Want to know how to get free gift cards? Here are 20 ways to get free gift cards instantly!
While cash is king, gift cards are queen. Just as good, if not better, than cash.
Imagine that you’re buying something online and you can apply a gift card to the purchase. That feels GOOD! You can purchase that item without any guilt whatsoever!
How great would it be if you would have more gift cards available at any time? SUPER GREAT!
It is great that you don’t have to pay for things because you can easily earn free gift cards and use those. You will save a lot of money because of that!
Here is a great list of all the websites or apps that will ask you to do tasks for them – in return, you will get points that you can use towards free gift cards.
These companies are the best and easiest ways to earn free gift cards. They offer the best return on your time and you won’t have to work 10 hours to earn a $10 gift card, that’s not worth it!
Check out any of these companies and you’ll be able to earn multiple gift cards & apply them next time to your (online) shopping at places like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, or one of the many other (online) stores.
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How To Get Free Gift Cards?
So how will you get free gift cards? What companies will pay you and what do you have to do in return?
The most widely used way of getting free gift cards is by getting cashback on your purchases. That’s not the only way. You can also fill out surveys or complete a questionnaire to earn your (points towards) a free gift card.
On top of that, you can refer your friends, trade your old stuff for a free gift card, or do all other kinds of activities. Just like there are many great side hustle ideas, there are dozens of different ways you can earn free gift cards.
Best Apps To Get Free Gift Cards
Earning free gift cards is mostly done through survey websites, where you complete surveys and questionnaires for gift cards. That’s why we will go into that first.
How does it work?
After you’ve completed your profile on the website, you will start receiving surveys that you can fill out. When you’ve finished them, you will get credit on the platform. All the credit for the surveys is building up until you can trade your points for a gift card.
Just take a couple of minutes every day to fill out some surveys and you’ll have plenty of gift cards to spend in a couple of weeks!
Swagbucks (& A $5 Bonus)
Swagbucks is one of the most popular platforms in the world, where you can earn points by browsing the web, shopping online, and taking surveys.
Singing up with Swagbucks is completely free. You even get a $5 bonus! Once you’re set up, you can earn free gift cards or cashback with surveys, your purchases, or simply watching videos.
On the Swagbucks website, they have their own rewards store. You can check out what kind of reward you would like to get – there are many different choices (Amazon, PayPal, Visa gift card, and more).
The great thing about Swagbucks is that you can already redeem your points from $5, so you get can your rewards fast. If you need to earn $30 before you can cash out, it will take a lot longer before you can cash out your first free gift card. Read our entire Swagbucks review here.
Open to residents 13 years of age or older in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
Receive a $5 welcome bonus when you sign up using my link.
Inbox Dollars (& A $5 Bonus)
With Inbox Dollars, you can easily sign up and start taking surveys.
Inbox Dollars have many short surveys to choose from. While you’re not going to earn $10 with one survey, they are short so you can do multiple a day.
The great thing is that you can also earn extra gift cards by playing video games, watching short videos, or searching the web. All within the Inbox Dollars platform.
While you have to wait until you have $30 to cash out, you already get $5 for signing up PLUS $5 for every friend you refer to their platform. You will be able to make those $30 fairly quickly.
Available in the US.
Receive a $5 welcome bonus when you sign up using my link.
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is a legit survey website that lets you sign up within a couple of minutes. You can even earn your first points by simply completing your profile.
Their platform offers many surveys, which means you won’t get bored easily. You can always fill out surveys when you’re waiting in line, on the bus, or watching TV.
Available in US, Canada, and Australia.
Drop
With Drop, you can earn cashback rewards when you’re shopping, by filling out surveys or playing games.
Plus, you will get $5 when you link it to your debit or credit card! You can install it at home, so no stress that your debit card may decline.
Use their app when you start shopping, link your debit or credit card, and browse through the cashback offers in the app. You can find cashback from Target, Walmart, Amazon, and more.
PrizeRebel
PrizeRebel lets you earn free gift cards for platforms like PayPal & Amazon by filling out surveys. When you watch videos and complete offers, there will be more points (and thus gift cards) to earn!
Want to refer your friends? You can earn even more points!
