The global recession has changed our spending habits on virtually everything from the food we eat to the presents that we give during the holidays. Indeed, the popularity of cheap gift cards is now on the rise simply because of the consumers’ desire to achieve a good balance between saving money on presents and yet avoiding the label of Scrooge.
After all, gifts during special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones in life as well as holidays like Christmas and Valentines Day are expected by family and friends. But you don’t want to go down bankruptcy lane either. So, the best solution is to buy cheap gift cards as presents for your family and friends for whom the special occasion is dedicated.
The question then is: How do you get your hands on these gift cards? Cheap is as cheap goes, of course, but you must be picky about the types of cards that you choose to give. Here are some ingenious ways to get good quality but cheap gift cards.
Convert Reward Points
If you are a regular customer at a certain store, you can enroll in the store’s reward points program. Basically, a reward point is given for the purchase of products and services at a certain dollar amount. For example, you will be rewarded with 5 points for every $100 purchase of goods within the main store and in any of its branches.
When you have accumulated sufficient reward points, you can then convert the points to cheap gift cards. These cards are cheap for the simple reason that you did not pay an additional amount of money just to get their values.
Of course, your recipients need not know of such a fact. Just present the cheap gift cards inside an attractive envelope, write down a short and sweet note, and then give your gifts with a smile. Now, that should make anyone’s day.
Buy At a Discount
The most obvious way to get a cheap gift card is to buy it at a discount. There are two ways in which this is possible, as follows:
First, set up a network of family and friends who may be willing to exchange, buy and sell unwanted gift cards. Yes, you must be careful that the cheap gift cards you are trying to swap with them are not the same gift cards that you were given last month. It’s always a good idea to keep track of whom gave you want gift cards just to be on the safe side.
Where does the cheap come in this setup? Well, you get cheap gift cards because you spent no money on swapping the unwanted card with your desired one – now, that’s as cheap as you can get!
Second, go online and look for gift card exchange websites. These sites work by selling gift cards at discounted prices, meaning that the money you pay to buy a gift card is less than the face value of the card.
For example, you can buy cheap gift cards for a certain popular hardware store (ABC Shop) for a total of $100 but the face value of these cards amount to $115. When you use these gift cards to buy materials at ABC Shop, the cards’ total value will still be $115. You just saved $15 on your purchases.
Now, if you are giving these cheap gift cards as presents to family and friends, they can also avail of the cards’ face value when shopping. You, on the other hand, saved money on these highly discounted gift cards.
Indeed, with just a little research on your part, you can avail of cheap gift cards. You can use these either for your own consumption or as presents for your family and friends, all with thriftiness in mind.
