Buy Discount Gift Cards With Reward Credit Cards And Save Money

By MoneyBlueBook

One of the ways to maximize your money is by taking advantage of the higher cash back credit card rewards that many reward credit cards offer for purchases made at special bonus reward locations that include - supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations. What some people might not realize is that many, if not most of these three brick and mortar locations also sell gift cards that can be used towards other major retailers - everything from places like Home Depot to Bed Bath & Beyond. By buying these retail gift cards at the bonus reward locations, cardholders have the potential to earn up to 5% or more cash back through credit card discounts and rebates through a process that's essentially a mild form of gift credit card arbitrage.

Purchase Gift Cards At Rebated Prices And Use Them At Places Like Department Stores, Restaurants, and Online Retail Websites

While there is a multitude of specialized reward credit cards out there (everything from airline credit cards to restaurant credit cards) offering all sorts of credit card offers and usage perks, the majority of these rebate cards reserve the highest cash back percentages for purchases made at what I'd like to call "the big three" - supermarkets, gas stations, and drug stores. Credit card terms do vary, but they usually offer much lower rebate rates (usually 1% back) for everyday purchases made at non "big-three" locations like department stores, clothing shops, restaurants, and online stores.

The trick to earning the maximum reward percentages even when

By MoneyBlueBook

As I mentioned in an earlier entry posted a few months ago about myself, I own an African Grey Parrot as a pet. I've had him for several years now and although I wish he were better trained with more docile tendencies, he's still a pretty adorable little guy. When he's not hanging from his bird gym or busy grinding his wooden chew toys into grated wood chips, he enjoys whistling and mimicking speech.

He's also a voracious eater, consuming and tossing around quiet a few scoopfuls of his favorite brand of nutritious Kaytee brand pellets everyday. Every 1-2 months I used to buy a new bag of somewhat pricey bird food to replace his dwindling supply, but lately I've chosen to do a different approach. Rather than buying smaller bags of food from Petsmart or Petco each time and paying a higher cost per serving unit, I've decided to go for bulk and order online.

Finding Deals and Purchasing Pet Food Online

Initially I considered buying bulk bird pellet sacks from my neighborhood pet stores but after browsing around I noticed that their selections were pretty limited as most mainstream brick and mortar stores catered to more popular animal breeds such as cats and dogs. Even dedicated bird stores seemed to not have in stock the bulk pallets that I wanted. Thankfully, there is much more one can find on the internet as the online selection is much more broad. After doing some price comparison shopping among the popular online pet stores, I finally settled

By MoneyBlueBook

Is it just me or is there something very wrong when you have to spend money to buy what is essentially the some denomination as money? Because that's basically what people are doing when they buy gift cards and are required to pay a purchase fee.

Personally, I have no problem with buying or giving gift cards as a presents. Gift cards are more flexible than the usual pre-chosen gift since the recipient theoretically has the option to determine how best to spend it. But therein lies the limitation and fallacy of the flexibility of gift cards. They're actually not as versatile and unrestricted as people may think they are. Since most gift cards are only good towards the particular store they were purchased for, they are limited to that one location.

Gift Cards Impose Limits and Purchase Fees

If I receive a Starbucks gift card for example, I am limited to using it at a Starbucks store, even if I prefer the coffee drinks served at the Caribou coffee shop next door. What if I'm not even a coffee drinker? Then what am I supposed to do with this extra card? End up selling it on eBay for a price less than face value like so many gift card holders end up doing? Truthfully, having the gift card actually limits my options.

One of the most frustrating aspects of gift cards is the upfront purchase expense required. If you want to buy a $25 gift card for your friend, think you're paying $25 for it?

By MoneyBlueBook

I went to gradate school in the run down city of Baltimore, Maryland. I used to joke with my friends that more people in Baltimore City owned and carried around designer Louis Vuitton handbags than in any other city in the world. When I went to school there it seemed like every corner near the city courthouse had a vendor hawking fake designer brand products like Prada, Coach, and even Polo Ralph Lauren. Most of the merchandise were no doubt fakes - cheaply made knock offs made in countries like China, a country known for its lax efforts in stopping piracy in the marketplace.

I want to focus my analysis on the Lacoste designer clothing brand line. Companies like Lacoste spend a great deal of investment on brand building and quality control. However, with the prevalence of overseas sweatshops and people buying Lacoste clothing online, fake knockoffs have been spreading through the internet marketplace like wildfire and many buyers are unwittingly ending up with fakes. While a genuine Lacoste polo shirt can cost an average of $60-75 per shirt, buyers of fakes are frequently getting ripped off for shoddy products worth substantially less. Whether it makes any sense to pay so much for a mere polo shirt is another matter. The fact is, buyers have to be able to ensure they are getting the high end quality product they are paying top dollar for.

Unlike authentic Lacoste clothing, fakes and knock offs simply don't wear and feel like the real thing. Sometimes it's easy to spot the

By MoneyBlueBook

I'm a lazy guy. I'm also not a very big shopper. This combination tends to work against me when I have to buy presents for others during the Christmas holiday shopping season. Some people are easy to shop for but for others, it's an ordeal trying to figure out what to give them.

Sometimes I just want to take the easy, effortless route by dolling out cash to the masses. But I think most people are still very traditional and find the idea of giving out plain old cash very distasteful. This is how the marketing braniacs came up with gift cards. The way these businesses promote gift cards is quite brilliant since they've managed to convince many that giving a gift card means something more than just giving out cash, and that somehow the gift cards can convey the message of "I love you" better than cash ever could. But essentially, they are the same as cash except they don't carry the same gifting stigma. I know some people find gift cards and gift certificates to be tacky and unoriginal, but the cards do serve a useful purpose and in fact, I myself sometimes prefer gift cards over receiving an actual present.

Cash Is Best, But Gift Cards and Gift Certificates Are The Next Best Thing

Who doesn't like cash? It's the most versatile gift since you can do whatever you want with it - use it, spend it, save it, hide it, earn interest on it. One of the problems with receiving regular conventional gifts

By MoneyBlueBook

I have a friend who recently got married in an arranged marriage according to his traditional Indian culture. Because it was an arranged marriage organized by family members without the benefit of prior dating, the bride and groom are still getting to know each other. After only a few weeks of marriage, there are already a few wrinkles he is starting to learn about his new wife.

She Likes To Have Expensive Things To Show Off

My friend's wife enjoys material possessions, and not necessarily for the right reasons. She wants to buy expensive things not because she needs it, but because she sees them as status symbols and items that need to be possessed so they can better rival other couples.

Recently his wife asked him to buy her a brand new large 42 inch plasma television. Now that's a very big TV. However, since coming to this country from India only a few weeks since the marriage, she has yet to turn on or even watch any of the existing television sets in their house. Yet somehow she suddenly wants to acquire a premium, top of the line model. Her reason? Because everyone else in the neighborhood owns a nice large flat screen and so she wants one too. They currently already own three pre-existing CRT televisions sets. Neither of them have a history of watching much television to begin with and they don't even have cable television service because they don't use it. Her sudden impulse to want to own a large expensive flat