One of the most frequent questions that came up during my manufactured spending webinar was where to buy Visa gift cards with a credit card. Buying and liquidating PIN-enabled Visa gift cards is an essential part of manufactured spending. It’s pretty much the only thing I do to earn miles these days, outside of the occasional credit card sign-up bonus.
There are lots of places to buy Visa gift cards with a credit card, depending on how much you want to spend and/or the type of credit card you’re using. Below is a roundup of merchants you should check out:
Visa Gift Cards at Simon Mall
Simon Mall sells Visa gift cards in $500 increments for $3.95. Once a year, usually around the holidays, Simon Mall waives the $3.95 Visa gift card fee altogether. If you’re a Simon Mall VIP member (i.e. you’ve given them your email address), they’ll send email updates when this sale happens.
Visa Gift Cards at Giftcards.com
Giftcards.com is a great place to buy Visa gift cards if you 1.) are crunched for time and 2.) want to reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. Many cash back portals, including Yazing and TopCashBack, offer cash back at Giftcards.com.
My preference in Yazing, which pays out faster and does a better job of tracking. I’ve never once had an issues with order tracking through Yazing. A few readers have complained to be about TopCashBack.
A $2,500 gift card purchase will cost you a total of $17.20 when you factor in all fees and 1% cash back from Yazing. In other words, you’ll spend $6.88 per $1,000.
Visa Gift Cards at Gas Stations
Many gas stations sell Visa gift cards, but not all of them will accept credit cards as payment. It’s always worth a try especially since you an earn up to $6 points per $1 with certain credit cards. So the next time you’re at your local 7-11, see if you can pay for a Metabank-issued Visa gift card with a mile-earning credit card.
Visa Gift Cards at Grocery Stores
Grocery stores, most notably Safeway and some Walmart stores, carry Metabank-issued Visa gift card in increments of up to $500. These will usually set you back $4.95 each. Those fees are higher than Simon Mall and Giftcards.com, but if you’re earning upwards of 6x points from credit card category bonuses, it may be worth paying.
Grocery stores often run promotions on Visa gift cards, like the Just 4 U cash back deal or gas rewards bonuses. These promotions can help off-set gift card fees entirely, or the value of the extra points can exceed the fees.
Visa Gift Cards at Office Supply Stores
Office supply stores like Office Max and Staples are ideal places to buy Visa gift cards, thanks to 5x category bonuses from cards like the old Chase Ink Plus. The down side? Visa gift cards sold at office supply stores usually come in increments of up to $300 and carry a fee of $8.95.
If you’re earning 5x points through your credit card, this still works out cheaper than buying gift cards at Simon Mall. Office Max often runs rebate promotions on Visa gift card purchases, which helps off-set card fees completely.
Visa Gift Cards at Drugstores
Drugstores like CVS sell Vanilla Visa gift cards, which are hard to liquidate. You used to be able to liquidate them via money orders purchased at the US Post Office. The post office began restricting the use of Visa gift cards, so that’s no longer an option.
I’ve never tried to use a Vanilla Visa gift cards anywhere else, but if you’re aware of any places that accept them, please share in the comment section.
There are other places to buy Visa gift cards, including GiftCardMall. However, I haven’t been able to get a GCM order approved in years. I know lots of other people have had the same issue. If you’re not one of these people, then it’s worth keeping an eye out for Gift Card Mall promotions that basically pay you to earn miles.
Where do you buy most of your Visa gift cards? Are there any sources you’re aware of that belong on this list?
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Thanks for the info! With regards to ordering from giftcards.com what is the maximum amount of $500 cards you can order without raising red flags?
What is the best way to purchase visa cards to get the lowest cost per point? I use $300 visa cards from Staples since I get 5X points from using chase business ink. Is there a cheaper way?
Vanilla Visa gift cards can be used to buy money orders at my grocery store.
Macerich Malls 3X per year Visa fee free. 6 days in a row, $2.5 max per day. Those three promos give Wife & I 135K UR using FU. Almost enough UR for 6 nights @ Hyatt all-inclusive Cancun or Jamaica.
@david. When you buy from macerich and using a chase card your getting 1x?
FU is Freedom Unlimited which is 1.5x. They just ran the promotion 2 weeks back.
I had no idea that Simon Mall waived gift card fees during the holidays. I’ll have to look out for that. I’ve never heard of Walmart being included as a grocery store category. Many cc’s specifically indicate that Walmart and Target do not count as grocery stores. In addition to Office Max offering discounts, Staples frequently runs promotions where you can get a $15-20 Visa gift card for purchasing $300 in gift cards. That more than offsets the fees.
Staples is one per person per household? Has anyone found a work around?
