How To Get Gift Cards For Free: Too Many Ways To Count

You may have explored all your side hustle options and are looking for easy ways to supplement your income. Knowing how to get gift cards for free can be a lifesaver if that’s the case.

Most retailers and banks issue these cards. Generally, there are two types of gift cards, namely, open and closed loops, and both types can be used in online transactions or in person.

Thankfully, there are numerous ways to get these free gift cards hassle-free and fast. You can quickly get your free gift card from cash apps or online side hustles. 

Earning Points on Your Everyday Purchases

Receiving rewards points when making everyday purchases is the quickest and fastest way to receive free gift cards. All you need to do is click a link before you visit the retailer’s website.

The process is quick, and you can earn up to 10% of your total back purchase in points. After that, you can cash the points in for gift cards.

But where can you get these credit points? Here’s a browser extension you can try.

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping is one of the most popular free browser extensions for earning credits. This browser extension has the following features:

• It lets you receive points on the items you have already purchased at major retailers’ websites like Amazon.
• It enables you to know if the items you are browsing at the retailer’s website are available on other websites for less cash.
• It automatically checks if discounts are available for the things in your cart.

After earning your credits from Capital One Shopping, you can redeem them for free gift cards from retailers like eBay, Nordstrom, and Lowe’s. This service is free, and you don’t have to be an account or cardholder at Capital One Shopping.

Taking Online Surveys

Taking surveys on paid survey websites allows you to earn reward points that you can exchange for free gift cards. Although these surveys will make you a little money, they can make it easy for you to acquire one or two free gift cards in a month.

However, you must meet a minimum withdrawal amount to earn points.

Some of the top survey sites include:

Survey Junkie

This is one of the most popular and oldest online survey platforms, with over 10 million members. Survey Junkie has a user-friendly interface that clarifies how long the survey takes to complete and the pay-per-survey.

Additionally, the site has a lot of surveys, so you have your pick of questionnaires. Also, Survey Junkie has one of the lowest minimum withdrawal amounts, and after earning your points, you can redeem them for gift cards or PayPal cash.

YouGov

This public opinion platform usually offers engaging surveys on political topics and current events. This platform has a solid pay rate, but reaching enough points to cash out can take days.

Branded Surveys 

The platform gets its surveys from third-party sources, thus accumulating a lot of surveys. However, customers can only select from three surveys at a particular time. This means that customers can’t hunt for the most paying surveys.

In addition, the disqualification rate on Branded Surveys is very high. However, after earning your points in this survey platform, you can redeem them for free gift cards.

LifePoints 

This panel offers reasonable pay rates and a clean and intuitive dashboard, but its surveys are limited, and like Branded Surveys, their disqualification rate is also high.

Customers get points for answering questions in LifePoints surveys about how they behave when making certain purchases.

Trading in Stuff 

For free gift cards, you can also trade your stuff on major trade-in programs. Even though trade-in programs don’t pay much, they offer free shipping.

Moreover, the programs have fewer procedures since all you are required to do is to print a prepaid label and then drop off your package. After that, you should wait a short time to get your gift card.

Here are some of the best trade-in programs.

Amazon: Amazon’s trading-in program offers free gift cards for video games, laptops, smartphones, consoles, and more. To know if your goods are eligible for trade-in at Amazon and the amount you can get from your goods, you can visit their trade-in page or consult their customer care personnel.

Apple: This trade-in program only accepts Apple items and offers the best price for those items. Apple can provide you with gift cards for devices like iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone XS Max, and many more.

GameStop: GameStop’s trade-in program accepts game consoles, headsets, smartphones, controllers, and video games. You can visit their official website page to learn more about the amount you can get for your goods and how they operate.

Swappa: This trade-in program has some of the highest payouts and, in turn, high requirements. Swappa accepts electronics like laptops, smartphones, computers, tablets, video games, cameras, drones, watches, and other items.

Decluttr: Decluttr accepts many products, including electronics, books, games, and LEGOs. The trade-in program has an easy-to-navigate interface, so you can easily browse the amount offered and how long you’ll have to wait before getting your gift cards.

Gazelle: Gazelle accepts only two items, namely iPads and smartphones, and you can ship your items in or take the items to an ATM, such as a trade-in kiosk.

Walmart: This trade-in program only accepts electronic devices. However, to use Walmart, you must print a prepaid shipping label and ship it for free. After your items are evaluated, you receive a free Walmart gift card.

