Buy Gift Cards for up to 30% Off with Gift Card Granny

Gift Card Granny describes themselves as the “Google of Gift Cards.  Gift Card Granny is a gift card exchange site that connects buyers and sellers of discounted gift cards. We don’t ship or sell any gift cards ourselves… instead, we do the research for you, which saves you both time and money.”

Gift Card Granny lists these merchants on their website (quantities updated daily).

I’m sure you have heard of some of those companies (especially eBay), and what makes Gift Card Granny great is how they check every site for the gift cards you want.

Watch me as I buy a Subway gift card. I start typing “Subway” into the search box and it gives me the option to buy, sell, or check my balance.  I click the buy link.

This is the default view for buying gift cards.  Its sorted smallest to largest by card value.

I click the Seller tab so the cards are sorted by seller.  In this case, there are 3 different sellers: ABC Gift Cards, eBay (auctions only), and Raise.

On the right side, there are similar options to narrow down your choices.  One thing that is interesting is the eCode gift cards sold by Raise.com.  Since you can transfer balances between Subway Gift Cards, this digital gift card could come in handy if I needed the gift card right away.

Since I do not need the gift card right away, I am looking for the largest discount.  eBay usually has the largest discounts, but you have to bid and win the auction.  Not a problem for me.  I recommend buying eBay Gift Cards at your local supermarket with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card to get 6% cash back on your purchase.  To learn how, read Get $435 Cash Back from Supermarkets or More.

Since I get 6% cash back on eBay Gift Cards, along with 2% cash back with eBay Bucks, I could buy Subway Gift Cards on eBay at face value and still come out ahead.  Click the Shop button to go directly to the eBay auction.

Before bidding, make sure to check out the shipping price and what the seller’s (lack of) feedback looks like.  In this case, since the current price is $13 + $2.07 for shipping is more than the $15 face value and the seller has 0 feedback, I will pass on this card.

Here is another Subway Gift Card.  The sellers feedback is ok, not great, but the current price plus free shipping looks good to me.  In this case, I will be $15.01 and win 99% of the time.

I’m currently the highest bidder with a bid of $15.01.  If someone wants this Subway Gift Card more than me, they will have to bid $15.51 or higher.  I have a good chance of winning this card.

The next Subway Gift Card looks just as good so I bid $15.01 as well.

In a shocking turn of events, my $15.01 bid was not high enough, so I am going to let this go.

Another Subway Gift Card that looks promising.  I bid $15.01 for this card too.

I’m the highest bidder on this card too.  I could do this all day, but I’m sure you get the point.

After a few hours of waiting, I won 3 Subway Gift Cards from the same seller for $45.14.

I enter my eBay gift card and it covers the entire balance.  Save your gift cards until you are 100% sure you have used every cent of your gift card.  And even then, just keep the gift cards – they don’t take up much space.

Now for the calculations:

• 6% cash back on $50 eBay gift cards = $3.00
• 2% cash back in eBay Bucks = $0.90
• Overpaid for face value of gift cards = -$0.14
• $3.76 profit / $45.14 gift cards = 8.33% discount on Subway Sandwiches :)

My 8.33% discount is larger than the 5% discount on gift cards I could have purchased through Gift Card Granny.  I also noticed Subway Gift Cards at Office Max so I could have used my Ink Bold Card to get 5 Ultimate Reward Points per dollar. 

I am an eBay Power Seller, so if you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

UPDATE 3/21/2014 at 6:30PM PST: The exchange rate between Hawaiian Airlines and Hilton HHonors is now 1:1.5, instead of the previous 1:2 ratio.  Same goes for Virgin Atlantic to Hilton HHonors.  All the steps below remain the same.

Exchange Hawaiian Airline Miles for Hilton HHonor Points

Related post: Hilton HHonors: Transfering Miles from Hawaiian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic take between 7-11 Days to Post

Why would you want to move Hawaiian Airline miles into Hilton HHonor points?  Because 1 Hawaiian Airline mile becomes 2 Hilton HHonor points.  Read on to find out how.

If you are like me (a very scary thought), you have a pile of Hawaiian Airline miles sitting in your account.  Wouldn’t you rather have Hilton HHonor points in your account so you could book a free hotel stay?  The easiest way to get Hawaiian Airline miles is to open a Bank of American Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card and the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card.  (Unfortunately, there is currently no working link to apply for these cards as of June 10, 2013).

Assuming you have Hawaiian Airlines miles in your account, how do to move them them to your Hilton HHonors account?  First things first, you need at least 5,000 Hawaiian Airline miles in your account.  To keep all your frequent flyer miles and other loyalty programs in one place, you need Award Wallet.  Read What is Award Wallet?

One of the best things about Award Wallet is the auto-login feature.  Just click the loyalty program you want and it will automatically log you into that account.

I currently have 29,916 Hawaiian Airline miles in my account.  Like I said earlier, you need at least 5,000 Hawaiian Airline miles to do a transfer to your Hilton HHonors account.

