Saving Money at the Gap (and Old Navy, and Banana Republic, and Athleta)
Combine Discounts to Get Great Deals at the Gap Family of Stores Potential Savings: Tens of Dollars or More. Difficulty Level: Moderate
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew! If you’re new, you might want to check out my top 9 money-saving tips.
One of the most powerful money-saving tools is to combine various types of discounts in a single transaction. Combining coupon codes with cashback and discount gift cards can result in some truly incredible deals.
Nowhere is this clearer than the Gap family of stores, which includes Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta. I have mixed emotions toward the Gap family. Over the years I’ve noticed a significant quality decline, with each of the main Gap brands falling a notch to the point that it’s often hard to justify paying a premium over affordable “fast fashion” at H&M or Zara.
But, occasionally there are things worth paying up for at Gap, and we’ve found some things at Gap Kids that we really like. Athleta is also the MVP of the Gap family, with quality that is often comparable to the even more premium-priced Lululemon.
Even better, I’ve found that the Gap brands often allow you to combine several different discounts with amazing results. Here is a recent deal we got, along with each of the steps we used to make it happen:
First, we use a cashback website (we use Cashback Monitor) to find the highest current cashback rate being offered via a cashback website that we use, and then click through that website to the retailer. Currently, Ebates is offering 8% cash back.
Next, we click on the plus sign on top panel of the relevant website (e.g., gap.com) to see if the site is offering any promo codes. Gap typically will offer promo codes this way that you can apply directly to your cart. The other sites will often offer a promo code in exchange for signing up for an email list (you can and should unsubscribe afterward).[1]
Next, we add the items to our cart and calculate the total, net of the promo codes/discounts.
Then, we click through a cashback website again to purchase discounted gift cards to the Gap (or Banana Republic, or Old Navy, or Athleta) for as close to the exact amount as we can find. In our case, we clicked through Mr. Rebates to get 6% cash back at Raise.com, where we bought a Gap gift card for an additional 15% off.
Finally, we check out from the Gap website and use the gift card to place our order (using a credit card for any remaining balance due).
On our most recent Gap order, we saved $50.45 on a $104.39 order, paying $53.94, net of $30.20 of savings via promo codes, $9.75 from purchasing a Gap gift card at a 13% discount, receiving 5% cashback on the gift card purchase and 8% cashback on the Gap purchase itself, and receiving 2% cashback with our Citi Double Cash credit card. Not bad for about 15 extra minutes of work![2]
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it with a friend! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.
[1] You can also use a site like RetailMeNot to look up promo codes, but be careful! To get the promo code, they will often require you to click through their website to the retailer, which (might) invalidate the cashback you’d otherwise receive. So, when I use a site like that, I generally do it in another browser or another computer.
[2] Full disclosure - this post is not an advertisement! I don’t make money from this newsletter via ads, affiliate links, or anything else.