Review of Mygiftcardsplus – Site for Buying Brand New Gift Cards at a Discount

In December 2015, Swagbucks launched a site that sells brand-new gift cards at a small discount. It’s called Mygiftcardsplus.com.

Background

Swagbucks is a website with various ways of earning money in the form of ‘Swag Bucks’, including things like using their search engine, watching videos, or using their online shopping portal. Each Swag Buck is worth a penny, more on that below.

Around six months ago, they added a way of earning Swagbucks by purchasing electronic gift cards on their partner site Mygiftcardsplus.com. Over 100 gift card brands can be bought, including top brands like eBay, Hotels.com, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Groupon, Staples, Gametop, and much more. These are brand new gift cards, not second-hand cards.

The cash back amount earned on gift card purchases varies from as little as 1% to as much as 10%, or even more. All cash back goes into your Swagbucks account.

MyPoints Partnership

More recently, in November 2016 perhaps, they added the option of linking your MyPoints account to your Mygiftcardsplus account, and earning rewards there instead of earning them to Swagbucks.

The cashback amounts are virtually identical, but it’s useful to have another option for those who prefer dealing with MyPoints versus Swagbucks.

Go to My Account > Account Settings > My Rewards Currency to toggle between the two reward programs after accounts are both connected.

Discounts

Here are some examples of cash back deals on gift cards. These are all as of this writing, and they’ll certainly change over time.

• 2% back on eBay gift cards. Unfortunately, they now only sell $50 and $25 denominations.
• 2.4% back on GameStop gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $250.
• 4.5% back on Groupon gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $200.
• 3% back on Lowe’s gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $500.
• 2% back on Home Depot gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $500.
• 7.5% back on Zappos gift cards.
• 9% back on Land’s End gift cards.
• 7.8% back on Cabela’s.

Here are some travel options:

• 5.1% back on Hotels.com gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $200.
• 5.1% back on Hyatt gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $500.
• 3% back on Southwest gift cards. Denominations between $25 and $500.
• 10.2% back on Celebrity Cruises. Denominations between $50 and $250.

Here are some restaurant options:

• 6% back on Applebee’s.
• 5.4% back on Domino’s and Red Robin and IHOP.
• 4.2% back on Papa John’s.

Which Credit Card to Use?

You can pay with a credit card directly on the site or choose Paypal payment.

I tested out INK to see if it would earn 5x and it did not work. Not with direct payment and not with Paypal.

AT&T did earn 3x on the site with direct payment. (I’m pending on an experiment with Paypal payment so can’t say for certain that it will work. I’ll update in a few weeks.)

Miscellaneous Notes

• Mygiftcardsplus does not deliver the gift cards instantly. It seems to come the same or next business day. (Officially, they advertise that it will come within 1-2 business days.)
• They sent me a postcard in the mail to verify my address (I can’t remember if it came automatically or the option popped up in the account) with the promise that subsequent orders will come faster. I did send in the postcard, although I haven’t yet noticed a pickup in speed.
• Make sure to link your Swagbucks account to your Mygiftcardsplus account (system will prompt you to do so, I believe). You only have to do this once.
• No need to click through Swagbucks when making the gift card purchase – this is not a typical shopping portal experience. Since the gift card site is owned by Swagbucks, they’ll credit you so long as the accounts are linked.
• You should see the earned Swagbucks in your Swagbucks account within a day or two of the purchase.

Bonus Offers

Aside from the standard discounts offered by Mygiftcardsplus, they also have bonus deals that pop up now and then.

For example, during the month of June 2016, they are offering a bonus 100 Swagbucks (worth $1) for any purchase of eBay, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Groupon, or Sephora gift cards (single-use only, no minimum purchase required). This kind of deal comes up often, I think.

A few weeks ago they had a different offer to get back 25% on Nike gift cards.

What are Swagbucks Worth?

They are worth a minimum of 1¢ per-point as cash by using the Paypal redemption option. Beware that the name and email on the Swagbucks account has to match the Paypal account.

Another option is to redeem for gift cards like eBay, Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. Typically, these are 1¢ per-point redemptions, but they do often run sales on various gift cards (don’t hold your breath for this sale to come back). They also have a promotion to be able to get one $25 gift card per month (eBay, Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.) for just 2,200.

Swagbucks redemptions for Paypal and gift cards don’t come instantly – they say it can take a couple weeks. For me, it seems like the gift card redemptions come in a day. Not sure how long the Paypal option takes in practice.

We wrote about redeeming Swagbucks at greater length here.

Final Thoughts

As we know, there are numerous ways to purchase gift cards at a discount, and other ways might be better in many cases. For example, purchasing from Gyft or PPDG to get 5x with INK could be better. Or buying from a second-hand exchange could get a better discount (although second-hand cards are obviously less desired).

All-in-all this is an interesting new site to keep in mind for buying brand-new gift cards, whether to give as a gift or to get a good deal for personal use, especially for those who don’t like dealing with second-hand cards.

If you are signing up for a new Swagbucks account, I’d appreciate if you use my Swagbucks referral link to sign up. And here’s my Mypoints referral link. Thanks for using if you do.