What do you use your Amazon GC's for - Vacation related

[Carina]

We have a few trips on the wish list for the next 3(ish) years. which means LOTS of savings.... (Only the 3rd one is florida)

I have been doing swagbucks and I've been planning to buy GC's for resturants or southwest with them, but I jumped the gun and ordered an amazon GC thinking the giftcards on amazon, like subway could be bought that way and points could be saved.

Alas it was only $5, but GC's cant be bought with GC's.

Knowing Amazon is still the best deal, is there anything I am missing that makes Amazon still the best way to go. I know they have food, but we always have a car, and Amazon prices seem a lot higher, than grocery store prices, which would cancel out any 'deal' of getting amazon cheaper.

All thoughts appreciated!

 

[jls886]

Do you buy things on Amazon normally anyway? If so, you could use the gift cards toward things you normally would buy anyway and then put that money aside instead. So you would end up with cash saved up at the end instead of gift cards.

 

[The Fox Menagerie]

I do Swagbucks also and I always get the 5 discounted AGC each month ($25 for 2250 points). I use these to purchase things for our trips like Tevas shoes. After the AGC, I get Paypal cash. I buy Disney gift cards with my Target Redcard 5% discount, then move the paypal cash to my bank to pay the Target bill. If I do not use all of the AGCs for our trip, then I save them to buy birthday and Christmas presents.

 

[tzeitel]

I do Amazon cards on SB For vacations I have bought sandals (got a pair of red Birkenstocks just last week!), a camera bag, rechargeable batteries and other accessories for my camera, a carry-on suitcase and a park bag. I got DD some puzzle/crossword books, a portable dvd player (a few years ago, she has now moved on to a Kindle Fire) and earmuffs (she has sensitive hearing and uses them for firework shows etc).

Not specifically for trips but could very well be used on them - DD and I got a Kindle Fire each, have bought books and games for those KF's plus cases for them. I get all of our Disney DVDs on Amazon - you can download them to your KF as well.

You can get beach towels, packing cubes, sunglasses, sunblock, car games pretty much anything you might need on any of your trips.

 

[pocomom]

I don't know if giftcard resellers charge for trades, but I know several accept trades. but I would vote for what others said and order things you would normally buy with them and then set aside the cash equivalent. I just used amazon giftcards to buy 6x rewards toys on Amazon through SB for my dd's birthday-So I can get another GC now! Amazon isn't the best for groceries but they are very competitve for toys etc.

 

[tlenzendorf]

I do Swagbucks and get Target gift cards instead. You can use them to get Disney gift cards in store. They do cost 50 more points/$5 card, but I'm ok with that.

 

[Carina]

OK Question 2- how are y'all earning SB so fast???

I would love to be getting over 2000 sb a month, but I'm barely breaking 500 sb a month

 

[ThisIsJason]

I buy way too much stuff off Amazon with SB. Books; Blu-rays; MP3s; video games; Braun System Clean refills. Anything other than food. Right now saving up for a Dyson vacuum. Whatever gets bought with gift cards that cost is placed into a vacation fund.

I don't know how many SB I average a month. I get the five $5 Amazon cards (2,250 points); one $25 Amazon card (2,500). Those have been ordered for the month and right now I am sitting at 725.

I do the mobile everyday (50 points), the poll, NOSO, toolbar (4 points) use the search until I get points (have gotten 6-43 points, depends on the day) and then normal SBTV. I try to do the goal for the day plus 30 points.

 

[pocomom]

OK Question 2- how are y'all earning SB so fast???

I would love to be getting over 2000 sb a month, but I'm barely breaking 500 sb a month

I don't think I normally would but they happend to have several stores I needed to get things at anyway have enhanced SB. I actually joined recently - I don't think I could invest the time to regularly do all the stuff and regularly earn a bunch, but if I'm shopping anyway... Now if I am going to get something I look first for a discount giftcard and order (using rewards CC), then for a retail me not coupon and then go through Swagbucks. Plus I'll do polls or searches when I'm waiting for files to process when working or if I'm just waiting around for something. Without the shopping it's not worth the time commitment to me- Basically they are saying a SB is worth a penny based on reimbursement for giftcards- So I ask myself if x amount of time is worth x amount of pennies before I do it...

 

[cwhite92]

off topic but, what is swagbucks?

 

[Carina]

off topic but, what is swagbucks?

http://www.swagbucks.com/ is a search engine that gives you points (known as swagbucks) for doing searches and other things. It isn't a great search engine and certianly isn't going to give google a run for its money on useablity, but I just search any old thing thats on my mind to earn points.

You dont get points 'per' search, you win them randomly. I usually have a window open and randomly refresh my search term every few mins until I win. Then i know I wont win for a few more hours so I stop until later.

There are other ways to earn, but I will let others explain it better to you, as I am earning about 1/10th what others here earn.

There are many things you can get with your SB's but the best are Gift Certificates, Of which there are many in many denominations. The $5 amazon GC's are the best dollar per SB ratio, with it costing you an equivalent of $4.50 worth of SB (450SB) for a $5 card The rest seem to work out to be 100 points per $1

 

[Carina]

I do the mobile everyday (50 points), the poll, NOSO, toolbar (4 points) use the search until I get points (have gotten 6-43 points, depends on the day) and then normal SBTV. I try to do the goal for the day plus 30 points.

THANKS

Do you get 50SB each day just for logging in on the mobile?

What is the max points per day on SBTV?

 

[ThisIsJason]

THANKS

Do you get 50SB each day just for logging in on the mobile?

What is the max points per day on SBTV?

No. The mobile is an App for Android/iPhone. It is just like SBTV but instead of the 10 videos/3 points it is 5 videos/2 points for a max of 50. It works good on my Android phone, but it does error out, so you need to "watch" it to get it back going again.

Honestly, I do not know the max points on SBTV. I *think* I had read it is 160. The most I have ever done in one day was 100ish.

With my work I can keep a tab open on SBTV and every minute or so I can click back over to it and click the next video (as long as I do not have an appointment if I do that person gets 100% of my attention). Don't even have to watch it. If I couldn't do that, I would only be doing the mobile and maybe a few other points per day.

 

[cwhite92]

Gotcha! Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Malibustyle23]

I do Swagbucks and get Target gift cards instead. You can use them to get Disney gift cards in store. They do cost 50 more points/$5 card, but I'm ok with that.

I don't have a smart phone will it let me print it out at home and redeem in store to get a WDW gift card at Target?

 

[crazelion]

I don't have a smart phone will it let me print it out at home and redeem in store to get a WDW gift card at Target?

No. You must have a smartphone.

 

[tlenzendorf]

I don't have a smart phone will it let me print it out at home and redeem in store to get a WDW gift card at Target?

Just read the terms. Egift cards cannot be used unless uploaded to a web able mobile device. Bummer.

 

[la79al]

I use my SB Amazon gift cards for Christmas shopping and then take that money out of my Christmas account and put it in the vacation account. Other than that, I never really felt that spending the extra money to get it on Amazon just to use my gift cards was a good idea. The exception is memory cards for my camera.

 

[Malibustyle23]

I use my SB Amazon gift cards for Christmas shopping and then take that money out of my Christmas account and put it in the vacation account. Other than that, I never really felt that spending the extra money to get it on Amazon just to use my gift cards was a good idea. The exception is memory cards for my camera.

I like that idea!

 

[Carina]

LOL Just broke 450 points again and its so hard not to redeem, but I really want Southwest GC's... Must be strong willed!!!