Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

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willthrill81
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Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

We've been using Raise a lot this year and really like it. It's a website that offers both discounted gift cards and cash back on gift cards. People who have gift cards can sell them to Raise who turns around and sells them at a discount. Raise also sells gift cards (not sure how they acquire these) where you get cash back that can be used for future purchases on their site. And most of the time, Rakuten offers 1% cash back on purchases made on Raise's website, a nice bonus.

Right now, Raise is offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards. That's a smoking good deal by my estimation. Travelers may want to stock up.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

I've used Raise quite a bit to buy cards. The cards are mostly from private sellers and will be mailed to you by the private seller. You do want to be on top of the value of the card and be sure you actually get the card. What I'm always concerned about is that the seller has all the numbers, so if the card isn't going to be used soon, they can use the numbers, taking the value before you get a chance to. So if you plan to fly Delta in the next couple months.....fine. If you'd just hold onto the card for a year...I would not. I think Raise may even have a blurb saying you need to use the card within some time frame.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

Jack FFR1846 wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:27 pmWhat I'm always concerned about is that the seller has all the numbers, so if the card isn't going to be used soon, they can use the numbers, taking the value before you get a chance to. So if you plan to fly Delta in the next couple months.....fine. If you'd just hold onto the card for a year...I would not. I think Raise may even have a blurb saying you need to use the card within some time frame.
The 20% cash back are cards bought directly from Raise, not another consumer. They are emailed to you, usually in a matter of minutes. They should be totally secure.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by hmw »

Jack FFR1846 wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:27 pm I've used Raise quite a bit to buy cards. The cards are mostly from private sellers and will be mailed to you by the private seller. You do want to be on top of the value of the card and be sure you actually get the card. What I'm always concerned about is that the seller has all the numbers, so if the card isn't going to be used soon, they can use the numbers, taking the value before you get a chance to. So if you plan to fly Delta in the next couple months.....fine. If you'd just hold onto the card for a year...I would not. I think Raise may even have a blurb saying you need to use the card within some time frame.
I bought a few gift cards on raise. They were all delivered electronically to my raise app.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by Watty »

You also need to be concerned that Delta will declare bankruptcy. I have not been following them but I would suspect that there is a pretty good chance of that.

I know someone that was a pilot for Delta who lost what sounded like the majority of his pension the last time Delta declared bankruptcy so I would have a hard time trusting them.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

Ah, electronic. I only buy physical cards and they come from the sellers, not from Raise. Raise acts as a middle man in those cases. I've probably bought 300 cards through them and only do physical.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

Watty wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:38 pm You also need to be concerned that Delta will declare bankruptcy. I have not been following them but I would suspect that there is a pretty good chance of that.

I know someone that was a pilot for Delta who lost what sounded like the majority of his pension the last time Delta declared bankruptcy so I would have a hard time trusting them.
That is a risk, but I strongly suspect that Delta is 'too big to fail'.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by bberris »

Delta may be too big to stop flying planes, but they are not too big to repudiate their debts.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by bob60014 »

Somewhat related in regards to to big to fail, Delta's plan to use frequent flyer funds to stop the bleeding. AA and UA have done similar.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/14/delta-l ... ogram.html
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by plannerman »

I know nothing about Raise, but I do know that there are rarely free lunches. And furthermore, I know the discount on these kinds of offers are usually related to the risk. The bigger the discount, the riskier the offer. So if I were you, I would assume you have somewhat less than a 20% risk of this going badly.

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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

plannerman wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:54 am I know nothing about Raise, but I do know that there are rarely free lunches. And furthermore, I know the discount on these kinds of offers are usually related to the risk. The bigger the discount, the riskier the offer. So if I were you, I would assume you have somewhat less than a 20% risk of this going badly.
As noted above, the only risk here is that Delta goes bankrupt before you use the card. It's no riskier than frequent flier miles, which many here have a great many of.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by desiderium »

willthrill81 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:00 am
plannerman wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:54 am I know nothing about Raise, but I do know that there are rarely free lunches. And furthermore, I know the discount on these kinds of offers are usually related to the risk. The bigger the discount, the riskier the offer. So if I were you, I would assume you have somewhat less than a 20% risk of this going badly.
As noted above, the only risk here is that Delta goes bankrupt before you use the card. It's no riskier than frequent flier miles, which many here have a great many of.
True, except FF miles are presumably risk you already own vs purchasing more now. As noted, risk goes up with your timeline for using the credits.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by Loandapper »

How does digital delivery work if you go to a restaurant? What do you give the wait staff when they show up with the bill?
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

Loandapper wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:51 pm How does digital delivery work if you go to a restaurant? What do you give the wait staff when they show up with the bill?
We've done this several times. The server will take down the gift card information and debit it.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by bikesandbeers »

On Black friday (pre-pandemic) Costco had Delta gift cards at 10-15% off. We ened up not traveling, but gave them to my brother in law and he got good use out of them.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by Impatience »

So this site is basically a fence for stolen or fraudulently obtained gift cards, right?
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by hmw »

Impatience wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:23 pm So this site is basically a fence for stolen or fraudulently obtained gift cards, right?
Why would you think that? Lots of people receive gift cards as presents but can't use them for whatever reason.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by whodidntante »

Impatience wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:23 pm So this site is basically a fence for stolen or fraudulently obtained gift cards, right?
I've sold a couple grand in gift cards on raise.com. They were not stolen and I didn't cheat anyone. It was either arbitrage or cards I got for free that I would not use.

I've also bought gift cards there. I didn't get cheated. I do take the precaution of using them pretty soon.

Not everything is a scam.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by poker27 »

I use to buy gift cards from raise. After maybe 3 successful gift cards, I bought a $100 one for Starbucks. I tried using it 30+ days later, and it had a zero balance. Contacted raise, but since I was past their window, they wouldn’t help.

This was probably 5+ years ago, so FYI.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

We have bought thousands of dollars of gift cards on Raise and had no issues with any of them. But as a matter of course, we don't hold them very long. I wouldn't have any issue holding cards bought directly from Raise (i.e. not discounted cards from other consumers where Raise is merely a broker).
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by j0nnyg1984 »

Impatience wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:23 pm So this site is basically a fence for stolen or fraudulently obtained gift cards, right?
Correct.
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Re: Raise offering 20% cash back on Delta gift cards

Post by willthrill81 »

j0nnyg1984 wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:10 am
Impatience wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:23 pm So this site is basically a fence for stolen or fraudulently obtained gift cards, right?
Correct.
That's completely false. I have no doubt that there are some stolen cards there, just as many of the items on eBay and pawn shops are. But that's not nearly all of them.
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