The good thing with PrizeRebel is that, just like with Swagbucks, you will be able to cash out with just $5.
Scan Your Receipts For Gift Cards
There are many different ways to get free gift cards, scanning your receipts is one of them. You simply scan your receipts in an app and they will let you know how much cashback you’ve earned.
Ibotta
With Ibotta you can earn cashback on both your online and your store purchases. You can check their app for any offers that you would want to redeem.
When you finish shopping you simply make a picture from the receipt and that is it.
You can get points for gift cards as well as send them directly to your PayPal account.
Here is our full Ibotta review and experience earning cashback through shopping.
Fetch Rewards
With Fetch Rewards, you can scan your grocery receipt through their app and earn your points.
At any given moment, Fetch Rewards will have certain bonuses with specific brands. The good thing is that you don’t have to search for them, as they will do that for you. When you scan the receipt their software will automatically scan through it and give you points.
You can also earn points when you refer friends & family. If someone signs up through your link, you will get 2,000 points the moment they scan their first receipt. With no limit to the number of people you can refer to, this can be very beneficial.
You can trade the points for rewards at different stores in many different categories. You need at least 3,000 points ($3) for Sephora, Best Buy, Airbnb, and more. Some other retailers require a minimum of 5,000 points (value $5).
Use this link and code APREWARDS to get 3,000 free points!
ReceiptPal
With ReceiptPal you can also earn points by scanning receipts. Plus, you can connect your Amazon account or shop at other stores (like Walmart, Target & Home Depot) and get rewards.
With ReceiptPal, you can save for free gift cards or donate your points to a charity. Plus, you can participate in prize draws for other bonuses.
Cash Back Apps
When you are shopping online and in person, cashback apps may be a great way to earn free gift cards starting today.
BeFrugal.com (& A $10 Bonus)
On BeFrugal.com you can get cashback on your purchases when shopping online. You can shop through their portal or through their browser extension.
With this website, you can get cashback on Amazon, eBay, and more.
Sign up through this link and get a $10 bonus – the bonus will be paid once you reach $10 in cashback.
ShopKick
With ShopKick you can get cashback when you link your credit card, make purchases, scan specific barcodes, or simply walk into a specific store like Target or CVS.
They offer many different ways to earn points, meaning that you have many different chances to earn your free gift card. The ShopKick platform claims that most users can earn their first gift card within a week!
Online Shopping Portals To Get Free Gift Cards
When you’re earning cashback, shopping portals is probably something that you will also like. You shop through a specific app or portal and earn gift cards for your purchases.
MyPoints
MyPoints helps you earn points by shopping online. Simply shop online through their site and you will earn points that you can trade for free gift cards.
Earn $5 when you take 5 surveys on their platform!
Honey Extension
Honey is an extension you can install on the browser that saves you money and gives you cashback when you’re shopping online.
If a website you’re shopping on has cashback available through Honey, you will get a notification in order to activate it. That’s how easy it gets.
A nice bonus with Honey is that you can refer other users to their platform & receive $5 worth of points when they sign up. That way you will be sure to cash out your free gift cards quickly!
Other Easy Ways To Get Free Gift Cards
There are dozens of companies out there that want to reward you for doing them a favor on their platform. These are simply some other easy ways to get free gift cards.
Product Tube
Product Tube is a platform where you participate in market research by taking videos. Take videos of your daily shopping habits and get paid for them.
They can ask you to video yourself going into a store and making your purchasing decisions out loud. Or they can ask you to use a specific product at home and film the process.
You can make videos in the app and upload them directly. Product Tube claims on their website that you can earn $50-$80 per hour with this.
Refer Friends & Family
There are many websites that give you free credit or free gift cards when you refer your friends and family. These kinds of offers can be difficult to find if you really want to find them.
Here are a couple of websites currently offering referral codes:
- Uber – refer someone and earn $5
- Lyft – refer someone and earn $5
- DoorDash – refer someone and earn $7
- Empower – refer someone and earn $20
Buy & Sell Gift Cards
On Giftcards.com you can buy gift cards at a lower price and receive points towards more gift cards as you shop. They have every gift card you can think of on their platform.
Want to earn more points? Read their newsletter and install their browser extension on your computer. You will earn gift cards as you go.
