Even if you don’t believe in giving gift cards as gifts – which puts you in the minority – you should still be buying gift cards right now. Why?

Because you can use them to buy Christmas presents and SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% off the bat. If you DONT buy discounted gift cards to buy Christmas presents, you are spending more money than you need to. Think of discounted gift cards as another layer of savings on top of promo codes, cash back rebates, free shipping offers, and credit card rewards.

Here’s how to save even more money with discounted gift cards.

 

My favorite discounted gift card site de jour is Cardpool.com. I’ve recently bought four gift cards at 9% and 10% off from Cardpool. The site is easy to use and has a 100 day guarantee for all the cards they sell.

In addition to being secure and legit, the site has a handy feature that lets you sign up for email alerts when a gift card for a specific store has come into stock. (Gifts cards for highly desired stores like Amazon or Marshall’s sell out within minutes – I know because it took me four attempts to finally land a Marshall’s gift card!) It’s called Wishlist and I’d recommend buying the gift card you want within seconds of receiving an email alert – from your mobile if you have to. They sell that quickly! As soon as you buy the gift card you want, just uncheck that retailer and you won’t receive email alerts about them anymore.

You have to register with your email on the site to create a wish list and receive gift card email alerts, but since doing so I have not received any spam email from Cardpool.

Tip: If you are buying gift cards to give as gifts, pick stores that sell a wide variety of items so the recipient can truly use the gift card on something they want. 

Here are the gift cards I recently bought:

• CVS – We fill our prescriptions at CVS and pick up whatever toiletries we need there – it’s the only drugstore within a 5 mile radius so there’s not a lot of competition, unfortunately. This makes it even more worthwhile to make our CVS purchases with a discounted gift card.
• Home Depot – The $100 gift card I bought at a 9% discount is already spent. We used it to replace a storm door that had been broken for two years. Finally crossed that one off my home repairs list!
• Starbucks – This one will be a holiday gift for someone special.
• Marshall’s – Where I do most of my shopping for clothes, workout gear, home decor, and misc items, like sheets. There is not great shopping near me, with the exception of this Marshall’s near me. As a bonus, the gift card I bought at 10% off can also be used at TJ Maxx and Home Goods.

For creative ways to wrap gift cards, we have plenty of ideas!

Do you plan to buy discounted gift cards to use to purchase Christmas and holiday gifts?

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