How to Find Discount Gift Cards

Not so great at buying gifts? Want to make your dollar go a bit further at the store? Why not try discount gift cards. Here are a few ideas to try out.

Giftcards.com: This is a fairly well established site that claims to have the largest discounted gift card inventory online. They do seem to have a lot of selections, but you will find that they rarely have inventory for big name gift cards like large department stores, electronics retailers or discount stores. You will find a good selection on more specialty shops like Bath and Body Works, bookstores, and smaller retailers. This is to be expected since it is much easier to redeem gift cards at stores that are everywhere nationally and have very large merchandise diversity and selection.

Gift Card Rescue: There are quite a few websites out there that buy unwanted gift cards for a lower dollar value cash amount and then resells it at a discount. However, some of these sites seem just a bit too "home grown" and I worry about the selection and ability of the company to come through with purchases. I recently saw the company Gift Card Rescue (http://www.giftcardrescue.com/) on ABC's show Sharktank. They got a financing deal on the show which gives me more confidence that the company is financially backed and reliable. Why not give it a try whether you are looking for a discount card or trying to get rid of one?

Restaurant.com: If dining out is your thing, this is a great site to receive the deepest discounts off of face value gift certificates (http://www.restaurant.com/). This is a very well established site that has deals in lots of markets. If I'm traveling, they seem to have deals wherever I'm going on great local eating venues. There are minimum spending requirements and gratuities added to the checks, but still a great value in my opinion!

ebay: For the deepest discount on gift cards, why not go to old school internet commerce. Go direct to gift card holders (http://www.ebay.com/). People who need cash for their gift cards can go direct to you with nominal listing fees. Yes, it can still be risky. However, people with great ebay customer satisfaction ratings always come through in my experience. Just type in keywords like "gift card", "gift certificate", or the merchant you're looking for to find great deals.

Grocery Store Rewards: This method does not give you a discount up front, but may save you lots of money other ways. Grocery stores have rewards programs for discounted groceries, cents on gasoline and other great offers. One way to beef up your rewards points is to buy your gift certificates at your grocery store. If you know you are going to buy a bigger ticket electronics item at Best Buy anyway, why not purchase the gift cards and the grocery store and then use them to buy the item? I get even more savings by using a rewards credit card and really double up on what I'm getting back!

Just remember that if you are looking for gift cards for big retailers, you probably won't get really deep discounts. However, if you are looking for things off the beaten path like cards to specialty shops, you may hit some gold mines!

I hope that these ideas will save you some money for the holidays or any time of the year. Just remember to always be a smart consumer and check things out. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!