No More Using a Gift card at Target.com to save 5%

[SUSIEQ]

I applied a gift card to cover the entire Disney gift card purchase and the 5% discount remained. It still works.

Same here!
Maybe the OP should try it again.

 

[Bree]

No issues here either. Still getting the 5% discount when paying with a gift card. Did it this morning.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'd just like to throw this out there, but maybe Target actually benefits from being one of the biggest gift card churning sites out there. They made a conscious decision to eliminate the 5% pharmacy rewards discount and the employee discount, but they left this gift card discount available. I imagine they could have eliminated this if they wanted to do so. Maybe a 10% discount was cutting too much into their profits, but 5% might be the sweet spot. I mean, how many hundreds or thousands of dollars have people spent buying Disney or other gift cards at a 5% discount? I am not sure what the margins on gift cards actually are, but I assume they must be worth selling otherwise no company would likely sell any gift cards except their own.

Also, the point of the Redcard discount is that when people pay with a Target store card, Target is not incurring the same credit card transaction fees that they normally would if someone paid with an Amex or Visa. The same actually holds true with a gift card as well. They won't be paying out transaction fees on that order, so maybe they don't actually care about this so called "loophole." It may also help to eliminate outstanding gift cards, which are a liability against current assets.

I went to Target yesterday and purchased $200 in Chiptole gift cards, received the 5% Redcard discount and then got another $20 back in gift cards. I paid $170 for $200 worth of gift cards. They know this is possible and yet they are still offering this as an incentive because I believe that they are still making money.

 

[SUSIEQ]

Many here have been using a Target Gift Card to save 5% at Target.com. It was a loophole that worked like this...

1. Have a Target Red card as your default payment.
2. Order stuff. The Payment summary would show the 5% off
3. Edit the Payment option from Red Card to Gift Card. The 5% off discount would still apply.

This loophole appears to have closed. I just tried it this morning. When I started with the Red Card as a payment option, I had the discount. When I changed it to using a gift card, the 5% discount disappeared.

So it was fun while it lasted. It was a loophole after all. A flaw in the system that they have apparently fixed. Those of you who buy gift cards just to use this flaw to save 5% at Target.com may want to find other avenues to save money.

OP, did you try again???

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I stopped getting the 5% discount when paying entirely with a Target gift card about a month ago, right after I received my new Red Card with the chip and had to update my default payment method. Now I have to have at least something charged to my Red Card to get the 5% discount on the entire order. Makes it a real challenge to come up with the right combination of Target gift cards to get as close to the the total as possible without going over.

 

[ValpoCory]

Honestly, I don't think it was a discount they intended to give. It was/is a loophole. They found it and closed it. (or at least are trying to close it)

Or perhaps they know about it and are ok with it, and all you encountered was a browser glitch. Try clearing your cart, logging out, closing your browser, and starting the process over.

 

[descovy]

I did try again. I was actually trying to purchase 3 of an item that was low in stock so it made me buy them 1 at a time. I tried 3 times.

I did not try making a partial payment with a red card. Just tried switching the entire payment to gift cards.

Good for you if it works for you. I just thought folks might want to slow down on the frenzy of buying gift cards with the sole purpose of saving 5% online.

As stated in an earlier update, I also have a new Target MasterCard chip card that replaced my old Target Visa magnetic stripe card. That may or may not be the difference as well.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry I'm not understanding the perk here. I don't have a Red card but if I did and listed it as my default payment method, why not just use it to get the 5% discount legitimately? It sounds like more work having to buy Target gift cards.

 

[ValpoCory]

Sorry I'm not understanding the perk here. I don't have a Red card but if I did and listed it as my default payment method, why not just use it to get the 5% discount legitimately? It sounds like more work having to buy Target gift cards.

The idea is that you buy the Target Gift Cards at a discount from another site like Raise. Usually, around 6%, say to buy a $95 Target Gift Card for $89. Then you use RedCard discount to buy a $100 Disney Card for $95, but instead of using your RedCard, you actually pay with that $95 Target Card. And now you have paid $89 for a $100 Disney Gift Card.

 

[ValpoCory]

As stated in an earlier update, I also have a new Target MasterCard chip card that replaced my old Target Visa magnetic stripe card. That may or may not be the difference as well.

