Restaurant.com is my favorite place to buy discount restaurant gift certficates for myself and for someone else. The good thing about Restaurant.com is that you do not need to pick a restaurant. The recipients can redeem the certificates for the restaurants that they like as long as it is in the restaurant.com network, so you don't have to worry about if you pick the right restaurants for them or not.

They also offer restaurant gift certificates at huge discount prices. See the banner above.

It is also a perfect last minute gift because you can email the discount restaurant gift certificates to the recipients. No need to wrap the gift or wait for shipping. I like to give out these gift certificates to families for holidays. I am pretty sure they can use it.

However, please note that there are limitations for the gift certificates. For instance, some places do not let you use the gift certificates unless the check is over certain amounts. Some restaurants restrict the gift certificates to be used on certain days of the week. However, I think it is still a pretty good deal. Also, the gift certificates expire after 1 year in certain states, so make sure to tell the recipients to use the them before they expire.

GiftCertificates.com

This is another site that sells restaurant gift certificates online. It is a gift certificate superstore, you can probably find any gift certificates you want from this site. If you purchase their "super gift certificate," the recipients of the card can exchange it for another giftcertificate.com store cards.

If you don't want to get their super gift certificates, then you will need to know what restaurants or what stores your friends and families like to go to before you buy gift certificates from them. Giftcertificates.com has many many gift certificates, you can even find Jack In the Box on their list of restaurant gift certificates :-)

Ebay

You can find many discount restaurant gift certificates in the "Gift Certificates" category on ebay. You can probably get many gift certificates below the face value. Before you place a bid, ask the sellers to make sure the gift cards or gift certificates are still valid and whether it has an expiration date. Also pay attention to the shipping charge. The shipping charge should not be too much since the sellers are just shipping the certificates or the gift cards.

If you are trying to get gift certificates for some popular restaurants, you might need to pay almost full price for it. If the shipping charge is too high, it might be worth it to buy it on ebay.

Tips on getting Starbucks Gift Cards

For instance, if you want to get a Starbucks gift card on ebay, you might need to pay almost full price for it. However, you would see many "any drink coupon" available on ebay. I think they are the best value, especially if you usually buy $5 coffee drinks from Starbucks. Those "any drink coupon" is good for... any drinks :-)

According to my constant observation, each drink coupon is usually sold for around $3-$4/drink. So if you love venti peppermint mocha with extra shots or anything like that, getting the "any drinks coupon" is perfect for you.

Click on the link to find Starbucks Gift Cards and Any Drinks coupons.

Click on the link to find discount restaurant gift certificates on Ebay.

This one might not be for everyone. There are many rewards sites on the web let you fill out surveys or try advertiser offers to gain points or earn cash. Once you get enough points, you can redeem it for a gift.

Many rewards websites have popular restaurant gift cards or gift certificates you can redeem with the points you earn. I have redeemed many many Starbucks and Walmart gift cards this way for many years. However, it might take you some time to accumulate enough points to redeem to a gift card.

Some rewards websites that allow you to earn cash back if you go to their sponsor merchants to make a purchase. For instance, if you want to go to Hickory Farms to buy a gift basket to send to your friend, you will go through a reward website and click on the Hickory Farm's link to go to Hickory Farms website. Then, the reward website will give you a cash back for your purchase from Hickery Farms. These rewards website usually have many sponsor merchants, you might be able to find discount restaurant gift certificates or retail store gift cards.

Check out InboxDollars.com to find offers like this if you don't mind going through more clicks to get to some websites that you are already visiting, or fill out some surveys to earn cash.

However, you have to be careful with rewards site. There are many scams online.

I am browsing on costco's website, and I just realize they sell discount restaurant gift certificates.

For example, they sell two $50 Trader Vic gift certificates for $79.99. It is a 20% off... a pretty good deal.

If you are a Costco member, be sure to check it out on their website to see if you can find some of your local restaurant gift certificates on the website.

Entertainment Books

Entertainment Book is not free, but you can get your money back and many times more if you use all or most of the coupons in the book. I like Entertainment book because not only does it give me restaurant discount coupons for dining and shopping, it also gives me ideas of where to go for lunch or dinner when I run of ideas.

Entertainment Book also has coupons of many stores that I go to regularly, such as Cold Stone Creamery, Quizno, and some other local restaurants and stores.

You can now get Entertainment book for $15. Click on the picture below for more information.