Grocery Shopping

You can get gift cards from grocery shopping by completing simple market research tasks. These tasks include scanning barcodes, uploading copies of receipts, and taking pictures of displayed products. 

It’s also good to note that in grocery shopping, you can earn little as on survey websites or in Cashback portals. However, they usually allow you to earn gift cards in simple ways.

Either way, test apps where you can earn free gifts by grocery shopping include:

ShopKick App

ShopKick has six ways to earn free points, which you can redeem for free gift cards. Some of the ways include:

Walk-ins: You can earn points by walking into a retailer and sharing your location with that retailer.  

Uploading your receipt: Here, you can earn free gift cards fast after buying specified items and uploading your receipt.

Scanning barcodes: You can also visit a retailer, look for the target items and scan the barcodes to earn free gift cards.

Watching videos: You can earn points for watching specific videos and by answering questions about those videos.

Using the ShopKick shopping portal: ShopKick usually offers a cashback portal, especially for online purchases, where you can earn a few points.

Paying with a linked card: You can also earn some points passively by paying your grocery purchases using a linked credit and debit card.

Note that the ShopKick app is straightforward and is owned and managed by popular market research and leading data visualization companies.

Ibotta App

This is another good app where you can earn free gifts, but you must open the app and activate the offers before shopping. After that, you should upload a photo of your receipt and then wait for your cashback.

The cashback can be withdrawn as a free gift card or PayPal cash.

Fetch Rewards App

Fetch Reward is an app used to scan receipts, and it’s simple to use because customers don’t have to browse for their offers or activate accounts to get points. Instead, customers upload copies of their receipts to get rewarded.

Referral Bonuses

Although you can get rewards from referral bonuses, it takes work because the person you refer must sign up for the website or service you recommend.

However, this is one of the best ways to get gift cards for free, considering the numerous companies that will be ready to reward you for the referrals. 

Some of the lucrative referral offers available now include:

Chase Bank

If you are a Chase bank account holder, you can earn up to $50 if your referrals open a checking account. Similarly, you can make more rewards if your referrals get a Chase bank credit card.

Swagbucks

In Swagbucks, you can get $3 for each person you refer and 10% of referral lifetime points. You can then withdraw the points as free gift cards.

Comcast Xfinity

This offer allows you to get up to $25 free gift cards when the person you refer to signs up for one service and $150 if the referral signs up for two services. Luckily, you can earn referrals without being an Xfinity customer.

Rakuten

Although Rakuten referrals change periodically, you can get gift cards for up to $20 and $30. To qualify for referral sign-up bonuses, you must be a new member and place orders of $30 within three months of signing up.

T-Mobile

On T-Mobile, you can earn a $50 free visa gift card for every referral, but you must be a T-Mobile customer with about 12 lines on your T-Mobile account. In addition, your account must have been active for three months, and you should also have a T-Mobile ID.

Sam’s Club

When you refer somebody to Sam’s Club, you can earn a $10 gift card, and the referral can make up to $20 gift cards.

Playing Games

You can get rewards for playing games, such as live streaming, especially on Twitch, in several ways. Also, you can get paid for testing new games on your phone.

Programs that offer free gift cards while you play games include.

Mistplay

Mistplay is a popular loyalty program for Android apps with many rewards you can get for playing mobile games. The player collects points that they can redeem for gift cards.

However, you must install new games, rack up the playtime, reach specified levels, and complete game tasks to collect rewards. Luckily, Mistplay has numerous games from great publishers across many genres, such as puzzles.

Also, the platform has a recommendation engine that uses players’ demographic profiles, making it more popular. They use the demographic profile to identify the games you might be interested in, recommend them to you, and then offer rewards after you play them.

In addition, Mistplay can also work as a beta testing platform for most game developers; thus, you can expect many new games.

Swagbucks

In Swagbucks, you can be rewarded after downloading games and reaching a specified level or completing specific tasks. The good thing is that joining and using Swagbucks is free, and you can sign up quickly using your email address and password.

Drop

This is primarily a cashback platform but also has a game selection. So, you can earn extra points when you play Drop app games like snake games.

Transferring Your Prescriptions

Sometimes, you can get free gifts by transferring your prescriptions from one pharmacy to another. You also can earn gift cards through the pharmacy’s loyalty program.

Here are some of the current promotions available.

CVS: With CVS, you can get up to $50 a year when you use their extra bucks via their loyalty program.

Rite Aid: You can earn up to $25 free card gifts for each transferred prescription.

Target: Get up to $5 Target gift cards once your 10th prescription is filled. 

