Buy or Sell Gift Cards on Cardyard
You may have heard of Zeek, an online gift card trading platform which went bust a few years ago. There is now an alternative called Cardyard, which could bag you a bargain for shopping at some merchants.
At the Buy Gift Cards section, you can see the options currently in stock:
Here is a list of some supported merchants together with the discount:
- Amazon 3% off
- Marks & Spencer 12% off
- Sainsbury’s 5% off
- Tesco 4% off
- WH Smith 15% off
- Clarks 20% off
- Ikea 9% off
- Uber 7% off
Offers are subject to change of supply and demand. I’ve made several purchases already and haven’t encountered any issue yet, however I’d recommend to redeem the gift card as soon as possible to avoid any potential issues. Amazon and Uber for example let you top up your account using gift cards, so there’s no reason not to do it straightaway after the purchase.
Make sure you read the small print – one big gotcha is that some gift cards can only be used online or instore.
You can also sell your gift card:
Obviously you won’t get the full face value, but it’s still a decent way to cash out. The next time American Express runs a Spend £100 at Selfridges Get £30 back offer for example, you can grab a gift card in the shop and resell it on Cardyard for a small profit.
As you can see, there’s an option to claim credit instead of cash when selling, and it appears to be a better deal. Only take it if you plan to immediately exchange the credit for another gift card though, as otherwise you’ll regret it if one day Cardyard folds. When it happened to Zeek, more than one friend of mine still had a chunk of credit in their account…
IHG Redemption Price Shooting Up Crazy
IHG rolled up dynamic pricing for award redemptions globally last year, and the reception has been generally very positive – until now.
It appears that award nights in some UK hotels have just shot up over night. For a Saturday night in August, this is what you are looking to pay in points or in Pound Sterling:
- InterContinental London Park Lane 100,000 points / £362.57
- Hotel Indigo London Leicester Square 90,000 points / £357
- Crowne Plaza Kings Cross 44,000 points / £115
- Holiday Inn Oxford Circus 52,000 points / £129
- Holiday Inn Express London Southwark 43,000 points / £125
- Hotel Indigo Liverpool 42,000 points / £117
- Holiday Inn Brighton 60,000 points / £262
- Kimpton Edinburgh Charlotte Square 85,000 points / £446
Some hotels on the list still pertain to the $50 / 10,000 points rule, although the cap is obviously non-existent – The max. redemption price was capped at 70,000 with very few exceptions. While others are charging totally extortionate amount of points – at Crowne Plaza Kings Cross you are only getting $36 value per 10,000 points.
Just to be clear, not all hotels are seeing the sharp increase yet, and there’s sometimes inconsistency for the same hotel on different dates. For example, InterContinental Edinburgh wants 55,000 points for a Friday night but 85,000 points for the next day, whereas cash prices are almost identical.
I’m not sure what IHG is trying to do here. Now that there’s no award chart anymore, they can basically devalue their program without any prior notice. I haven’t seen the trend in any other country yet, so maybe they are just running on a trial and see how people respond?
If you live in the UK, I’d suggest you to lock in some award nights right now while prices are still reasonable, as they might skyrocket very soon.
Earn Emirates Miles on Your Daily Shopping
Being a frequent traveller in the UK, I’m sure you are familiar with British Airways’ eStore and Virgin Atlantic’s Shops Away. Like many other platforms, they operate a lead-based affiliate model that gives you an award for purchases referred by them – which, in this case, is air miles.
What I didn’t know is, Emirates Skywards has a dedicated shopping portal for UK members too, which you can access here.
It doesn’t make much sense to collect Emirates miles in lieu of Avios or Virgin Points if you reside in the UK, especially the earning ratios don’t look great. However, they do have an instore section as well and you can top up your Skywards account when visiting the following shops:
Therefore it’s worth crosschecking all the platforms before you shop. Morrisons for example, is not listed on BA’s eStore, and only available to select members on Virgin’s Shops Away. The next time Morrisons’ discount offers pop up, you might as well earn some Emirates miles in the meantime.
