Best Buy and gift cards

[darthspud]

Hi everyone!

I just have a real quick question.. I am trying to think of ways to save to buy and ipad what generally works for me when it comes to saving for disney is to buy disney gift cards because i cannot spend them any where else.. so i was thinking of doing this for best buy to save for my ipad.. my question is can best buy's register machines handle like a billon gift cards at a whack? I was planning on getting a 50$ gc every 2 weeks (my paycheck cycle) up until I have enough for the $600 ipad... so that would average out to about 12 gc's is that possible? i though if any group of people would know the answer it would be you fine folks!!

 

[Be1021]

Yes, it can be done. Just something to think about is the protection you have by paying for a large purchase with a credit card in case you have a problem. You do not have that with a gift card.

 

[beesly]

Yes, it can be done. Just something to think about is the protection you have by paying for a large purchase with a credit card in case you have a problem. You do not have that with a gift card.

This. Unless you plan to purchase Best Buy's extended warranty, I'd suggest paying with a credit card. I saved up the cash for my iPad, used a credit card for the purchase, then paid the cc balance on my next bill (well... the iPad portion of the balance).

 

[daydream32]

How about opening a free online only account (like ING or some bank like that)?

A friend of mine has one and uses it to transfer her money from her local bank to her online savings account. Since it takes a couple of days to transfer money between the two banks (this was a while ago, so it could be faster now), it is harder to randomly spend the money.

Even just another account or sub-account at your current bank might work if there are no fees. You could even get some interest and your money is not tied up to one store if someone else has a better promotion or sale.

 

[thomas998]

What happens if you start doing your BestBuy gift card plan... and then the week you decide you will have enough gift cards to buy you Ipad you find that XYZ down the street is doing a special where you get a free Ipod with your Ipad or they have the Ipad for $50 less than BestBuy... you've no option to get the better deal.

Just put the money you want for your ipad into an envelope, seal it up and put it under your mattress... surely you have enough self control not to raid your mattress.

But committing to a particular store for a purchase that can come from anywhere seems kind of limiting.

 

[DawnM]

Well, my iPad was a gift. It was supposed to be an iPad in the mail, but it ended up being a $550 gift card to Best Buy, which was enough to cover the lowest end iPad 2 plus tax.

I splurged and spent an extra $100 to upgrade to a 32gb, but I did get it from BB.

Now, Amazon would have been cheaper, but since the GC wasn't purchased by me, I didn't care too much.

I would opt for just savings as others have mentioned.

Dawn

 

[darthspud]

How about opening a free online only account (like ING or some bank like that)?

A friend of mine has one and uses it to transfer her money from her local bank to her online savings account. Since it takes a couple of days to transfer money between the two banks (this was a while ago, so it could be faster now), it is harder to randomly spend the money.

Even just another account or sub-account at your current bank might work if there are no fees. You could even get some interest and your money is not tied up to one store if someone else has a better promotion or sale.

Thats a good point.. I was planning on doing this for a saving account towards my purchase into DVC.. I was concerned about costs of moving money from one account to another it seems as though on ING's end its free I just need to check into from my current bank

I know just having another sub account from my current bank wouldn't work for me i basically have no financial self control (but I'm trying very very very hard to work on this) It took me about 4 years to get out of debt that I just foolish went and racked up I am trying to maintain my self control by making myself save for things instead of just spending an entire paycheck and having no money left over to pay my bills (which I use to do)

I did look into it it takes about 2 business days for the money to show up into the other account

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

If you have a Target card you can buy it there and save 5%.... and... if you want to wait a while.... ipads are part of the tax free weekend offered at the start of the school year every year.