A few newbies recently asked me why I buy Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall in $1,500 increments. After all, GiftCardMall has a daily $10,000 purchase limit with fees. Why stick to multiple orders of $1,500? Mostly for cheapskate reasons. GiftCardMall charges a $10.95 shipping fee on orders over $2,000. While this may not seem like much on a large order, it actually drives up manufactured spending costs significantly.
Price per gift card
On a $3,000 gift card order, you’d pay almost three times the fees than if you split the order into two. The cost per card for a $1,500 order is just $0.95 vs. $2.78 per card on a $3,000 order.
The price per card does decrease as orders get larger. However, even as the order amount goes up to $9,000, the price per card is almost twice as high as it would be if you split it into $1500 increments.
While it’s still relatively cheap, the extra dollar or two really ads up as you increase your spending. For example, if you’re manufacturing $500,000 in Visa gift cards per year, you’d pay an extra $610 in fees when purchasing cards in $9,000 increments vs. $1500. That’s a lot of cash that you could be putting towards other travel expenses.
$1,500 order fee break-down
$500 gift cards x 3 = $1500
$5.95 fee x 3 = $17.85
1% cash back = $15
Total cost per card = $2.85/3 = $0.95
$3,000 order fee break-down
$500 gift cards x 6 = $3000
$5.95 fee x 6 = $35.70
+ $10.95 shipping fee = $46.65
1% cash back = $30
Total cost per card = $16.65/6 = $2.78
$6,000 order fee break-down
$500 gift cards x 12= $6000
$5.95 fee x 12 = $71.40
+ $10.95 shipping fee = $82.35
1% cash back = $60
Total cost per card = $22.35/12 = $1.86
$9,000 order fee break-down
$500 gift cards x 18 = $9000
$5.95 fee x 18 = $107.10
+ $10.95 shipping fee = $118.05
1% cash back = $90
Total cost per card = $28.05/18 = $1.56
When it makes sense to place larger orders
The price per card on orders over $1,500 still works out cheaper than buying Visa gift cards almost anywhere else (barring a promotion). GiftCardMall’s purchase process is pretty quick, so it’s not like multiple transactions would take long. But there might still be times when placing a large order makes more sense than splitting your purchase into multiples.
Staying under the radar
If you’re concerned about setting off fraud alerts over back-to-back $1517.85 purchases, then you might want to place one large order. Yes, that might set off a fraud alert too, but it probably looks less suspicious than two or more charges for the same odd amount.
Saving time
If you’re short on time and don’t have time to place and track multiple Visa gift card orders, then you might also benefit from placing larger GiftCardMall orders. I always place my GiftCardMall orders back-to-back. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they always arrive together.
I sometimes have to wait a little longer than I’d like to in order to accrue at least $8,000 worth of Visa gift cards for a trip to Walmart. So that’s something to be aware of if efficiency is important to you.
While the $10.95 shipping fee imposed on GiftCardMall orders over $1500 may not seem like much, it does substantially increase the cost per card. If you churn cards in large quantities, those small fee differences can add up to hundreds of dollars in extra manufactured spending costs. And since we’re all trying to get as close to free manufactured spending as possible, it’s important to be aware of.
That being said, I want to hear from you guys. Do you pay the extra $10.95 shipping fee for the convenience of placing larger orders or do you split them into $1500 increments to reap the savings?
I use to order $1998 to stay under the 2 k for free shipping and still do sometimes, just so much easier and faster doing a larger order and you get tracking.
I keep my orders in $1517.85 because it is really hard to liquidate for MOs in my local WMs (NOVA). I have 2 BB and 1 Serve and I can buy 10 times in Giftcardmall.com with different CCS and keep my MS under stress free. Anyone have good experiences liquidating more than that in NOVA?
Hi Ric I’m in NoVa as well and just starting in this hobby. I’m in Western Prince William county. Where are you having luck? I’ll be happy to share my experiences as i go along if you’d like to exchange data.
Why not buy at a Grocery store like Von’s with a credit card like Gold AMEX for 4X points? I have purchased on GCM before but holding off due to the fraud. I also go to Simon’s as it’s very easy there to buy up to $10k at a time and they are MS friendly.
But now mostly I buy with my Gold AMEX card at Von’s and get 4 X the points. I haven’t had any problems at all getting 4X points. You can do this with $25,000 per year for 100,000 points.
I also use both my amex gold and dads to rack up 4x points at grocery stores. Then use Fidelity 2% cash back at Simons. Then head to WM, Vons, Kroger, Giant,, etc. to get MO, then deposit into local banks.
What cards do you recommend to use for ordering via giftcardmall?
What’s the daily limit? How many orders can be placed daily?
$10k
The limit for free shipping is actually $1999 (not including card fees). As others have mentioned, there’s no tracking with the free shipping. Free-shipping orders are also several days to a week slower to arrive than a paid-shipping order. My paid-shipping orders typically arrive in 2-3 days, while my free-shipping orders take 8-10 days. And then there was that free-shipping order that got lost in the mail for two weeks. It arrived 18 days after the order date — and of course, one day after I reported the order as lost.
My sense of logic is struggling with this. All things being equal and constant, meaning the fee per card at $5.95 and the 1% cash back, but a shipping fee of $10.95 per order, how is it possible that smaller quantities and more frequent shipments costs less money per card? I have checked your numbers and they are correct, but this just doesn’t seem logical to me.
The $5.95 cards were purchased at Safeway, so no shipping fee was paid.
I am simply looking at the numbers you posted above. Every purchase price you identified includes a $10.95 shipping fee. If the shipping fee is constant, then how can the cost per card not be less if you buy larger quantities? I am still confused.
My bad! For some reason I thought you were commenting on today’s MS report. Ignore my previous response. GCM charges a $10.95 shipping fee on orders over $2,000. Weird, right? Normally shipping is waived on bigger orders. I stick to $1,500 in order to have even numbered credit cards (i.e. $500 each) and avoid the $10.95 shipping fee.
Aha – that makes a difference.
That said, yesterday I placed an order for $1500 and there was a $10.95 shipping fee on it. How do I avoid this?
Click on the shipping drop-down. The $10.95 might have been the default and all you have to do is choose the free option.
Thx!
My $1500 orders don’t have receipts with them. I use the receipt for tracking cards with orders. My solution is to purchase a different card design with each order, which can be tracked with the website, but shouldn’t GCM be including receipts with the order?
I do the same! It’s so annoying because they give you an order number via email, then they ship you the cards and pack a receipt with a non-matching invoice number. Not helpful.
@teriross – As you add cards to your shopping cart, the shipping fee is triggered when your order exceeds $1999. If you later remove cards from your cart to get below the $1999 limit, the shipping fee is not automatically removed.
As Ariana mentioned, if the shipping fee option has been enabled, you must manually change the shipping method (assuming your order total is $1999 or less)