Alexa: When you transfer prescriptions to Alexa, you can get free gift cards. For instance, you can earn $25 gift cards if you transfer two maintenance medications. Similarly, you can make $50 if you transfer four maintenance medications.

Complete Microtasks

Microtasks are easy menial jobs such as data entry that take only a few minutes. These types of jobs usually pay less money, but they are readily available.

Some of the best sites that offer microtask jobs are:

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is one of the most popular online survey platforms, and its microtasks are usually surveys. These surveys can take about half an hour to complete, but the longer the survey, the more the pay, and you can earn $0.25 to $1 worth of gift cards.

Other tasks you can get from Survey Junkie are installing your browser and completing your profile. Here you can earn up to $0.25 or even more.

Once your points are above 1,000, or you get a minimum payout of $10, you can redeem the points or cash as gift cards or PayPal cash.

Mechanical Turk

This is an Amazon branch and one of the famous and original sites that offer micro tasks such as Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs). You can choose tasks like image processing, data verification and processing, and information gathering.

In Mechanical Turk, jobs are obtained from “Requesters” who may require you to take a test or get a qualification. This guarantees the requesters that you have the necessary aptitude to perform a specific task.

In addition, the requesters may also need to approve your work quality; thereby, you must be careful when selecting your tasks. To avoid this, choose the tasks you can do well and fast.

However, Mechanical Turk payments are usually relatively low, so you cannot earn more.

Swagbucks 

Swagbucks is another incredible micro-task platform where you can get paid for sharing your opinion or reviewing items. Their tasks are primarily online surveys, but you can earn points by playing games or watching videos. 

Once you have accumulated the required points, you can redeem them as gift cards or PayPal cash.

Clickworker

Clickworker’s micro-tasking website hires only independent contractors who offer services using their computers. This website has an easy-to-use web browser that allows workers to complete tasks that are part of large projects.

Another great feature of Clickworker is that it allows the workers to coordinate and oversee the tasks for a good workflow. Their work includes data processing, web investigations, and text translations.

Lastly, note that on Clickworker, you can earn up to $9 per hour, but you can boost this to $10 by doing more jobs.

InboxDollars

Like Survey Junkie, InboxDollars is another microtask website where you can get free gift cards for performing regular online tasks. These tasks include reading emails, playing games, and other simple tasks. 

Trading Your Data

Trading your data is also another good way of earning free gifts quickly and straightforwardly. Luckily, numerous apps or sites, such as social media platforms and search engines, are ready to buy your data.

Try the apps below if you don’t mind sharing your data to earn rewards or participate in a data-for-cash bonanza.

Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel

Nielsen is known for tracking the online behavior of TV viewers, usually by mobile surveys. Surprisingly, Nielsen has extended this feature to telephone and computer devices through the Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel.

The Nielsen Company offers up to $50 for those willing to use their internet devices to earn cash. All you need to do is install this app on your phone, tablet, computer, or any other mobile device, which will then track your online activity.

DataCoup

DataCoup is one of the best marketplaces to sell data and earn rewards. You can use DataCoup to connect to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Also, you can link your debit or credit cards to monitor your activities. To ensure your financial safety, your credentials will not be stored.

It’s also good to note that in DataCoup, every data source has its market value, and you will get paid once your data is purchased. You can redeem your earnings after you have accrued around $5, but earning accumulation is usually frozen at $25 until you redeem the cash. 

Screenwise Panel

This panel, also known as Cross Media Panel, is an invite program that Google sponsors. Screenwise Panel partners with Growth from Knowledge market research and requires you to install a Google Chrome browser.

Then after installing the browser, you should install an extension on your computer or laptop. Moreover, you can install a mobile meter on your smartphone devices.

Also, after signing up, you should wait for seven days to get $8. You can receive an additional $2 weekly if you remain an active member.

Panel App

Panel App allows you to earn rewards and prizes just for selling your data; however, this app tracks your location more than your online activities.

With Panel App, you are only required to connect your social media networks to earn points you can redeem as free gift cards.

Pawns.app

This app also allows you to earn money by sharing your data or online activities. Their payments are usually based on your internet speed and IP addresses and have a minimum fee of $5.

You can install it on your computer or mobile device to use it easily.

Watching Videos

Several sites offer gift cards for watching videos, including advertisements, movies, and sponsored content. However, sometimes you may be required to answer some questions regarding the video to prove you watched it.

Here are the best sites to watch videos and get free gift cards:

MyPoints

You can get points for watching videos through MyPoints which are redeemed for free gift cards. This app has two other apps, the Daily Scoop and the main MyPoints app. 