I would guess you encountered that issue. As mentioned, there is a workaround for it by adding enough to your cart to force the RedCard to be used for at least $0.01.

 

[robinb]

I would guess you encountered that issue. As mentioned, there is a workaround for it by adding enough to your cart to force the RedCard to be used for at least $0.01.

You can also select your Redcard on the "How do you want to pay" screen, select Save and Continue to the "Review your order" screen and then select "edit" next to payment to enter in your gift cards (only 4 per transaction). I thought it was easier having the gift cards already in the Target system.

 

[havaneselover]

I did try again. I was actually trying to purchase 3 of an item that was low in stock so it made me buy them 1 at a time. I tried 3 times.

I did not try making a partial payment with a red card. Just tried switching the entire payment to gift cards.

Good for you if it works for you. I just thought folks might want to slow down on the frenzy of buying gift cards with the sole purpose of saving 5% online.

As stated in an earlier update, I also have a new Target MasterCard chip card that replaced my old Target Visa magnetic stripe card. That may or may not be the difference as well.

So if I buy fewer gift cards, then what??? I'm not following why the frenzy of gift card buying should slow.

 

[SUSIEQ]

The idea is that you buy the Target Gift Cards at a discount from another site like Raise. Usually, around 6%, say to buy a $95 Target Gift Card for $89. Then you use RedCard discount to buy a $100 Disney Card for $95, but instead of using your RedCard, you actually pay with that $95 Target Card. And now you have paid $89 for a $100 Disney Gift Card.

Isn't it a beautiful thing!
And it works!

 

[DisneyNurse4Life]

Makes sense since you save the 5% when using the red card to buy a giftcard.

Gift card discounts are weird because the store is trying to make sure they don't get doubled.

• If my husband buys a gift card to somewhere that isn't target he gets both his 10% employee and his 5% red card discounts.
• If he buys a target giftcard he only gets the redcard discount.
• When he using a target giftcard he gets his employee discount.

My husband also is a TM. How are you getting an employee discount to work for GCs? It doesn't work online nor in the stores for us! Please advise! TIA.

 

[supersnoop]

My husband also is a TM. How are you getting an employee discount to work for GCs? It doesn't work online nor in the stores for us! Please advise! TIA.

I'd say that information is out of date. The employee discount hasn't worked on gift cards for a while now.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I'm glad they closed it. You should only receive the 5% if you pay with the Red card, not just have it listed as your default payment.

 

[Clawdya]

I stopped getting the 5% discount when paying entirely with a Target gift card about a month ago, right after I received my new Red Card with the chip and had to update my default payment method. Now I have to have at least something charged to my Red Card to get the 5% discount on the entire order. Makes it a real challenge to come up with the right combination of Target gift cards to get as close to the the total as possible without going over.

I received the red card with the chip and have occasionally encountered where it doesn't want to give me the 5% as soon as I select the target gift card as payment. When this happens, I switch device. If it happens on my tablet, I switch to using the target app on my phone (or desktop/laptop). There's always one that works.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I received the red card with the chip and have occasionally encountered where it doesn't want to give me the 5% as soon as I select the target gift card as payment. When this happens, I switch device. If it happens on my tablet, I switch to using the target app on my phone (or desktop/laptop). There's always one that works.

I've tried different PC's, different browsers, my iPad and phone and can't get it to work. I keep on trying in case it starts working again.

 

[Clawdya]

I've tried different PC's, different browsers, my iPad and phone and can't get it to work. I keep on trying in case it starts working again.

Oh that stinks, I really hope that you can get it to work so you can also benefit from paying with the target gift cards instead of the red card and still get your 5% off. You probably have tried it all but here's a few more things I have tried with my previous card when I was having this problem. Once I had to re-enter and save the CVV number from the card and another time I just deleted my red card information, cleared the browser cookies, logged back in and re-entered my default payment information.

 

[PerfessorZ]

I've had a chipped Red Card from the get-go and always been able to get the 5%.

I do have to do what a PP said and make the Red Card the default payment, then nearly complete the transaction, but click on something to the effect of "Pay with a Target Gift Card" on the right side of the checkout page below my order total, not in the other payment area.