefit a lot from these certificates as you are getting much more value than you actually pay for. So if you want to know how and from where to get such gift certificates, below are some of the options listed for you.
Special Occasion/Holiday Deals
It is usually seen that when a special occasion is round the corner, such as Valentine's Day or Easter, many restaurants, hotels, spas, salons offer discounts or give more to the customers on the card amount. For example, on a card of $500, you might get an additional $50 free. So, if you keep your eyes open during such days or during year end Christmas holidays, you are sure to find some good deals.
Auction Sites
If you search on the Internet properly, you will find many sellers on auction sites offer some really cheap gift certificates. These sellers can offer you as much as thirty percent discount on the certificates. So you can purchase from these online auction sites. But before doing that be cautions and check that the seller is genuine and the deal which he is offering is legitimate.
Buy More
To buy gift cards less than face value, a good way is to buy more. If you buy lots of gift certificates, it will automatically increase your bargaining power. This is especially beneficial if you are buying for all your family or friends. So to avail discount, get in touch with the sales people of a company directly and negotiate to get the best deal.
Buy Secondhand
Websites such as GiftCardsAgain.com and GiftCards.com offer gift cards on sale by customers who did not use them or who only partially used the amount. You can buy from such sites and if you are lucky you can avail of as much as thirty percent discount on some of them. There are certain websites such as Certificateswap.com, which specifically deal with buying and selling gift cards. So you can hunt for some good deals at these websites.
Specialized Websites
If you are particularly looking for restaurant gift certificates, then you can go to specialized websites such as restaurant.com, which offer some really good discounts or some additional value on cards. By going in for such cards, you can enjoy a meal with your family at some of the good restaurants and hotels in your city, at much lesser price.
Frequent Flier Points
If you are someone who travels a lot and has collected a good number of frequent flier points in his credit card account, you can use them to buy gift cards. Usually, you can get gift cards for clothes, retail products or even for your local theaters.
Local Grocery Store
If you shop at a particular grocery store and your credit card company pays you back a certain percentage as rewards every time you shop in this store, then instead of buying a gift certificate at a restaurant or a clothing store or a spa, it makes sense to buy it from the grocery store itself. This way you will be getting that "cash back" offer by the credit card company on the amount of the certificate as well.
These are some of the options that you can utilize to get discounted gift certificates. When buying them, make sure that you know all the terms and restrictions which are set by some of these sellers. Sometimes, discounted gift certificates can only be used on particular days or at some specific timings during the day. Some sellers might set a lower limit for purchase, for example a seller might say that you need to spend minimum $50 before you can actually use the discounted gift card. Only once you are clear on these terms and conditions of the seller should you purchase a gift certificate.
