Raise Review: Use Raise to Buy Discounted Gift Cards and Save Money

Do you have partially used gift cards sitting around that you don’t plan to use?

Maybe someone gifted you a baby store gift card, but you don’t have kids, or you’ve gone gluten-free and won’t use the rest of your Olive Garden gift card. Well, you might be able to sell your gift cards at a discount to earn some extra cash.

Additionally, if you plan to make a purchase and can’t find a discount, you might be able to buy a gift card at a discount to help you cover the cost. The website Raise allows users to both buy and sell gift cards. Therefore, you can use the website to earn cash or to save money on purchases.

What is Raise?

Raise is an online marketplace that allows users to buy and sell gift cards at a discount. The e-commerce platform allows third-party sellers to sell new or used gift cards via their marketplace alongside Raise’s other regular offerings

How Does Raise Work?

Raise acts as the middleman between buyers and sellers to help people earn cash for their gift cards. Compared to other ways to sell items online for cash, Raise has relatively low overhead and is simple to use.

When users sign up for the platform, they can choose to buy or sell a gift card. When shopping on the platform, you might see digital and physical gift cards at a discount between 1% and 30%. Therefore, you can save a lot of money when purchasing a gift card on Raise.

For example, let’s say you want to buy something on Amazon. You can use Raise to purchase a $25 Amazon gift card for $20. You could then stack your savings by using cashback apps or discount codes to purchase items on Amazon that cost $25 or more and only pay $20. If you use this method for larger purchases, your savings can really stack up!

Sellers are charged a $1 fee to list a physical card in the marketplace. When someone buys the card, the company deducts a 15% commission before paying the seller. Therefore, if you choose to list a $25 Amazon gift card and it sells for $20, you will receive $16 for your gift card. While you won’t earn the amount that your gift card is worthwhile using Raise, it is an easy platform to use and is designed specifically for gift cards. This helps sellers to sell their gift cards quickly.

Is Raise Legit?

Raise is a legitimate company. Not only is the website cleaner and more user friendly than its competitors it also offers a 1-year money-back guarantee on any gift cards that users purchase that are not active, have an inaccurate balance, or are otherwise different than described in the listing. This guarantee includes a refund guarantee if you can prove that the gift cards hold no balance.

How to Use Raise

Raise is relatively simple to use for both buyers and sellers. The first step to buying or selling on Raise is to create an account. Creating an account is free, and you can begin browsing immediately after signing up. From there, you will decide whether you want to buy or sell gift cards.

Sell Gift Cards

If you want to make money using Raise, then you will want to sell gift cards. After creating an account, you will click ‘sell gift cards’ in the top navigation bar. This will take you to the page on which you can create a listing. You will be prompted to enter the store name of the card you plan to sell. Then, select ‘get started’.

You will need the information from the physical or digital gift card to continue. You will be prompted to enter the number on the back of the card or other serial numbers, plus a PIN and any additional information. You will also need to provide the balance of the gift card before moving forward.

Once you have input all the information on your card, you will be asked to review the listing. You will need to enter the amount available on the gift card, and then will be able to set the price. The price depends on the competition. For example, if you are the only person selling a Walmart gift card, you likely will not need to sell it at much of a discount and therefore can collect most of the value of the card. However, if lots of people are selling Walmart cards at 5% discounts, you might want to edge out the competition by selling the gift card at a 6% discount.

Your card will remain on the website until it sells. Raise will tell you what other gift cards are selling for when you list your card to help you price it accordingly.

Buy Gift Cards

If you’d rather buy gift cards to help you save money on purchases, then you can navigate to ‘buy gift cards’ on the raise.com website. Then, you can enter the name of the store for which you would like to buy a gift card. The name of the store will typically auto-populate, making it easier to sift through vendors.

Then, you will see all the gift cards that are available for that store. You can filter the results by the highest discount to the lowest, or you can filter by balance if you only need a specific dollar amount. Once you’ve found the gift card you would like to buy, you can click ‘buy now’. This will add the card to your cart. You can continue to shop for gift cards or go to ‘review and checkout’ if you are finished shopping.

To complete the purchase, you will enter your payment details. You may opt to save them for your next purchase as well. If you purchased a physical gift card, it will be mailed to you. If you purchased a digital gift card, it will be stored in your Raise account as well as sent to your email inbox. You will be able to start using it immediately.

It is important to note that if you add an item to your cart and wait more than a few minutes to complete the purchase, it will automatically go back to the sales page and be available for others to purchase. This helps to prevent cards from taking a long time to sell and gives others a chance to purchase the cards.

If you don’t find the card or discount that you are looking for, you can choose to sign up for email alerts. You can get alerts for specific stores or create a favorites list. This will help you to find great deals in the future.

Should I Use Raise?

Raise is a legitimate platform and thousands of people have bought and sold on its marketplace. However, it is up to you to decide if the platform is right for you. Here are a few pros and cons to consider.

Pros

There are plenty of great reasons to use Raise both as a buyer and a seller of gift cards.

• The website and app are free and easy to use
• Raise has a reliable guarantee program that protects buyers
• It can be a great way to save money when making a purchase
• Raise’s referral program allows users to earn a $5 credit toward future gift card purchases

Cons

While the website does have our stamp of approval, there are a few setbacks to using Raise.

• Not all cards that you purchase can be used both online and in-store. While this is communicated in each listing, it can confuse some people.
• There is no return policy, but buyers can choose to resell gift cards if they choose. They will, however, be charged a fee when they resell.
• Some competitors charge less than Raise’s 15% selling fee. This fee can cut into profits if you are selling on Raise.

The Bottom Line

If you want to sell your gift cards to make some extra cash, then Raise is a reliable platform. While you will only earn 85% of what the card is worth, it is free money if you do not plan to use the gift card. Alternatively, if you are trying to save money on a purchase, it might make a lot of sense for you to purchase a gift card at a discount. Raise allows both buyers and sellers to make the most of unused gift cards.

If you decide that selling gift cards online isn’t your move, there are plenty of other ways that you can earn cash online. You may want to look in to selling other items that you have around the house or think about making money using your smartphone. If you are looking for other ways to save money when buying online, you can earn free PayPal money or find ways to earn free Amazon gift cards.

Originally published at https://yourmoneygeek.com on May 26, 2020.