Microsoft Rewards
With Microsoft Rewards, you can earn points for simply using a search engine. You activate Bing as your primary search engine and you already start to earn points!
Want to earn something more? Answer poll questions or fill out quizzes. You can earn different prizes and gift cards to redeem in the Microsoft store (which includes Xbox, Microsoft Office, and more).
Ask For Free Gift Cards Instead Of Gifts
The easiest way to get free gift cards? Ask for them!
When it’s the holiday season or your birthday is coming up, ask for gift cards to your favorite stores. If you’re not sure what kinds of gift cards you want, you can always ask for a Visa or Mastercard gift card.
I have to admit that I personally haven’t asked for gifts for Christmas for the last 3 years. When I do come across something that I want, I’m happy to have the gift cards so that I can actually buy them.
Especially when you’re saving for a large purchase like a new laptop or other electronics, a gift card can help you set off the expense.
Instagram Giveaways
Another great way to win free gift cards is to search Instagram. There are MANY giveaways going on and why not try to win?
While this is no guarantee, it can be a fun way to win gift cards!
Check the accounts you follow or go around looking for hashtags. This can be hashtags like:
- #giveaway
- #contest
- #win
- #competition
- #prize
- #giveawaycontest
- #giveawayalert
- #instagiveaway
With Instagram, you have the option to follow specific hashtags. That way you can see the giveaways on your feed and you don’t have to keep searching for them.
If giveaways are not something you want to have in your feed, simply go through the hashtags in your spare time.
Other Places To Earn Free Gift Cards & Free Cash
There are a couple of other ways I can recommend to earn free gift cards or get free cash:
- Rakuten – this is a great cash back site! While it is a highly recommended platform, they only offer cash and no gift cards. Read our full Rakuten review here.
- TopCashBack USA – this is another cash back platform where you can earn cash simply by shopping through their platform. Their low minimum payment threshold is great for cash out regularly.
- Pinecone Research – this is a survey website that pays a minimum of $3 for a 15-minute survey. It is hard to get into the platform, but once you do they only send highly relevant studies your way. Available in the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany.
Earn Gift Cards With Things You Already Do
The best and easiest way to earn free gift cards is to do things you’re already doing. For example, online shopping through a portal like Swagbucks or Honey. Or you can decide to scan your regular grocery receipt with Ibotta or Fetch Rewards.
You don’t need to do extra purchases or change your spending habits.
If you don’t shop a lot, earn free gift cards through online surveys, ask for gift cards, enter giveaways, and more.
Steps To Get More Rewards When You Shop With Your Free Gift Cards
When you’re shopping online to redeem your free gift card, there are a couple of things you can go to get even more rewards:
- Shop through a cashback portal. Shop through Rakuten, Swagbucks, or Honey when you want to buy things. They will ask you if you want to activate your cashback, and you press yes.
- Search for coupon codes on checkout. When you have found what you’re looking for, you can go to the checkout process. When you land on the page where they ask for the coupon codes, activate Honey. That will make sure you’re not missing out on any additional discount coupons. The Honey extension will search for available coupons automatically.
- Pay your products through Giftcards.com. After you know what the total balance is that you need to pay, go to Giftcards.com and buy gift cards to cover your total amount.
How To Get Free Gift Cards Online?
Whether you are shopping online, getting cash back on groceries, or filling out surveys – there are dozens of ways to get free gift cards.
Free gift cards are available to everyone. It comes down to figuring out what is best for your specific situation.
What ways have you tried to get free gift cards?
Founder of Spark Nomad, Radical FIRE, Journalist
- Expertise: Personal finance and travel content
- Education: Bachelor of Economics at Radboud University, Master in Finance at Radboud University, Minor in Economics at Chapman University.
- Over 200 articles, essays, and short stories published across the web.
Experience: Marjolein Dilven is a journalist and founder of Spark Nomad, a travel platform, and Radical FIRE, a personal finance platform. Marjolein has a finance and economics background with a master’s in Finance. She has quit her job to travel the world, documenting her travels on Spark Nomad to help people plan their travels. Marjolein Dilven has written for publications like MSN, Associated Press, CNBC, Town News syndicate, and more.