I’ve seen reports that topcash back has been giving 2% back for GC.com & GC mall. Going to Simon mall is better. You can buy much more compared to ordering online and waiting for gift cards. Giving up the 1 or 2% is worth it imo.
@david. When you buy from macerich and using a chase card your getting 1x?
Where did you see these reports on TopCB giving 2% of Visa GCs? They give 2% on merchant cards.
Flyer talk has data points.
For several months, I’ve been getting 2% back via tcb, through gcm for custom photo vgc’s (@ 500 each — keeping my volume low though.). 1% though for gc.com. (though it’s a heck of a lot easier doing business with gc.com than gcm)
1.5% w/ Freedom Unlimited. Last year we concentrated on the Macerich promo using our 2X Wyndham cards in anticipation of booking the new Wyndham Grand Barbados scheduled to open in 2018. Now it has been pushed back to 2019 so we’re sitting on 300K pts. which is good for 20 nights. Next Macerich promo is in October.
Do you have the exact date? Are you on an email distribution list for these promotions?
Like your strategy David — through rather amazing you were able to do such volume at Macerich. Have a hunch some replies here dropped off…. Any updates, David? October is nearly over. (yet I’d posted separately that indeed there’s usually a Macerich promo like this in mid Oct. to early Nov.
Wife & I both take advantage of Macerich during fee free VGC’s. That’s $5K per day. Haven’t heard of upcoming Fee free but anticipate very soon based on past promos.
David, any update on the promo week? I haven’t seen anything, maybe missed it?
Thank you – helpful info!
I also hope you would touch on the subject of disposing the cards you buy after converting them into MOs . From your posts I can see that you do relatively high volume (at least did for a while) – so, do you put MOs that you buy with GCs into one bank account or into several?
On one hand, putting into several seems like structuring, yet putting into one might draw unwanted attention from this bank. How do you deal with this dilemma?
Keep your main bank separate from where you deposit the money orders. I put other things into the account where the money orders go, and use their debit card too. I just use one local bank.
I also vary the deposit amounts and always try and keep them under $5K.
I know several 7-11s which still allow GC purchases with CC but while the purchases coded as “gas” last year with Amex, they stopped. You seem to say otherwise. Would be curious which cards/geos still code these as gas…
I like GC.com but waiting for them to ship is annoying as I don’t like to float more than $4k at a time. I am in the Northeast (and not near any Simons sadly) so if I want to buy in person I go to Stop & Shop. Any other suggestions are welcome.
Try gift card mall. I use to buy from both websites.
@JUSTIN…did you double check Simon locations. It’s not just malls. They have outlet store locations in the Northeast. My go-to is also S&S. Can’t beat the $15 – $20 VGC coupons & V/MC gas point promos. 4x gas points starting tomorrow w/ MC @ S&S..
There are still a few PO that accept vanilla MO. Some don’t but is different among different PO fairly close to each other in my area.
Thanks for the updates!
Giftcards.com just charged me 6.95 per 500 and 7.95 to ship for 2ea. $500 card for $21.95 in costs, less 1% through the portal is ($10), making my cost $11.95 for those two cards. How are you getting yours for less than I am paying when I go through Yazing also.
BYRON What credit card are you using? How many points total are you getting for your purchase?
Going through Yazing to giftcard.com Using a Barclay Arrival Plus card that gets 2x points.
I use the $300 visa from the staples site using my chase business ink to get 5X points. To me this is the best way to get the most points for the least amount of money. Am I missing something?
James your method is best for convenience. Not very cost effective.
BRIAN What is the most cost effective method? In detail.
thanks
Have been stop buying from giftcard.com since the rebate was down to 1%. As long as their Visa sales drops, the rebate rate would be going up as normal.
@Byron
You need to purchase the full $2500 per order in order to maximize the return.
Buy 4 x 500 and 1 465.25. For 1 or 2 cars, simply use the 1.99 first class mail.
GC.com never shows me a 1.99 option for shipping.
It’s $1.99 per card. It only makes sense if you’re buying 3 or fewer cards.
I meant 1 or 2 cards.
I live in Dallas, Texas and no Simon outlet near me. Also, including Walmart, no place in this area will sell money orders for gift cards with PINs.
I just bought $30k in GC and converted into MOs in Dallas last week while on a business trip. I found Dallas to be easier than most places I’ve traveled to.
Elmer where did you buy them? Where did you turn them into MO? What credit card did you use? How many points did you get? What was your final cost per point?
I’ll just post all my cc receipts online for you, OK? Maybe I can draw some circles and arrows too. Geez…
LOL!
There are 3 SImon malls in the Dallas metroplex – maybe not right in your back yard, but only a short drive. You can purchase $10k at each. There are lots of WMs in the area – I hit 3 that all worked for MOs on the way back to my hotel. Made for a simple trip. I hit two minimum spends, a retention bonus on two Citi cards, and the rest on SPG for transfers. You can do the math.
