About this announcement

Today Apple announced that its two gift cards, Apple Store Card and iTunes Gift Card, will be merged into one, and can be used to pay for App Store purchases, in-app purchases, and shopping on Apple.com. In addition, the balance in your account, iTunes Balance, can now also be used automatically for all Apple-related purchases.

The annoying part before was that iTunes gift cards could only be used in the App Store and couldn’t be used to buy hardware from Apple.com, such as phones, computers, iPads, and more. Apple Store Card was a step up: it could be used for anything, but it was only sold at Apple stores and on Apple.com. Now that the two have been merged, there’s no need to worry about confusing the two gift cards anymore, and buying them as gifts has become much simpler. iTunes Balance also automatically gets the new functionality, which is pretty generous.

My WeChat group tested it, and it really works!

So how can we make good use of this change? Let’s break it down below.

Discounted iTunes gift cards = discounted iPhone, iPad, Mac

In the past, iTunes gift cards were often sold at a discount, with deals of 10%–20% off every so often from Amazon, Staples, Best Buy, and others.

  • Best Buy
  • 20% off on eBay

So if you can buy iTunes gift cards at a discount during a promo, load them into your own Apple ID, and then pay on Apple.com, it’s basically like getting an iPhone or a Mac for less. For the new iPhone especially, 20% off is very attractive.

Credit cards with high cash back for buying iTunes gift cards

There are very few credit cards that offer strong rewards on Apple.com, and most of them have caps, such as the 3% online shopping category on BofA Cash Rewards, while AT&T Access More is no longer available to apply for. If you switch to places where iTunes gift cards are sold, the options are much broader. Here are a few examples of where you can buy iTunes gift cards:

  • Most grocery stores: Most grocery stores carry iTunes gift cards, and you can use high cash back grocery cards to buy them
  • Drugstores: CVS and Walgreens both carry them, and sometimes quarterly 5x cards have drugstore categories, such as Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend
  • PayPal/eBay: They are also sold on PayPal and eBay (purchase link). For example, this quarter’s Discover it earns 5% cash back on PayPal, and if it’s your first year, that doubles to 10%
  • Amazon: They are also available on Amazon (purchase link). This quarter Chase Freedom has 5x on Amazon, and in the fourth quarter there is Discover it with 5% at Amazon
  • Streaming bonus rewards: Adding funds to Apple ID usually counts as streaming spending. For example, Blue Cash Preferred offers 6% cash back on streaming with no cap; over the past few months, Chase Sapphire Reserve has offered 10x cash back (according to reports from WeChat group members, it does earn 10x!). It’s still a good idea to test with a small amount first to see whether the streaming bonus can be triggered.
  • Office supply stores: They are available both online and in stores, at Staples, OD, and others, and you can use Ink Business Cash to buy them
  • Target: Available in stores and online (purchase link). If you have the Target Red Card, you can get 5% off

In addition, this year’s AMEX streaming reimbursement through the end of the year can also be used to load Apple ID and trigger the benefit, so save a little each month; if you have enough cards, you might be able to buy a new iPhone by year-end.

In short, iTunes gift cards bought through all kinds of channels can be loaded into your Apple ID. Small amounts add up, and then you can use them all at once to make a purchase, which is pretty nice.

Fluz iTunes 2% cash back

It looks like most primary iTunes gift cards no longer have discounts. Fluz currently offers 2% cash back on iTunes, and Fluz can be checked out with PayPal. If you have Discover, that becomes 2% + 5% cash back, which is pretty good.

  • Fluz sign-up link (sign up and get 35% cash back three times, or use code: CC101 after registering)

Discounted used iTunes gift cards

A while ago, Raise had a lot of discounted used iTunes gift cards for sale. Now when you look... 1% off

My prediction

My personal guess is that there won’t be any more iTunes gift card sales in the future... Right now, both Sam's Club and Costco have removed iTunes gift cards from shelves, probably because these gift cards had long been sold at a discount and Apple asked for them to be pulled.
However, other non-discount iTunes purchase channels should still remain, and you can get creative with all kinds of bonus-category credit cards!

If you really need to buy Apple products from the official store, then iTunes cards have become hard currency too..