GiftCard Partners Blog

There is a very basic property of gift cards that can be easy to forget in the rush of holiday giving, whether giving to your family and friends or company giving, to customers, employees and partners. The general public doesn’t tend to know the difference between open loop gift cards and closed loop, but if you are buying gift cards in bulk; you need to know which yields you the best deal. Credit card issued gift cards are open loop and they most often charge a fee to purchase the cards, they tend to have expiration dates and often, a diminishing balance over time without even using it. Retailer or merchant issued gift cards are retailer specific but there are no fees for purchasing, in fact a sliding scale discount is given for levels of bulk purchase. There are no expiration dates or diminishing value for the recipient to manage. GiftCard Partners  is offering one of the best deals possible on CVS/pharmacy gift cards through December:
Get $100 in free gift cards for each $1,000 you spend*. You’ll see on the site a deadline; just give us the following code to redeem this offer through the month of December, 2011: CVS 10%
The savings don't end with $100 in free gift cards...spend $2,000 and get $200 in free gift card, spend $3,000 and get $300 in free gift cards...save up to $500 in free CVS gift cards.

This is the final week of GiftCard Partners’ summer 2011 gift card usage survey. Participate by answering all the questions (maximum of 5) and submit your corporate program, consumer promotion, fundraising, or loyalty program gift card usage success story and you’ll be eligible for our drawing for TWO $50 gift cards. Your choices include: -   
The Children's Place -   
Brinker (1 card for 4 great restaurants: Chili's, The Macaroni Grill, On The Border and Maggiano’s Little Italy) -   
Charming Shoppes (1 card for 3 great fashion retailers: Fashion Bug, Lane Bryant and Catherine's) -   
CVS/pharmacy This survey closes on Friday August 15th, 2011.
Click here to participate!

Working in the B2B and corporate side of the gift card industry, this story caught my eye as it’s a clear indication of the power of gift cards as a consumer promotion and spending incentive. As a wanna-be power-user of my loyalty rewards and savvy consumer, I’m drooling over this story. Here’s what Cardratings.com has to say about recent gift cards offers as loyalty rewards & credit card promotions.“Bonus offers on credit cards have never been juicier, said Cardratings.com founder Curtis Arnold, who has followed the industry for about 10 years. Arnold said he was "blown away" recently by an offer he received -- and quickly snapped up -- for the American Express Business Gold rewards card. He'll get $500 in gift cards if he charges $2,000 in the first three months, plus the card's $125 annual fee is waived for the first year.” Beyond how cool it is to get a free $500 gift card bucks, I know when I am given gift cards as an incentive or request them through my loyalty & rewards programs, I truly feel like it’s a “gift for ME”. When I receive and spend credit card style gift cards (open loop) cards, I tend to spend them on practical items, like food shopping or gas or not remember where I spent them or on what. For this reason, I much prefer closed loop or brand/retailer specific gift cards. This is likely why Amex offers gift cards from specific retailers, rather than just their own…they are much preferred by employees as incentives, loyalty rewards program users, and consumers for incentive and promotions. For more on
how credit card companies are using bonuses like gift cards to woo new customers, click here.    

We are getting such great feedback; We will now draw 2 winners! Each will win a $50.00 gift card of your choice! Do you use gift cards for health and wellness incentives, employee rewards, sales incentives, fundraising, loyalty programs, consumer promotions or safety rewards? If so, we’d love to hear how you are using your gift cards. We recently offered this survey to our eNewsletter subscribers and we had a huge turn-out of responses! We hope you’ll participate in part 2 of this survey… You’ll be presented a maximum of 5 required questions. Should you complete the survey and submit your gift card usage success story, you'll be entered into our drawing for a chance to win 1 of 2  $50.00 gift cards. The drawing winners can select from The Children’s Place, Brinker (1 card for 4 great restaurants: Chili's, The Macaroni Grill, On The Border and Maggiano’s Little Italy), Charming Shoppes (1 card for 3 great fashion retailers: Fashion Bug, Lane Bryant and Catherine's) and CVS/pharmacy cards. GiftCard Partners will post the gift card usage results on our website.
Click here to take our survey and submit your gift card success story.
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