Things to look out for when buying gift cards from Raise.com

I love Raise. I used to buy gift cards from Raise.com all the time. It used to give me the opportunity to earn an additional 5% in airline mileage. It’s not so much anymore, but it’s not nothing and was always worth it for me, until now.

Actually, I would say go ahead and keep doing it, but be careful.

I wanted a laptop from Walmart, so I went to Raise and bought some Walmart gift cards to acquire the laptop. It worked great and I was expecting something like 4-5 points per dollar (3 points for the Walmart shopping portal and 1-2 points for Raise.

This would’ve been great, but the nightmare began after I returned the laptop. Walmart refunded my credit card and one of the gift cards, but not both. I went on chat with Walmart.com multiple times and the answers varied between they would investigate, they would credit it, and they would need to escalate. Every time, they had me waiting 24 hours in the meanwhile. Finally, I called and they told me the gift card was used for several returns and was blacklisted or something like that. They said I needed to provide a picture of the original gift card along with the receipt of purchase of the card to get the credit. Fine.

I sent them the Raise receipt along with a screenshot of the digital gift card. Did they accept it? Of course not. Response:

Hi Alton,

We have researched your Gift Card concern and determined that this Walmart Gift Card was bought from a third party. Please contact the third party seller for assistance on the gift card.

Thank you for contacting Walmart, where we are always happy to help!

– Walmart Gift Card

Are they really happy to help? I doubt it. The woman on the phone didn’t sound happy. They wouldn’t pass me over to anyone else. The only thing they could offer me say they’re sending the message in and wait for 24 hours.

What did I do then? Well, the only logical thing to do is go to Raise. I went to Raise and gave them the story. They told me that if I was able to redeem the card the first time, that’s all that they were responsible for. I think that’s the right thing, actually. If the card worked, it’s Walmart’s fault that they’re not returning my credit. I then asked if they could help me with the receipt. Of course not. Raise could not provide it.

So here I am, stuck. What would you do?

As much as I hope to get some good advice here, perhaps I can offer some advice so that you don’t run into the same problem.

  1. When buying gift cards, unless you’re sure you’re not returning the item, avoid any gift card that doesn’t end in .00 or standard number. For example, buy a card that’s $10, not $10.34. Don’t buy an $18 gift card, buy a $20 gift card.
  2. Use your gift cards asap. Don’t even buy the gift card unless you’re getting a really good discount or you are planning to use it immediately. There are hackers out there, script kiddies actually, that will run numbers randomly to try to hit the right combinations. I’ve fallen victim to it a couple of times. I hope that you do not.

Good luck! Please comment down below!