Find the latest and greatest discount coupon codes for Raise.com here. Raise is a great site for buying gift cards for cheap, and especially if you’re into churning gift cards to make money.

*Be sure to read my article on Churning Gift Cards To Make Money for all of this to make sense

Raise is one of many gift card exchange sites, which allow customers to buy and sell gift cards at discounted prices. Basically, you’re buying and selling unwanted gift cards. All of the gift cards on theses sites are merchant specific (specific retailers, restaurants, etc.), so you won’t find any American Express, Visa or MasterCard gift cards.

While there are several gift card exchange sites, the top three have to be Raise, CardCash, and CardPool. All three have a big selection and will differ from each other at any given time on pricing, especially during holiday promotions.

As listed on my Churning Gift Cards guide, gift cards from these merchants are best for churns: Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, BB&B(Bed, Bath & Beyond), Game Stop, Giant Eagle, Kmart, Kroger, OfficeMax, Publix, Safeway, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us, and Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club/Murphy USA.

Even if you’re not into churning gift cards, getting into the discounted gift card game can save you a lot of money at stores  you know you will definitely shop at. This is especially true when you’re already combining other coupons and discounts prior to paying with your gift card (I’m talking to you Couponers!).

I recently bought $100 worth in Starbucks gift cards for less than I could find through Ebay (with the use of the new customer promo code below):

I Saved 23%!

Raise happens to be one of my favorites because of how often they have special promotions and discount codes, so I’ll update this article with the latest codes.

New Raise.com Coupon Codes!

• $5 off orders of $75 or more with this offer link & promo code RAISE75AF (New Customer Promo Code)
• Save 5% more with this offer link and code TAKE5 at checkout for selected brands only (eligible brands rotate often). All the eligible Weekend Savings here. (Expires & Renews all the time so just try it!)
• Here’s one that renews a little less often, but always worth a try. It’s for an Extra 3% off at checkout. Use this link and code 3RAISE in the promo box at checkout.

Unverified/Expired codes:

• Code NEWRAISE25. One time use, only good on first order and can’t be combined with any other coupons.
• $5 off orders over $60 with this offer link & promo code RAISE60AF
• Extra 3% off Burger King, Google Play, Papa John’s Pizza and Boston Market with code 3RAISEAF. Exclusions: One time use, cannot be combined with additional coupons, offer valid on above brands only.
• $5 off $100 select brands: JCP, Starbucks, iTunes, CVS, Tj Maxx, Marshalls, Home Depot, HomeGoods, Bed Bath & Beyond. Code: 5RAISE100.
• $5 Off $60 Or More with code MYRAISE
• $5 Off $60 Or More with code RA0560NG
• Extra 3% Off Gift Cards with code 3SLICK

If you’re just using Raise as a gift idea, take a look at the most popular gift cards.

There are so many fun ways to use gift cards to make money. Once you read this article, it will open your eyes to an entirely new realm!

*Here are the best gift card choices for 2016

The first step is figuring out where and how to buy gift cards for cheap at discounted rates. Then, I’ll discuss how you can maximize the potential of these discounted gift cards to make and save money. Get ready, this is going to be fun!

*Tip* Retail branded gift cards don’t have purchase fees, but Visa, MasterCard, and American Express Gift Cards all do (~$3.95-$5.95).

Normal Stuff: Buying Discounted Gift Cards In-Store

There are a limited number of ways to save on gift cards in physical brick-and-mortar stores, so I’ll go ahead and list them here. *These options aren’t that fun, but keep reading for the good stuff further on down.

Warehouse clubs (i.e. Costco and Sam’s). Both Costco and Sam’s routinely offers restaurant gift cards and other retailers up to 20% off. The selection of discounted gift cards will be lower than buying online, plus you’ll have to be a member of the club.

Gift Card Promotions. Year round, but more so during the holidays, restaurants very often will promote their gift cards by offering bonuses (like buy a $25 gift card, and they’ll bonus you $5). If you’re looking specifically for a restaurant gift card, go to their website first to see if there’s a promotion going on.

Other retailers will also have similar promotions for spending a minimum amount at their stores, but usually this is only offered during the holidays.

