When you’re doing large amounts of manufactured spending, small gift card fees of $3.95 – $5.95 can really add up to a substantial amount. Suddenly, that business class seat doesn’t seem like much of a bargain when you factor in how much time and money you spent on earning it. While cash back portals like Yazing and Topcashback make it possible to substantially off-set gift card fees on online purchases, that only goes so far.
Thanks to Noon Radar, I came across another gift card buying option that eliminates fees entirely and leaves you with a profit: Through December 10, GiftCardMall is offering a 5% discount on Visa gift cards. These aren’t just any gift cards. They’re the 5% cash back Visas that earn (you guessed it) 5% cash back at participating retailers.
What makes this Gift Card Mall deal so great is that it can be stacked with 1.25% portal cash back. Plus, if you end up shopping at a participating retailer rather than cashing the card out via money orders, you earn an additional 5% back on the card. The 5% discount offered by Gift Card Mall is actually applied at checkout.
So buying two $500Visa gift cards, which would normally cost $1,011.90 with fees and free shipping, comes out to $961.90. That’s a $38.10 profit per $1,000 order! That’s without the 1.25% portal cash back, which results in another $12 in cash back.
Now, unfortunately, I can’t get a single one of my credit cards or those belonging to my family to go through at Gift Card Mall. For months now I’ve had this problem.
The cards just decline and this happens even though 1.) there’s plenty of available credit on these cards and 2.) I check out as a guest rather than signing into my account.
I’ve tried it both ways, figuring maybe signing in (or out) might make a difference. That isn’t the case.
I’m going to call GiftCardMall later to see if I can find a solution. My suspicion is that my credit cards are processing Gift Card Mall transactions as cash advances. Since my cash advance limits are low, the transactions are getting declined. We’ll see. In the meantime, I thought it was worth getting the word out about this deal, since it’s way too good to pass up.
I DO ENJOY SEEING YOUR ARTICLES. HOW DO I FIND OUT WHICH ARE THE PARTICIPATING RETAILERS THAT GIVE YOU 5% BACK ON PURCHASERS WITH VISA GIFT CARDS. THANK YOU
The GCM website doesn’t seem to list this information. But I imagine the actual card packaging will. Even without the 5% at retailers, you still come out ahead using these cards for MO purchases.
To see the full list of stores/sites that give 5% cash back on the 5 Back VGCs go to FiveBackGift.com, scroll down and click on “Expand to show + merchant partners”.
I haven’t used these cards at such stores but others have indicated that the 5% cashback shows up on the card about 48 hours after the transaction posts.
This is helpful. Thanks for sharing!
thank you for the info
can you use these 5% cash back visas to buy money orders? are they metabank cards?
Yes and yes!
can you please tell me what places accept these gift cards to convert to money orders?
thank you
My main source is Walmart, but there are a few other places: https://www.pointchaser.com/guide/buy-money-orders-with-a-gift-card/
Ariana, how do you put your name on these Five Back cards? I know Giftcards.com has a field for the recipient’s name…do you place your name in the “message” field for GCM?
I don’t think you can.
Thanks for the tip!
Sure thing!
Are you sure you can use these to buy money orders? I read that they could only be used at specified retailers.
Dont question the queen Lori hehe
Yes, they offer 5% cash back at specific retailers but you can use them everywhere (including money order purchases).
i been having the issue for cards getting thru with gift card mall, cash advance doeskin seem to be the case, i think more likelihood of your account has been flagged with them and none of transaction would go thru…so I give up. let me know if otherwise
It’s odd because even an order placed under someone else’s name and their card (i.e. my mom, whom I’ve never ordered anything for on GCM) doesn’t go through either. I think I’m going to throw in the towel at this point.
You said: “So a $1,000 Visa gift card purchase that would normally cost $1,011.90 with fees and free shipping comes out to $961.90. That’s a $38.10 profit per $1,000 order!”
Do I read it correctly: you can buy a $1000 Visa card??? as opposed to usual $500? And if you use it in WM for a money order, then it’s just 1 swipe of $1000 instead of two swipes of $500? It sounds too good to be true…or am I missing something?