On the left hand side, click Redeem Miles

Scroll down and select Ground Partners:

Scroll down and you will see the Transfer Miles section.  Click the contact HawaiianMiles Service Center link.

Click the call Hawaiian Miles Service Center link.

The contact number for the HawaiianMiles Service Center is 1-877-HA-MILES or 1-877-426-4537.

Their hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 7AM to 4:30PM HST (Hawaiian Standard Time) which is +3 hours from PST (10AM to 7:30PM PST) and +6 hours from EST (1PM to 10:30PM EST).

During the call, press option 3 for HawaiianMiles Service Center and enter your 9-digit Hawaiian Airlines account number.  When you get connected to a representative, tell them that you want to transfer miles to your Hilton HHonors account.  Give them the number of Hawaiian Airline miles (increments of 5,000) and your Hilton HHonors account number.  The names on both accounts must match for the transfer to go smoothly.  At the end of the call, you should be able to refresh your account balance and see the deduction instantly.

The representative said the transfer takes 1-2 weeks to complete.  The transfer began on June 10 and I will update this post on the date the points show up in my Hilton HHonors account.  Refresh your Award Wallet balances, you should see the change in your Hawaiian Airlines account balance.

Related post: Hilton HHonors: Transfering Miles from Hawaiian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic take between 7-11 Days to Post.  I transferred 25,000 Hawaiian Airline miles out June 10 and the 50,000 Hilton HHonors points posted to my account on June 20, so it took 10 days for the transfer.

 

UPDATE: 9/13/2013

I transfer 35,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles on 9/2/2013…

…and the Hilton points posted on 9/12/2013 (exactly 10 days after, just like the above example).

 

What do you do with 1 to 4,999 Hawaiian Airline miles?

At this point, you have 3 options:

1. Keep you Hawaiian Airline miles in your account.
2. Transfer your Hawaiian Airline miles to another Hawaiian Airline miles account.
3. Transfer your Hawaiian Airline miles to another frequent flyer program.

Option 1: Keep you Hawaiian Airline miles in your account.

If you fly Hawaiian Airlines frequently, this is your best bet.  I wish I flew to Hawaii frequently enough to chose option 1, but I don’t.  You can also credit flights from ANA, Delta, JetBlue, Korean Air, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia (see details here).

Option 2: Transfer your Hawaiian Airline miles to another Hawaiian Airline miles account.

On the left hand side, click Redeem Miles then click Share Miles

Click the Share Now button.

Before you transfer the Hawaiian Airline miles to anyone, read the terms at the top of the page. The person you transfer miles to has to have a Hawaiian Airlines credit card.  If they do not, please read option 3 below.

 

Option 3: Transfer your Hawaiian Airline miles to another frequent flyer program.

This option requires you to use Points.com.  You can create a free account here.

I recommend adding all the frequent flyer accounts you have that you have frequent flyer miles in that account.  Most importantly, add your Hawaiian Airlines account.  My Points.com account has 10 different frequent flyer accounts.  Click the exchange link for your Hawaiian Airlines account.

I select “move out of a program,” select Hawaiian Airlines, enter 4,916 miles, and click the search now button.

The first thing you will see is where you can trade miles with other Points.com members.  The first choice says if I trade 3,000 Hawaiian Airline miles plus pay $30 I can get 1,000 United miles.  This is one of the worst ways to move miles since the prices are very high.  Scroll past this section.

The bottom “exchange” section is where I look to move frequent flyer miles from one account into another frequent flyer program.  As you can see, all the exchanges require a minimum move of 5,000 Hawaiian Airline miles.

So if I can’t move 4,916 Hawaiian Airline miles out, how about moving 84 Hawaiian Airline miles into my account?

Scroll past the trade miles section to avoid more bad deals.

There are several options in the exchange miles section.  Some exchanges are blocked because I do not have the minimum balance necessary.  If I had Amtrak Guest Reward points, La Quinta Return points, or US Airway miles I would use those.  But in my particular case, the only option I could do at this time is exchange 213 American Airline miles into 84 Hawaiian Airline miles.

If you did that exchange, this is what 5,000 Hawaiian Airline miles would get you.  Not much.

At this point, you could call up Hawaiian Airlines and ask them to transfer the 5,000 Hawaiian Airline miles into 10,000 Hilton HHonor points.  Any questions?

Which Credit Card Should I Get?

That is the age-old question.  There are so many credit cards out there that sometimes it can be difficult to figure out which credit card to get.  Should you get a cash back credit card? Should you get Chase Ultimate Reward Points or American Express Membership Reward Points?  Or should you get an American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, or United credit card?

Don’t worry.  Just tell me which cards you have, which cards you are thinking of getting, and how you want to use the points/miles.  I will be able to tell you which card(s) are best for your situation.  What do you have to lose?

If you are unfamiliar with Credit Karma or Credit Sesame, you can learn more here.  Just fill out the short form below and I will email you back shortly with my recommendations.