MoneysMyLife Top Offer Picks With 16,000 ATMs and 5,100 branches throughout the United States, Chase Bank is second only to Wells Fargo with regards to the total number of branches. This makes the bonus offers from Chase extremely popular, and they always have several promotions to choose from. Full Review. Chase Total Checking® ($200 bonus) Chase Savings℠ ($150 bonus) Chase Total Checking® + Chase Savings℠ ($350 in combined bonuses) Chase Premier Plus Checking℠ ($300 bonus) Chase Total Business Checking® ($200 bonus) Chase College Checking℠ ($100 bonus) Get a $750 Welcome Deposit for eligible new customers who open an HSBC Premier checking account with qualifying activities.Get a $350 Welcome Deposit for eligible new customers who open an HSBC Advance checking account with qualifying activities. Member FDIC. Apply online for a new TD Bank Checking account to earn either a $300 bonus for the TD Premier Checking account ( $2,500 in direct deposits required), or a $150 bonus for the TD Convenience Checking account ($500 in direct deposits required). This is a limited time offer. Full Review  Learn More Barclays has two great card offers that should interest many who are looking for a solid travel rewards credit card. The Barclaycard Arrival® Plus World Elite Mastercard® has a 60,000 miles sign-up bonus worth $630 in travel. You'll be able to earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase and there are no foreign transaction fees to worry about. See Terms. Full Review The Barclays Arrival® Premier World Elite Mastercard® will earn you 75,000 miles each year (worth $750) if you spend $25,000 on purchases during the year. This credit card is intended for high spenders looking for a card to carry for the long-term. The card will earn unlimited miles at the rate of 2 miles per $1 spent on all purchases. See Terms. Full Review  CIT Bank is offering a 1.85% APY rate with their Money Market Account for all balances. This account is available online nationwide and consistently offers one of the best rates in the nation. The minimum opening deposit is $100 and there are no fees for opening or maintaining the account. Full Review Learn More Ally Invest is one of the nation's top choices for a low-cost stock broker, and they now have a promotion where you can earn a cash bonus of $50 to $3500, as well as $500 in commission-free trades. Your cash bonus value will depend on your deposit amount made within 60 days of account opening. Full Review Learn More Simple Bank has an offer where you can earn a $20 bonus after opening their free online Checking account that's available nationwide. You'll then be able to earn unlimited $20 referral bonuses. Direct deposit isn't a requirement and all you and your referrals need to do is open a new account and use the Simple Visa debit card to make a first purchase. Full Review Learn More More Top Picks Hide

The Fun: Buying Gift Cards Online For Cheap

Going online to purchase gift cards will give you a great deal more options to save money.

Gift Card Exchange Sites (My Favorite). These sites specialize in buying and selling used/unwanted gift cards at discounted rates. Selection and discounts can vary, but I’ll compare their Target gift card pricing for reference.

• Raise-Great layout and very good selection. Target gift cards up to 3.6% discounted. Get $5 off orders of $75 or more with this link & promo code RAISE75AF. My savings write-up on Raise.com.
• CardPool-Big selection. Target gift cards up to 3% discounted. I also like that you can get $5 by referring each friend.
• Gift Card Granny-Gift Card Granny is a Gift Card search site, listing all the gift cards available from other gift card exchange sites. Helps with your search, but I don’t use it because I kept running into real-time availability issues.
• Others: CardHub, Monster Gift Card, GiftCardBin, Gift Card Monkey, GiftCards.com, GiftCard Zen, ABC Gift Cards.

Ebay (My Second Favorite). You can save big on Ebay because of the auctioning system. Being patient and bidding will potentially give you the biggest savings. “Buy It Now” listings will still give you good discounts, and save you the time of bidding. Check out all the gift cards available on Ebay.

Credit Card Rewards Programs. Rewards and Cash Back credit cards from the major banks all have partnerships with major retailers. When redeeming your rewards, you can get extra value for your gift cards, oftentimes 10% to 25% more than what your card rewards are worth. For example, you can get a $50 Game Stop gift card for $45 of earned cash back with your Discover card.

Using Your Credit Card’s Rewards Categories. For example, credit cards that offer extra rewards at standalone supermarkets. You can buy a variety of gift cards at the supermarket and earn credit card rewards at the same time, which can be anywhere from 2% to 6% depending on your card.

Saving Even More With Your Discounted Gift Cards!

Here’s where the real fun begins! You know how to save money on gift cards, so now what?

Well, the next thing to figure out is how you can maximize savings by buying gift cards with your discounted gift cards!

One of the best ways to save more money is by buying physical gift cards off a gift card exchange site at a discount, and then going to THAT gift card’s store brand to buy A DIFFERENT gift card! For example, you can buy a GameStop gift card discounted online, and then go to Game Stop to buy Amazon gift cards. You do this because you normally may not have any use for a Game Stop gift card, but you found a good deal on them online. It’s an amazing way to save some money with a few steps.

My favorite thing to do is to buy discounted gift cards off a gift card exchange site, and then go to that retailer’s physical store, to buy Visa, American Express, or Amazon gift cards. That way, I can spend on anything I want after saving money on that gift card!

Worse case scenario is you buy a discounted gift card online, and you’re unable to convert that retailer-specific gift card into a Visa, Amex, or Amazon one. Luckily you can always opt to sell it back online at the gift card exchange site, but you’ll lose some money. To help you out, I’ve gathered a list of retailers where people have reported success in upgrading their gift cards into a Visa, American Express, Amazon, or other preferred gift card.