Swagbucks Video

Swagbucks Video is the best place to watch videos and get free points, usually known as SB. The video topics include entertainment and travel, but you can select what interests you.

Swagbucks payment options include gift cards for famous retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.

InboxDollars

InboxDollars is another popular site with a good reputation that usually pays you cash for watching television shows, cooking commercials, and movie previews. 

FusionCash

FusionCash has a fast and quick sign-up process, and you can get $10 bonuses after joining. After watching the videos, you get rewarded through a cash bonus that you can withdraw as gift cards.

Test Drive Cars

Car manufacturers or dealerships can offer you gift cards for test-driving a vehicle, ranging from $25 to $100. You can best find these offers by searching for a test drive near your location or checking dealership websites near you.

However, here are some of the best Car Test Drive offers you can consider:

Jeep Wrangler

Earn up to $50 free gift cards or Visa Prepaid by testing a new Jeep Wrangler. You can visit a local dealer near you or use the Chrysler Dealership Locator to get this offer.

Volvo

Volvo offers a $75 Amazon gift card, Visa, and Nordstrom for testing their cars. This offer is only available for a short time, and you can test Volvo cars at valid local dealers. 

Subaru

By testing new Subaru cars, you can earn up to free $35 prepaid Visa Cards and free gifts. However, their promotional offer changes occasionally, so check their website to ensure its validity before visiting any local dealers.

Hyundai 

Earn $50 free Amazon gift cards or Visa for testing Hyundai vehicles. Visit their website to get their code, and the promotion will appear in a pop-up ad.

Note that you must fill in your details to get your coupon code, and if you don’t see the pop-up ads, you can visit any local Hyundai dealership.

Fiat 

Fiat teams up with Gilt to offer free gift cards and Gilt Credit for testing their vehicles. You can visit any Fiat dealer’s website to test their vehicles and check their new car section. Remember to enter your details to get your coupon code.

Monetizing Your Lock Screen

Do you have an android device and want to earn gifts? If so, you can let companies show ads and other content on your device’s lock screen. Although you won’t make much cash, you can earn $10 yearly with little effort.

Here are the best lock screen cash apps:

Mode Mobile

Mode Mobile, also known as Current Rewards, is ideal for people who want to get rewards by listening to music. This app has a free music player and access to over 100,000 radio stations. 

Apart from listening to music, you can also listen to your favorite radio stations; the more you listen, the more you earn. The good thing with this app is that you can charge your phone as it places the ads on the lock screen.

If you accumulate enough points, you can redeem them for free gift cards.

Ad it Up

This is a mobile app made by Adfone that partners with various phone companies to allow its customers to earn by viewing their ads.

Ad It Up allows you to view ads and other content on your lock screen and earn credits toward your wireless phone bill. After making enough points for a payout, you can get an Amazon free gift card or apply the credits to the Cricket bill.

Smore

This app pays you cash to place content and ads on your lock screen. All you need to do is to unlock your device once a day, swipe the placed ad, or click on it if you want to learn more about it.

If you do that, you can earn around 10 points daily, and once your points accumulate, you redeem them as free gift cards or as a Visa.

ScreenLift

ScreenLift is one of the most famous lock screen apps available on the market, with over 100,000 users around the globe. When you open the screen, the app populates it with trending content or news, and each time you view one piece of content, you earn points known as Lifts.

Luckily, you only have to read the whole content if you want to, but an impression on it is required to earn. The longer you keep ScreenLift running on your device, the more points you earn. 

Giftloop

This is another good option you can use to earn points by viewing ads, and the easiest way to earn points is by charging your phone. Giftloop sends relevant ads to your charging mobile screen and the lock screen.

This app is free to use, and you can redeem the points you earn for gift cards or PayPal cash.

MYTOZ

MYTOZ is another exciting app to earn points by viewing ads, and like other lock screen apps, you don’t have to engage with the ads. The more you view the ads, the more you will earn. 

Completing Money-Maker Offers

Completing money-maker offers is one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn free gifts online. Money offers are promotional deals or paid trials that usually give you more funds back than you initially spent.

These offers exist because the companies believe you will like their products and remain an active customer. The offers are usually found on reward site platforms such as:

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is among the most popular rewards portals that lets you earn points in different ways, such as playing games, watching videos, and taking paid surveys. But the good way to earn more points in Swagbucks is through its money makers. 

