Raise

Here's the deal with Raise. They're a 'marketplace' for buyers and sellers of gift cards. The seller lists a gift card, mails it to the buyer, Raise takes a small commission out of the seller's side, and the transaction is complete. Raise offers a generous 100 days complete satisfaction guarantee. HOWEVER... The site is wrought with fraudster sellers. They'll make the transaction, send the card, etc. But since the gift card number is known, they can either use it online, sell it online, go to a physical store, etc. and use the balance after they already sold you the card.

My advise is if you decide to use the service, immediately confirm the balance and transfer to a new gift card. This will prevent the seller from accessing the balance.

I was defrauded a couple of times. The first time I had no idea as the balance was slowly depleted without my realizing it. I thought it was just my purchases, but it turns out my card was being 'shared' and skimmed every few days. The second time was for a $200 gift card. When it arrived, it had a $200 balance. Kept it in my wallet for a few weeks, then tried it at the merchant only to find out there was a $0 balance. Turns out this seller waited a week or so, then depleted my balance at a store 3000 miles away from me.

Maybe the e-certificates would work better as you can immediately transfer those balance to your own online account...

Too bad the fraudsters have to ruin a good thing.

Clark understood the situation and helped out, that too on a Friday evening. I was able to go online and use the cards immediately and purchase what I wanted to. Thank you soo much..

Please beware that your credit card information collected from Raise.com can be used inappropriately. Although this happened some time back it has just recently come to my attention. I tried to purchase a $150.00 Taco Bell gift card and while placing the order my credit card was denied. I realized at that time that I had clicked on an expired card Raise had on file. I immediately called Raise and tried to use my other credit card on file but they could not assist and told me I had to wait on the order to process to make sure the card wasn't purchased by someone else first. So at this point I just let it go. Later, in review of my on line Raise account I noticed this Taco Bell card showed that I had purchased it. Since I never received the card, I called Raise back to verify. They confirmed that payment had been made and the card now had a zero balance. Further research revealed that they used my expired card with a different expiration date and somehow got the order to process but failed to ship me the gift card. I discussed this in great detail with Raise but they refused to issue a refund or credit my account. My first advise would be to not purchase these second hand cards from Raise.com. The money you will be losing far outweighs the gain in savings. Second, DO NOT allow them to keep your credit card information on their files as this has proven they can misuse your credit information. Do not buy from Raise.com!

I have found good pricing on gift cards at Raise. Occasionally, I have had a problem and Raise has resolved the issue. One time I could not use a gift card at a store. It was within the guaranteed time period which is generous. I was refunded my money. A few times I bought gift cards at seemingly 'too good to be true' pricing. When I received the cards and found they had no balance, I called Raise. I received full refunds each time. One other time I received an envelope with no gift card inside. There was only a piece of paper (the outside of the envelope) inside a USPS bag. The bag had an apology for the 'damage' to the mail. Since I did not receive my gift card, I received a refund from Raise.
Listing various problems and their resolutions may not seem like high endorsement. The reality is that every problem was easily and pleasantly resolved. I never had a problem talking to someone. And all the people I talked to were nice and had no interest in dismissing my concerns. Given the business of reselling gift cards, I accept any issues I had as essentially a given. It is the resolution that is important and Raise recognizes that fact.

Please read useful tips at bottom.
I have been buying discounted cards for years and use Raise over the past year. Must have saved thousands of dollars. I am fully aware that sooner or later I will get burned with a bad card (have always got a refund so far), and so should anyone buying such cards. Its part of the deal, and usually the fault of some dishonest person selling cards on sites such as Raise and waiting just long enough to cash in safely.
Just the other day I got two Pier 1 cards worth about $300 from Raise, both of which turned out to be bad merchandise cards. The refund was back on my credit card less than 24h after I contacted Raise. Thanks Wren!
So here are my tips:
Buy only cards you intend on using soon.
Choose denominations less than $100.
When shopping online buy the card (Egift) just before you check out. Once you are an established buyer at Raise, the card will arrive instantaneously.
Never let a card languish past the 100 day guarantee (dishonest seller may cash it).
You can save an additional 0.5 -3% (only paid on the first $1,000 worth of purchases made by a customer) by going through CouponCabin.
Good Luck!

SAFE, PROFESSIONAL, HANDS DOWN THE BEST
Carlton was able to listen to my problems & take care of me even after being on phone with like 8 other companies paying bills & he was the last call & my temper was on edge. He was calm with a Grant Cardone style to his communication. Thanks Carlton & thanks raise for being the best place to go for Gift Cards and saving that money

-Customer 4 LIFE

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM! This company is a total fraud! I purchased a gift card never received it and did not receive a refund either! I contacted the customer support again and again, they never helped me solve the problem. The worst thing is, I just added extra money to that e-giftcard I purchased a couple of day before. They still let me added the money but did not let me know the giftcard was no longer usable. Then they never returned any money back to me. WORST WORST WORST WEBSITE EVER!

Just had a VERY negative experience here. Tried selling a card - what a ridiculous waste of my time. I really am not sure what even happened here. They claimed I input my email incorrectly - ending in. Con instead of. Com. I don't understand how the system could even accept this. I sent several emails, which were completely not responded to.

I then gave up on trying to sell my card, as it didn't seem to be selling, and I wasn't being replied to via email. Therefore, I tried to redeem the card with the store, and was told I had a $0 balance. Spent an hour on the phone with said store, having them tell me that the card was spent online. I then called Raise - finding their number at the very bottom of the screen in TINY print - seems they are trying to avoid being reached.

Spent 45 minutes on the phone with them - DID finally, and NOT easily, get my profit from sale of the original gift card. I was spoken to with arrogance, had a rude comment said towards me, and when I finally said that I would like to speak to a supervisor, the supervisor told me that they could give me $5 to spend on Raise.com for my time... LOL. $5. WHAT A JOKE.
MY TIME is WAY more valuable than $5! Wow. NEVER using Raise again and will be telling EVERYONE to avoid them! - Kim