Numerous miles and points blogs would always mention the benefits of gift cards with some regularity. Moreover, most of travelers want to use gift earning credit cards so that they can earn miles and points for purchases.

Gift cards are now getting very well-known for miles enthusiasts as they are sold at stores that code as a bonus category on various rewards credit cards and most probably at stores that accept Apple Pay for those in on this deal, as mentioned in Nerd Wallet. It is also said that the purchase of the gift card that earns the points, not the using of the gift card.  This means buying them with cash or similar doesn't do anything for you to earn points and gifts.  

Most customers buy gift cards as they use them to just pay bills and make purchases via Visa cards. However, some like to liquidate them via more advanced methods that most users are not familiar with. For those customers who are not interested in that sort of offer, there are lots of sites and forums that can help out, including the Frequent Miler.

However, clients are actually realizing that the catch to all of this is that Visa or MasterCard gift cards come at a price that can often vary from $3.95 to $8.95 additional per gift card. This means that users aren't earning points for free, but instead are paying seemingly a low price for them.  To determine how much you are paying for your points just take the extra out-of-pocket costs for your gift cards and divide by the number of points that you earned.  If your $500 gift card cost you $505.95 and earned you 2,000 points with the purchase then divide $5.95 by 2000 and you have a cost of close to 3/10 of a cent per point. 

With that, there are two developments in the gift cards that miles fanatics recommend other clients to try.  First, is Staples' $300 Visa gift cards at a price of $308.95 each. Clients can just order them online and they are delivered straight to customers' house. The largest gift card they previously carried was $200.  Meanwhile,  according to Pointchaser, this weekend's new  offer is the Office Max stores' $500 load Visa and MasterCard gift cards that are being sold to those paying with credit cards.  

To date, many card users are checking out nearby Office Max stores to try the current gift card. A lot of them are also getting gift cards via Staples that are currently considered as grocery gift cards.