Stores That Let You Buy Gift Cards With Gift Cards

That’s right, use that store’s gift card to buy another retailer’s gift card. While many merchants won’t allow this, success has been confirmed with some below.

*Bear in mind, the reported success with buying alternative gift cards with gift cards in-store is many times based on personal reports. It can depend on a particular store’s policy and whether or not you happen to run into a cashier that knows the policy or not. Regardless, it’s not like you’re trying to scam anyone. The worse that can happen is they say “no”. Many times you may find success by going to a different cashier, or on a different day!

• Barnes and Noble-Reports say it depends all on the cashier doing the transaction, but your B&N gift card should swipe successfully to buy a different gift card.
• Best Buy-Use your Best Buy gift card to purchase other gift cards they sell in-store, like Amazon Kindle gift cards that work basically the same as regular Amazon Gift Cards.
• Bed, Bath & Beyond-Some have even reported being able to buy Visa gift cards in store with their BBB gift card!
• Game Stop: Works with Shell, Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, Android, and other good gift cards.
• Giant Eagle-Works for Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Sears, Macy’s, Office Max, Shell, Staples, and many other gift cards.
• Kmart-Sears, Lands’ End, and Kmart are all owned by the same parent company, so all these gift cards can be used interchangeably. You can’t buy American Express gift cards with these, but it should go through for Visa and MasterCard gift cards. Kmart sells a variety of retailer gift cards, restaurant gifts cards, Ebay gift cards, and even Southwest Airlines gift cards.
• Kroger-Tons of options to buy with your Kroger gift card including Aeropostale, Amazon, Applebee’s, Banana Republic/Gap/Old Navy, Barnes & Noble, Bass Pro Shops, Bath and Body works, Bebe, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Build a Bear, Cabela’s, Claire’s, eBay, ESPN.com, Foot Locker, GameStop, Golfsmith, Home Depot, iTunes, JC Penney, Jiffy Lube, Joann, Kohl’s, Land’s End/Sears/Kmart, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Marriott, Marshall’s/TJMaxx/Homegoods, Michael’s, Nordstrom, OfficeMax, Overstock, REI, Restaurants (Applebees, Carraba’s, Chili’s, IHOP, McDonalds, Olive Garden, Outback, Panera Bread, PF Chang’s, Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday, Subway, TGI Friday’s), Shell, Staples, Southwest Airlines, Staples, Target, Toys “R” Us.
• OfficeMax-Use your OfficeMax gift cards to buy Amazon and Visa gift cards. Mixed reports on success here.
• Publix-Ton of choices, even gas and Amex gift cards.
• Safeway-Good reports of success buying third party gift cards here.
• Sears-Sears has a decent amount of other gift cards you can purchase with a Sears gift card, including Applebees, Macaroni Grill, Outback, Amex, Chili’s, IHop, TGI Fridays, Subway, Ruby Tuesday, Barnes & Noble, Bass Pro Shop, Cracker Barrel, Pizza Hut, Ebay, and more. Technically, you’re not supposed to be able to buy other gift cards with a Sears gift card, but find a cashier willing to run your Sears gift card and chances are it will go through!
• Target-Choices include Amazon Kindle, Visa, Groupon, and several other retail and restaurant gift cards.
• Toys “R” Us-Use Toys “R” Us gift cards to buy from their small selection, including Amazon and iTunes gift cards.
• Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club/Murphy USA-All allow buying other gift cards with Wal-Mart gift cards.

*I wanted to let you know that these popular stores, by policy, won’t let you purchase third party gift cards with their gift cards: Amazon.com (definitely can’t since it’s all done online), CVS, Kohl’s, Home Depot, JC Penny, Lowe’s, and Shoprite.

*Want to get wild? Buy an Ebay gift card(in-store where it’s available) with your discounted gift card, and then purchase more discounted gift cards listed on Ebay. Rinse and repeat. You can imagine how long this journey can become, and how you may not be able to resist continuing on!

*Side note* Once you start getting into this game of using gift cards to make money, your mind starts to wonder how else you can maximize the potential. For example, some suggest going through a shopping portal like Ebates or MrRebates, buy gift cards from partnered retailers, and then go back and buy more gift cards with those gift cards. It’s appealing because you’re getting cash back through those shopping portals and earning rewards on your credit cards. The problem here is, you went through all the trouble and headache, and your gift card purchases may not even earn the cash back because of the terms and conditions of the shopping portal. Furthermore, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express gift cards all have purchase fees if you’re trying to buy these types. What it all comes down to is taking the more straightforward approach, and the approach that leads to a higher likelihood of success.

For me, buying discounted gift cards at online gift card exchange sites with my rewards credit card, and then converting those into an Amazon or other preferred no-fee gift card is a little less hassle and works a great percentage of the time.