These money-maker offers usually have a small cost but always give you back more money than you paid. Swagbucks has an easy registration process, and you can exchange your points for gift cards to stores such as Walmart and eBay.

Here are the Swagbucks money makers you can find:

Aspiration Bank: Earn a $70 gift card by opening a free checking account and depositing $10.

Postmates: Get up to a $20 gift card for signing up for Postmates food delivery service and placing an order. 

Sierra Club: You can earn 5,000 points when you donate $15 to the Sierra Club.

InboxDollars

This site has fantastic paying money makers with high payouts and minimum withdrawals.

Taking online surveys: You can earn money from completing simple surveys that only take a few minutes. Generally, you can earn up to $5 or even more. Some of the ways you can make money with InboxDollars are:

Playing games: InboxDollars has a variety of games that you can play to earn money, such as Mahjong, Solitaire, and Candy Jam. In addition, InboxDollars partners with to offer you numerous casino games in which you can participate to win cash.

Cashbacks for online shopping: You can also earn cashback through InboxDollars, especially from top brands like Amazon.

instaGC

Like other websites, instaGC also lets you earn money online by completing paid online surveys. Also, you can earn money by watching videos, surfing the web, and playing games.

Luckily, there are more than 350 gift card redemption options, and you can begin receiving free gift cards with only a 1$ balance. Plus, you receive them almost instantly.

MyPoints

MyPoints is among the oldest money-making platforms operating for several decades. This site can offer you rewards for completing activities like:

• Taking online surveys
• Playing games
• Searching the net 
• Watching videos
• Shopping online

 After accruing the minimum points required, you can trade them for gifts.

Through Giveaways

Winning giveaways is so simple as long as you enter the right ones. You can participate in giveaways from contests sponsored by famous corporations like Kopari, Instagram, Birchbox, and Suja Juice to get free gift cards.

These corporations have numerous entries and use giveaways to promote their businesses and social media accounts. 

Giving Blood

Donating even one pint of blood can save a life since many hospitals lack sufficient blood. Even so, blood donation centers regularly offer free gift cards or certificates for those who donate blood to reward them for their incredible impact.

To get your free gift by donating blood, you can visit the Red Cross website to know the sites where you can donate your blood.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I get free gift cards through Facebook?

In most cases, Facebook is not a good place to get free gift cards because hashtags are not widely used on Facebook, making it hard to find these giveaways.

Moreover, Facebook needs a robust verification system making it easier to know if you are dealing with a reliable company or a trustworthy person.

If you want to find giveaways and free gift cards through social media, Instagram is your best bet because of its clickable hashtags.

What are some advantages of free gift cards?

Gift cards offer numerous benefits. For example, they are an excellent substitute payment method when you shop online, especially if you prefer to avoid paying using Credit Cards or cash.

Moreover, gift cards are suitable gifts you can offer someone during the holidays and other special occasions.

In addition, you can use gift cards to control your spending, especially by avoiding bank overdrafts, and they are also convenient and simple to use.

Why do most companies offer free gift cards?

There are many reasons why companies offer gift cards. For instance, some companies are research firms that usually collect data about customers’ shopping habits.

The collected data helps their clients, primarily big brands like Amazon, improve their marketing, thus earning a lot of money. 

So, when they partner with these big brands, they get contract-earning fees anytime they refer customers. They usually do this by giving the customers free gifts so that they can visit the client’s website to purchase their products or other services.

Which ways can I use to get discounted gift cards?

You can use many ways to get discounted gift cards through portals such as Swagbucks, CardCash, and Rakuten. Other sites like Raise.com are always willing to buy unwanted gift cards and then sell them as discounted cards. 

What are the disadvantages of gift cards?

Despite having advantages, free gift cards also have some drawbacks. For example, you are usually left with a small amount of money after purchasing gift cards.

In addition, losing your gift card can become a headache, especially if the card is not registered or you need the card number.

Plus, if you use your digital gift cards sparingly, you can be charged an active fee. Finally, closed-loop gift cards can limit your purchasing power, and you may be required to pay for purchases to add money. 

Final Words

Shopping with free gift cards is an excellent way to save money by buying daily essentials. Moreover, gift cards can help you control spending by avoiding bank overdrafts.

Thankfully, there are numerous reliable ways to earn free gift cards, from reward programs, trade-in programs, survey sites, gaming apps, and much more.

Some programs pay a lot, and some only offer a few bucks a month. It’s up to you to decide whether to stick to one program or use several of them.

Finally, remember to be careful when selecting your way of earning free gift cards because numerous free gift cards online are scams.