Save Money by Buying Gift Cards

Gift cards, by definition, are cards that are given as gifts. A few stores and schools are redefining the use of gift cards by offering promotions when you purchase the cards. These promotions make it attractive to purchase the gift cards for everyday use, instead of buying them just for gifts. These places sell every kind of gift card imaginable. The wide variety of gift cards for grocery stores, gas stations, retail stores, and restaurants makes it easy to buy the cards at one location. Besides the ease of one-stop shopping, these stores and schools give their customers incentives to buy the gift cards at their establishments.

Giant Eagle is a grocery store chain with stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. This grocery chain decided to get into the gas business by building Get Go gas stations in the parking lots of their stores. The building of the gas stations coincided with Giant Eagle's program called Fuel Perks.

Fuel Perks is an incentive to shop at Giant Eagle with their Advantage Card. For every $50 you spend you earn $.10 off per gallon of gas. A few times per year, they offer $.20 for every fifty dollars spent in their stores. This promotion also includes the sale of gift cards. Customers started buying all of their holiday gift cards at Giant Eagle just to receive the Fuel Perks.

There are only two downsides to purchasing gift cards at Giant Eagle. If you purchase Giant Eagle gift cards, those do not count towards your fuel perks since you will be spending that card at Giant Eagle. The other downside is that when you get gas you either have to use all of your Fuel Perks or none. You cannot split up the amount that you have earned and save some for later.

The Catholic schools in the Cleveland Diocese have started a gift card sale incentive. The schools sell the gift cards to the parishioners and parents who can select students to receive part of the profits from the sale of the gift cards and receive discounted tuition.

Each school has their own way of discounting the tuition with the sale of the gift cards. Some schools split the profit fifty-fifty with the family, while others will give the entire profit amount off of the tuition. The last way that I have heard of schools utilizing the gift card program is by setting a mandatory purchase amount per family. If the family does not purchase the set amount then their tuition will be higher.

The profit on the gift cards is determined by what the individual store offers. The profit ranges between 1/2% and 5% of the total card value. This dollar amount is the profit per gift card. I purchase my gift cards twice a month. Depending on which cards I buy, I generally receive between $17 and $35 off of my son's tuition. I have also enlisted my family who routinely buy gas and grocery gift cards from our school.

With these two types of incentives, gift cards have become more than just for gifts. I and several other people I know have been purchasing gift cards for everyday use. I buy all of my grocery store and gasoline cards from the school. I also buy retail cards and restaurant gift cards if I know I am going to that particular place. I figure that if I am going to spend money at these places anyways, I might as well save a little money on the other end. In the four months that I have been purchasing the gift cards from the school, our family has earned over $200 off of next year's tuition.

I prefer to buy my gift cards at the school. I think that I get more bang for my buck. But if you do not have a student who is attending Catholic schools, then a Fuel Perk type of incentive is perfect.