Its GCM its all too good be to true
Sorry, I should have written that better. You can buy $500 gift cards, so two of them would amount to $1k, with the $11.90 in fees off-set by the 5% discount.
Even with another browser my Flex cards won’t work on GCM but BOA/Chase/Cap1 work fine.
I’m having zero luck with any of those. This is so frustrating!
thanks for the detail post….. I saw this elsewhere, but hadn’t realized these cards were from metabank — and thus could be used to by mo’s and/or for reloadable debit cards. Yet in my first try with gcm last week (on another discount), I too couldn’t get the transaction to go through… (problem wasn’t with my card — a chase product — called them and they said all was fine at their end, that they had not cancelled the order) Apparently giftcardmall is notorious for “cancelling orders for no apparent reason.” Yet curious all the more to see if you and other readers can get this to work….. will try again myself, with other cards
Scott,
Giftcardmall.com is a sister site to Giftcards.com. They are both a part of the BlackHawk Network.
I have been a good customer at Giftcards.com for over 2 years. All orders were accepted and shipped. I have tried to place 3 orders on Giftcardmall.com in the past 2 weeks, and all were rejected. The letters I received state: “The order placed through Giftcardmall.com, has been cancelled. Unfortunately the order was not approved by our security screening process.”
I contacted customer service and was advised that each company has their own set of compliance employees. Regardless, with a credit rating over 800, I can’t imagine why they would want to refuse the business.
They do indeed. But in this case, they’re not even cancelling my order – my card just keeps declining even though my bank says it isn’t. I tried to get on the phone with GCM today and that was a hassle, so I gave up.
They ran out of the cards!
Oh no! Keep trying. They may replenish their supply before the 10th.
It seems that they have run out of these cards quite fast.We’ll wait and see….
I’d keep checking back. Hopefully they’ll restock soon!
$100 Five Back VGCs are available as of now. I did get an order of $500s through on 12/5 so I won’t bother with these, I’ll wait to see if the $500 ones come back again with this promotion, which was originally worded to last through 12/10.
That’s too bad. Hopefully they restock soon.
Where is the link for the extra 5% back? I don’t see it on the GCM website… not sure if I would get it without some special link or something… Also it only allows up to a $100 amount. Was anyone able to get $500?
It’s on the homepage. They ran out for a while but I hear they’ve restocked the $500 cards.
Update — as of Friday at 2:30 est, the $500 cards are again available, and the promo still applies. Problem remains, I can’t get a transaction to work with giftcardmall. Have tried different browsers, different accounts, different computers….. have been on hold waiting to talk to a gcm human being….. no luck. Keep getting this mindless (paypal like) error message after placing the order:
“This transaction was not completed. The transaction was not submitted correctly, or has been declined by your card issuer. You can try again with a different card or review your payment information for any necessary corrections.” (and I’ve tried and tried — all to no avail, what a miserable, paypal like set up — and I do a lot of business with giftcards.com)
I have the exact same issue. Doing lots of business with giftcards.com and can’t get any one of 8 credit cards through GCM.
Simon Mall has been getting all of my business this week. 70K at no cost. 😉
Teri where do you liquidate? I’ve had problems this past week with 10k I’m trying to liquidate at Walmart. The associates keep asking for the card and denying it because they realize it’s a gift card 🙁
I’m in Boca Raton FL and am surprised I have had no issue with these cards at Walmart, as they don’t have my name on them. Pretty lax down here. 😉
That’s awesome Teri! Yeah it was getting kinda stressful… I went to so many Walmarts and only tried to do $1000 but no dice 🙁
I have the same problem. I’ve tried placing orders with different accounts but the common denominator seems to be IP address. At this point I’ve washed my hands of Gift Card Mall.
Ariana – if you think it’s the IP address, then use a VPN like tunnelbear, which will give you a unique IP address.
I’ve tried using a VPN, clearing browsing between every try, different computers, different cards, changing VPN locations, all to no avail and this is on my very first order with GCM. I can’t get anything through.
Will something like that mess up shopping portal tracking?
Is this deal still working I have not been able to find it.
Nope, not anymore.