3000 Emirates Miles for One Hilton Stay in the Middle East & Africa
Since the refurbishment of its loyalty program a couple of years ago, it’s no longer possible to earn Hilton points and airline miles at the same time when staying at their hotels. However, they still run occasional promotions where you can earn bonus miles on top of the usual Hilton points.
There is now one such promotion, and you can register here.
- Register and book by 18th May
- Stay once by 31st August at participating hotels
- Earn 3000 Emirates Skywards miles
- Limit to first 1,000 registrants only
You need to select Emirates as your preferred travel partner in your Hilton profile.
All participating hotels are in the Middle East and Africa, so not many can take advantage of it. And unlike the previous Miles & More offer, you can only earn the bonus miles once.
Given the limited number of slots available, I’d recommend to sign up now if you believe there’s any chance you visit the regions this summer. Remember that you will still earn full Hilton points and night credits for the stay, so there’s nothing to lose.
50% Bonus When Buying Ascott Points, Plus Free Upgrade to Silver
Ascott’s points sale is back, this time with an enhanced bonus.
You can access the offer page here. This is to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Ascott Star Rewards, the loyalty program of the hotel chain. Note that the bonus awarded is tiered, and you need to purchase the maximum amount – 1000 SGD for 400K points – to get the 50% bonus.
In other words, you benefit from a 33.3% discount for the point purchase. Ascott’s redemption system is similar to that of Accor’s, where points have a fixed value and can be directly redeemed against most rates found on their website. This means, purchasing points now and use them on your future stays will save you 33.3% whatever the listed rate is.
However, there was an even better offer last year where points were sold for half price. Surely we have no idea whether or when it’s going to return, yet I wouldn’t encourage you to hoard the points now unless you have immediate use.
There are a few other promotions in addition. For example, Classic members can earn Silver status after completing only one stay – although there’s actually a route for instant Platinum.
Savings Account with 3% Interest – Igloo Energy?!
We wrote about utility providers recently, which summarises the companies that allow you to pay bills with Amex, so that you can accrue more points on your daily spend.
However, I just learned something new lately. Igloo Energy has this statement on their support article:
We think your money should be working as hard as you do which is why every month when we bill you, we add a 3% Interest Reward based on any credit balance you have.
The credit balance of your account, up to £1000, will earn a 3% interest p.a. reward on a daily basis. Then, every month, any reward you’ve earned is added to your balance when we generate your statement.
If you account is in credit, you can earn 3% interest on the credit balance up to £1,000. This is better than any current account or savings account you find at a UK bank, I believe.
It means that you can overpay your bill using Amex and then earn an interest on top, which sounds great. Of course when it comes to choosing an energy provider, fares is the first thing you should look at, however if Igloo Energy happens to be the cheapest then the interest is a nice add-on.
If not – feel free to use my referral link to join Octopus Energy for a £50 reward 😉
Uber Eats on Airtime, Morrisons Offer Extended
For takeaway lovers, Uber Eats has just appeared on my Airtime account:
10% cashback on all purchases is a nice deal, although some people report a variant which is valid on the first purchase only.
On a relevant note, we talked about the impressive Morrisons offer last week. What I forgot to mention is that, it’s also stackable with Virgin credit cards, which had been offering 10% cashback until yesterday.
All my cashbacks / points have tracked:
Fortunately, the Virgin credit card offer has been extended for some to the beginning of April. Combined with Morrisons More, it means up to 20.5% cashback plus 8 points / £1.
Even if you aren’t a Virgin credit card holder, you can still take advantage of the Amex 10% cashback offer.
If you’d like to join Airtime, feel free to use my referral code NAYK9C9Y which awards you 50p right away and another £1 if you make a purchase on the first five days.
30% off Amazon Warehouse Products!
Amazon Warehouse is running a new promotion, and this time the discount is even better!
You can access the offer page here. Until March 31, you can enjoy 30% off select products which are listed on the page. Use the search box at the top to find things you are interested in.
You don’t need a coupon code, as the discount automatically applies at checkout.
Amazon Warehouse is Amazon’s marketplace for returned products, and you can see their conditions on the product page, e.g. Like New, Very Good and Good. I bought a “Like New” robot vacuum cleaner last time, and let’s say Amazon’s definition of “New” is very generous… However, like ordinary purchases, you can always return the product and get a refund.