Some discount club companies that are offering a free gift to try out their discount club. You pay a $1 to join, cancel if you do not want it, keep the free gift.

Try CompleteHome with Your First Month for $1 and Receive a $10 Lowe’s® Gift Card. Home Improvement Guides, decorating assistance, and rewards

Sign up with AutoVantage and Receive $40 Cash Back for Gas Purchases + Membership Benefits! Get money-saving discounts on routine maintenance and repairs. Now, save when you’re on the road with up to 70% off Hotels

Get a Free $20 Exxon Mobil Cash Card. Just try GreatFun for 30 days for $1 and save on dining, movies, shopping, etc.

Christmas, 2007 was a record high for giving gift cards as gifts. If you got a gift card to a store or restaurant you don’t like or one you don’t need, consider certificateswap.

Certificateswap is a free website that lets you sell your gift card or store credit for cash or for credit towards a gift card you would prefer.  In tough economic times, this is a nice resource for trading in a gift card or store credit for cash or for a gift card to another a store like Costco so you can get groceries or gas.

While you can also sell your unwanted gift card on eBay, there are sellers fees and potentially paypal fees to consider. eBay also only allows you to sell one gift card a week. (If you do sell on eBay, remember to do a search first to see how much people are getting for the same merchants’ gift cards. While gift cards to stores like Home Depot and Olive Garden almost always get close to face value, some others are around 40 - 75% of face value, which can be a big disappointment.)

Certificateswap is a great resource for those gift cards that you know you are unlikely to use. For instance, if a well meaning friend gave you a gift certificate to go to the movies, but you don’t go to the movies much, you might prefer to trade that in for a useful gift card to a store or event you might enjoy more in honor of your friend’s generosity.

Bargains are also to be had on stores and restaurants if you are in the market to buy. There are many merchants including emailable gift certificates, Ann Taylor, Bath and Body Works, Macy’s, Olive Garden, Starbucks, T.J. Maxx, Tony Roma’s, etc for 5% to 25% off face value.

While it is free, it is supported by numerous ads on the site, which might slow you down.  I find them annoying but less annoying than paying fees

Visit certificateswap.com

Buy the 2008 Entertainment Book today & get 50% OFF

Entertainment books have buy one get one free meals & entertainment coupons. They also have discounts at hotels and Olive Garden gift cards

Get $25 Restaurant Gift Certificates for only $4 with coupon code “EXTRA“

Simply enter discount coupon code: EXTRA at checkout and hit “Recalculate Total” to take advantage of this offer. You can print out your gift certificate immediately and even use it tonight. Great for vacations or last minute gifts.

Hurry, this offer ends Friday, February 29, 2008 (11:59 PM CST)

For more printable restaurant coupons, click here

Buy the 2008 Entertainment Book today & get $10 OFF and a Free $25 Restaurant Certificate

The Entertainment book has 2 for 1 coupons - buy a meal get one free at fast food places like Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, as well as casual and fine dining and local and chain restaurants. They also have printable coupons with the membership for places like Dunkin Donuts.

Get 60% off at Restaurant.com. $25.00 Gift Certificates for $4.00 with code SUPER.

Plus a bonus deLaFlowers offer

Restaurant.com has gift certificates to local restaurants who would like new customers to try them out, hence the available discount

For more discount gift certificates and restaurants deals, visit freebieville.com

There are some great free reward programs to get free Burger King, Olive Garden, Chili’s, Starbucks gift cards, amongst others.  I get enough gift cards a year to pay for a summer vacation and my starbucks fixes  - some of my favorite free reward programs are:

MyPoints earn free Walmart, Starbucks, Marriott, Panera Bread, Amazon, Burger King, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Marriott, Macy’s, and many more hotels, stores, and restaurants gift cards for shopping & getting email, taking surveys. You can sign up to get sent email ads, you click on the ad and get points. You can earn free gift cards just from these emails

Memolink free trials & paid surveys &  earn gift cards at Walmart, Home Depot, Olive Garden, Amazon, Red Lobster, Blockbuster, etc.

E-Poll paid surveys for free itunes, Target, Home Depot, McDonalds, free Starbucks Blockbuster gift cards

NetWinner play free games & earn free gift cards to Bath & Body Works, B&N,  the GAP, free reloadable Mastercard debit cards

InboxDollars pays you to: Sign Up ($5.00), Read E-Mail (1 to 10 cents each), Surveys ($0.35 to $4.00), Play Games, Refer Friends ($5.00 EACH), Complete Offers (up to $50 per Offer)

For more free points programs and free rewards programs that give free gift cards, click here

60% off sale at Restaurant.com. Purchase $25.00 Gift Certificates for only $4.00 with savings code EASY.

Restaurant.com has instant printable gift certificates to local and some chain restaurants, search by zip code. Nice way to try out a local restaurant on the cheap. Good for vacations too. All restaurant.com restaurants have their menus available online.

So I got the The Entertainment® Book last year - one for local use and one for the area I went on vacation so I could get 50% off on dining and entertainment and 20% off my hotel on my vacation. Some Entertainment.com perks I like:

• Discounts on dining, events, ServiceMagic services, movie tickets, hotels & more - you get buy 1 get 1 free dining coupons (usually good for your whole party up to six people) that makes the cheaper of the two meals free.
• Hundreds of 2-for-1, free item, and up to 50%-off discounts - You get coupons in the book and instant printable ones you can use as soon as you sign up from casual, fine dining restaurants, and fast food and coffee shops like Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, Sonic, McDonald’s Dunkin Donuts. I liked this for while in transit on road trips for picking up a snack or a cup of coffee on the cheap. There are several pages of these coupons
• They have 10% discounts on gift certificates for Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Smokey Bones, and Bahama Breeze - after you sign up look at the page that lists your other member discounts

Each year I wait for this sale on Entertainment books that they give you a $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com, and you get $5 off and free shipping with this link

You can look in advance for your zip code or the zip code you will be going on vacation to see the coupons (both printable and paper coupons from the book) to see if you want the book.

For more printable coupon deals, click here

 Want discount Olive Garden Gift certificates? Check out ebay - people often sell gift certificates of all sorts at discounts at 70% - 90% of face value.

Since so many people got gift certificates for Xmas, many people are looking to sell them to raise cash - so this is a great time to get a bargain on gift certificates to stores that practially never have discounts or coupons. JCrew, Home Depot, GAP, Sephora, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Ann Taylor and Talbot’s are some of the many discounted gift cards I have seen for sale at ebay.