With the holiday season in full swing, many are relying on gift cards to make shopping a little simpler. But which ones are the best?
WalletHub recently conducted some research to find out, and iTunes, Starbucks and Walmart were the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 picks, respectively.
The personal finance site determined its results by comparing the 50 most popular options across five major categories: how popular the cards are; how much of a discount you can get when you buy them; how much you can sell them for; how much people like the retailer; and shipping fees.
Credit: Jeff Greenberg
Credit: Jeff Greenberg
The reason iTunes, Starbucks and Walmart came out on top was their free shipping and high popularity score. All three also had high resale values.
Here’s snapshot of the best three gift cards.
iTunes
Popularity ranking: 4
Shipping fee: $0
Average buyer discount: 5.15 percent
Average resale value of $100 gift card: $77.75
Retailer rating out of 5: 3.03
Starbucks
Popularity ranking: 6
Shipping fee: $0
Average buyer discount: 7.74 percent
Average resale value of $100 gift card: $76.27
Retailer rating out of 5: 2.57
Walmart
Popularity ranking: 3
Shipping fee: $0
Average buyer discount: 2.00 percent
Average resale value of $100 gift card: $84.92
Retailer rating out of 5: 2.13
Overall, Amazon was the most popular, Dunkin Donuts offered the best average buyer discount at 24.83 percent and Netflix had the highest average resale price at $86.11.
Curious about the other findings? Take a look at the top 10 gift cards below and read the full report here.
Top 10 gift cards
1. iTunes
2. Starbucks
3. Walmart
4. Victoria’s Secret
5. Target
6. Amazon
7. Best Buy
8. Chipotle
9. Fandango
10. Sephora
About the Author