I am just really new at this….Once you buy the GC how are you converting them back to cash? I’m sorry for the question
I think the cheapest method is through Yazing or TopCashback.
Step 1. Get an account with Yazing and TopCashback
Step 2. Open and acount with giftcards.com and one with giftcardsmall.com
Step 3. Go to topcash or yazing and sign in. Then click gift cards. Look for the 1% cashback. Click.
Step 3a. Your browser should open to the site you selected. I will guess Giftcards.com
Step 4. Select Visa gift cards.
Step 5. Pick something plain.
Step 6. Put your name on it and my suggestion is put a digit representing how much you are putting on the card. If I do $500, I put a 5 next to my name. If $450, I put 45. Once you get a passle of gift cards in the mail, it is nice to know how much you put on each one.
Step 6. Order the cards.
Step 7. They arrive. You activate them on the giftcard site and by phone.
Step 7a. If by phone giftcards.com tells you that you do not need a pin. Don’t worry, you do. It is the last 4 digits on the card.
Go to Walmart and then Money serviices. Tell them you would like a money order. (You prefer to do these for $999.30 and pay for the money order with the transaction. Tell them it will be two swipes of $500, or whatever 2 cards you want to swipe, or 1 card if that is all you have.
Step 8. Take money order to the bank and deposit.. Very important, Very Important. Do not deposit the money orders in the same bank you used the credit card to buy the money orders. If you do, just write stupid on your head. Similarly, do not do bill pay at Walmart.
Good luck
Wow! Seems easy enough to execute. Thanks for the direction. I trying this asap!
Thank you for explaining, Byron! I love when my readers help each other out.
@ BYRON Is there a reason why you can’t use the MO to pay off the credit card at the same bank? How would it be traced?
Is this the easiest way to MS now that most other methods (i.e. redbird and serve) are gone?
What are some great resources people use to discover new MS techniques?
Thanks!
I use them to buy money orders, deposit those into my bank account, then use the balance to pay off credit cards.
Elmer. Ok thanks. Now I get it.
And place in ATLANTA you can buy Gift cards with CC ??????
What about gobank. I read a post you could load it with Visa cards at walmart. is that true?
Y’all asking for way to much sauce lol
Hey guys, quick question about buying the money orders. Is there any benefit to depositing the money order into your bank account, vs cashing it at walmart and then depositing the cash into your bank account? I’ve read warning about depositing too many MOs into your Bank account.
Also, If I buy a money order at walmart, should I take it to another walmart to cash? Is there any issues here? I haven’t done MS in a while, the last time I bought the Vanilla cards from CVS and bought MOs from the post office, but I see this isn’t an option anymore.
Hey
I am searching a blog about it and finally got. Thanks for written some informative and helpful article here .It’s a good tips about Sell Walmart Gift Card. I am learning lot of things here your tips and interested more about it.
I knew a site which is lot of help of the topics Sell Walmart Gift Card .
I hope more article share in future.Really it’s a amazing written here.
Warm Regards
James Manik
Meijer gives you a cash refund when returning purchases made with a debit card.
So, just purchase item(s) at Meijer using the Visa or Mastercard gift card. RUN AS DEBIT when paying – NOT CREDIT. VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU RUN AS DEBIT DEBIT DEBIT. Then go back later and return item(s).
I return minutes after purchasing – I barely walk outside. If asked (never have been asked after dozens of times) just say you realized on the way to the car that you got the wrong one.
Easy breezy
So as I read if I am right you can purchase a gift card with a credit card and give it to someone and they can get the cash back am I correct on this ?
You don’t give the gift card to anyone – you just use it to buy a money order, then deposit that and pay off your credit card.
I am trying to earn enough points on my american express but have to spend at least 1k per month looking for a way to do this and get my money back at the same time but in the legal way can anyone help me out !!
Lol! I love the inclusion of “legal way.” All of this is legal and $1k per month is a cake walk. Have you tried buying from Giftcards.com or GiftCard Mall?
I just got my first GC from Safeway. (the one shown in your picture). When i opened it, I don’t see any metallic pin on it unlike the metal pin you see on a regular debit card. 1. Were you mentioning metallic pin or a virtual pin? 2. Should I register this card on giftcardmall.com? 3. Should I set a pin online on giftcardmall.com? (The site and setting pin was mentioned on the back of the card package. 4. When i goto WM, will I need to swipe or insert the card followed by entering the pin number? What about the experience a Safeway? I am just confused with what you exactly meant by pin and hoping I didn’t get the wrong card? Please let me know. Thanks
The PIN is usually the last four digits of the card. It’s what you type in when prompted during the money order purchase.
I went to Giant, WM and Safeway yesterday. None accepted my card for what ever reason.