How to stack a coupon, cash back and a discounted gift card

The three layers

A stack combines savings from separate places on one purchase. The usual three are:

• A store coupon or promo code, which lowers the price at checkout.
• A cash back site, which pays you back a percent of what you spend after the store reports the sale.
• A gift card for that store bought for less than its face value, which makes the money you pay with cost you less.

Each layer is run by a different company with its own terms. A stack works only when every set of terms allows the others.

The order things apply in

The coupon comes off first, at checkout. Stores have their own limits here: Target's coupon policy, for example, allows one manufacturer coupon, one Target category offer and one Target item level offer per item.

Cash back comes next, figured on what you pay for eligible items. Rakuten's guide to combining coupons and cash back works its example on the price after the coupon, and its help page says taxes and shipping never earn cash back. The money arrives later, after the store reports the order to the cash back site.

The gift card is how you pay. It covers the total at checkout, and its saving happened earlier, when you bought it for less than it was worth.

A worked example

These numbers are made up to show the math. They aren't a real deal. Sales tax and shipping are left out to keep it simple.

1. Say a $100 item, and a 10% store coupon. You pay $90.
2. Say a cash back site offers 5% at that store. 5% of $90 is $4.50, paid to you later.
3. Say you pay with a $100 store gift card you bought for $80, which is 20% below face value. The order uses $90 of it, and that $90 of card value cost you $72. The other $10 stays on the card for next time.
4. Your cost: $72 of card value, minus $4.50 cash back, comes to $67.50 for a $100 item.

Now say the store doesn't pay cash back on orders paid with a gift card, or the coupon code wasn't one the cash back site lists. The $4.50 disappears and your cost is $72. The coupon and gift card still work, but the stack is one layer shorter.

What usually breaks a stack

• Rakuten says most gift cards are excluded from cash back, so buying yours through it usually earns nothing.
• Rakuten says some stores exclude purchases paid for with gift cards, in whole or in part.
• Rakuten says coupon codes not listed on Rakuten may void cash back. TopCashback says a code not listed on TopCashback can't be combined with its cash back.
• Both sites say ad blockers and checking out in a different tab can break tracking. Rakuten adds VPNs, cookie blockers, other coupon or cash back extensions, and activating cash back after items are already in the cart.
• Rakuten says the items, categories and brands it excludes vary by store.
• A gift card's own terms can limit it: Costco's Outback Steakhouse eGift listing, for one, says the card can't be used to buy another gift card.
• Rakuten says returned or canceled orders don't earn cash back, and partial returns lower the amount.

Card rewards and the gift card

The part of an order you pay with a gift card isn't charged to your credit card, so it earns no card rewards on that order. Whether buying the gift card itself earns rewards depends on your card's rewards terms, so check them before you count on it.

Steps for a clean stack

1. Find the coupon on the store's own site or on the cash back site's page for that store.
2. Read the cash back site's terms for the store: gift card payment, coupon codes and excluded items.
3. Read the gift card's terms and the seller's purchase limits before you buy it.
4. Turn off ad blockers for the trip, start from the cash back site with an empty cart, and check out in the tab it opened.
5. Keep the order confirmation until the cash back posts. TopCashback says a purchase can take a week or longer to show, and that you can send a missing cash back claim if it doesn't.

Find gift cards below face value

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