Gift Card Savings

The holidays are a great time for buying and giving gift cards. Many places provide an incentive for purchasing gift cards around this time of year. I will make one caution before I continue: conusumer advocates are urging us to show caution in purchasing gift cards this holiday season because of the recent closures of so many businesses.

Now that I've done my civic duty, let me tell you about some deals that I am already aware of.

Brio Tuscan Grille is offering a $20 gift card that is good from 1/01/09-3/31-09 if you purchase a $100 gift card by the end of the year. My husband and I took advantage of this deal when we went there last night for our anniversary date. Awww!

Carrabba's, Outback Steakhouse, and Bonefish Grill are offering similar deals: $20 gift card with the purchase of a $100 gift card.

I was at Sports Authority recently and their promotion is for a $10 gift card free with the purchase of a $50 gift card and, in addition, the receiver of the gift card receives a coupon for 10% off when they redeem their coupon. Some restrictions apply.

Our family had lunch at Logan's recently and for purchasing a $25 gift card, we were given a $5 voucher for a future visit.

The moral of the story is, check around. So many places are offering incentives but be wary. Many of the incentives are good for a limited time into the new year and you may not be able to take advantage of them by the time they expire.

One other thing, I always ask the server to ring up the gift card you have to purchase as a separate transaction first. Then we use that gift card to pay for the meal we are eating right then and save the leftover to use with the incentive gift card. That way we get a jump on taking advantage of the various promotions.

Do you know of any establishments that have similar deals?