Raise.com is a marketplace for buying and selling second-hand gift cards. They’ve now launched Raise Cash Back, a platform to buy brand new gift cards in exact denominations and earn cash back.
It’s similar to the United MPX app which earns miles on first-hand gift card purchases, except that with Raise you’ll earn Raise Cash back which can be used toward a future Raise.com purchase. Within the Raise app, look for the Raise Pay tab. Raise Pay is not available on the web, only in the app, but after making the purchase you can see the gift card in your web account under My Orders, and the bar code is viewable both in-app and in your account history too.
The Raise Cash earned can be used on any future Raise purchases, whether a first-hand card or a regular Raise.com second-hand card purchase. It’ll come off automatically on the checkout screen, whether you checkout in-app or on the web. (You can only make first-hand Raise Pay purchases in-app, but you use your Raise Cash with an app purchase or a web purchase.)
Dozens of brands are available to purchase with Raise Pay, top brands include Home Depot, Best Buy, Gamestop, and more. The Raise Cashback rate varies by the brand. Here’s a partial list (as of today):
- Home Depot 1.5%
- Best Buy 2%
- Hotels.com 6.5%
- Bed Bath & Beyond 3%
- Gamestop 6.5%
- Stubhub 2%
- Petco 3%
- Bath & Body Works 5%
- Ulta 5%
- Domino’s 6%
- Groupon 4%
- Dunkin Donuts 1%
- Under Armour 6%
- Royal Caribbean 10%
- Office Depot 7%
- Krispy Kreme 10%
- Atom Tickets 7%
- Find dozens more and their current cashback rates in the Raise Pay tab within the Raise app
Payment is with all regular Raise payment methods, including credit card, Paypal, and Apple/Samsung/Google Pay.
Currently, I see somewhere around 75 brands, hopefully Raise will build that out over time. Some of the brands like Home Depot have a $25 minimum while others like Gamestop have a minimum of just $5. So long as you are above their minimum, you can typically specify an exact denomination you choose to buy which is nice for making a purchase without leaving anything over. Unfortunately, with Best Buy you can’t specify a denomination – only $25, $50, and $100 is available.
Overall, this can be a useful tool to keep in your arsenal. Not great earning rates on top brands like Home Depot and Best Buy, but better than nothing, and for resellers or businesses making large purchases these small discounts can add up. We’ve added Raise Pay to our Complete List of Methods to Buy Gift Cards with Discounts and Bonus Rewards.
I wish they offered restuarant food protection… if I can’t keep it down… I get a CC refund!!😁 John 3:16
I also got an email for a promo for 10% extra back in raise cash for gifting a card through raise pay. I imagine you could just use a different email address and get 10% more back.
It seems like you get a better deal using their marketplace + stacking.
Best Buy doesn’t let you specify an amount, only $25, $50, and $100 denoms, which is frustrating when you want to make a larger purchase. I didn’t notice any other brands that don’t let you manually select an exact amount.
Ah, bummer, I see that now. The max $100 denom is even a bigger hit than the fact that you can’t specify. Let me add a note.
Raise normally has good portal options. This will be nice for eBay cards as they are often not available on 3rd party sites.
Let me add a note about the portal. Edit: actually, I don’t think a portal will work since it’s app-only.
This will be fantastic for my reselling activities. Even 2-3% saved is a few thousands of dollars over an year.
Isn’t it better to just buy them off the Raise market place at a higher discount then?
isn’t this the same as SPENT and RetailMeNot and other apps who are already doing the same thing? Maybe DoC can do a comparison review on these cb gc deals?
I personally don’t see the draw here. Obviously most people are buying gift card for the discount but how does 1-10% cash back justify the loss of return protection from using a credit card for purchase? Sure the average consumer probably doesn’t understand the importance of credit card protection warranty policy but it seems pretty sly for companies to try to shift consumer shopping habit by giving incentive to minimally discounted gc
It often makes sense for resellers and businesses. We have a complete list of such options, like Spent, MPX, etc, linked at the end of the post.
Thank you for the comparisons.
Do you need return protection for every item you purchase? I agree for expensive or easy breakeable items, but there are plenty items where i gladly take 10% off.
Krispy Kreme, Petco? Yes I get it.
Best Buy and Home Depot? I would think again.
Again it does make sense to get discount on small items but I don’t see how Raise will … rise … above the market when there are other platforms that do the same thing and in same way better.
“how does 1-10% cash back justify the loss of return protection from using a credit card for purchase?”
In all my 49 years circling the sun I’ve never once taken advantage of a credit card’s return protection. If I could get 1-10% more cash back on all the spending I’ve done in my lifetime I’d no longer need to worry about getting rewards again.
For most cards, can’t you use your card for only some portion of the purchase to get the extra year added on to the original warranty up to $10,000?
I’ve used return protection, but it’s usually only good for purchases between $250 and $500 (depending on the card), and only lasts a few months anyway. Good in specific situations where you know ahead of time you may return the item outside the store’s return window, and it’s not a large heavy item (high return shipping costs), and you only spend a few hundred dollars, etc.
Frustrating as a reseller because there was no pre-announcement. Fortunately (for resellers) most of these cards are priced way above market rate.