Gift Cards at CVS: Department Stores, Restaurant, & Cinemas Listed

By Christian TMLT April 14, 2021 Shopping 0 Comments

If you are looking for one-stop shopping for gift cards this year, you may not have to look further than your local CVS. At CVS Pharmacy, you likely going to see those gift card racks with hundreds of different gift card brands.

CVS is one of the most popular locations that people visit to purchase gift cards. There are many different types of gift cards at CVS, but the truth is that the selection can significantly vary at each store branch.

The most common types of gift cards that people buy at CVS are usually Vanilla Visa Gift Cards, Green Dot Cards, MasterCard Gift Cards, and American Express Gift Cards.

Each of these gift cards has an activation fee and they are typically purchased for special events like birthdays, holidays, or anniversaries. Some of these gift cards can even use custom amounts and people can visit the CVS cashier and request a custom amount on eligible gift card brands.

Gift Cards Commonly Sold at CVS

CVS stores typically sell a large selection of gift cards. We contacted CVS Pharmacy customer service to see if there is a comprehensive list of all of the companies that it carries gift cards for; representatives said that gift card selection varies from one location to the next.

To build a list of the gift card commonly available at CVS, we contacted CVS stores in several states across the U.S. and visited a CVS store.

Department Stores

Amazon (Electronics, Home, Toys, and non-specific)	Macy’s	Sears
Bloomingdale’s	Marshalls	TJ Maxx
JCPenney	Nordstrom	Of course, you can buy ones for CVS too 🙂
Kohl’s	Old Navy
Lord & Taylor	Saks Fifth Avenue

Clothing

Aeropostale	Hollister
American Eagle	Lane Bryant
Banana Republic	Options Card (includes Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta)
Express

Restaurants

For dining, all of your options are for chain restaurants. Some of these are national, but some may be regional. For example, I live in New England, and I’m pretty sure the Ninety Nine is a local chain not found outside this area.

Applebee’s	Dominos	Red Lobster
Buffalo Wild Wings	Dunkin’ Donuts	Sonic
Burger King	Fuddrucker’s	Starbucks
Cheesecake Factory	Hooters	Steak and Shake
Outback Steakhouse	IHOP	Subway
Chuck E. Cheese’s	Longhorn’s	Taco Bell
Cracker Barrel	Ninety-Nine	TGI Friday’s
Dairy Queen	Olive Garden	Wendy’s
Darden Restaurants: (includes Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, and Seasons 52)	PF Chang’s	Chili’s Fresh Choices: (includes Chili’s, Maggiano’s, Macaroni Grill, and On the Border)
Denny’s

Gaming, Electronics, and Applications

If there’s a gamer on your Christmas list, you have a variety of options here too. For example, you can get gift cards for both the Playstation Network and Xbox Live. For Xbox Live, you can either buy a Gold membership (three months) or XBOX Live Points (for DLC, etc.)

Animal Jam	Karma Koin	Roblox
Blizzard Entertainment	Kindle Fire	Steam
Boss Revolution	League of Legends	Wizard 101
Disney	Nintendo E-Shop	Xbox Live
Facebook Game Card	PayPal	Xbox
GameStop	PlayStation Network
Google Play	PlayStation Plus
iTunes	PlayStation Store

Cinema

AMC	Movietickets.com
Applebee’s: Dinner and a Movie	Regal Cinemas
Fandango	Regal Cinemas: Dinner and a Movie
Fandango: Dinner and a Movie

Gas and Travel

BP	Shell
Exxon Mobil	Southwest Airlines

Visa and American Express

And finally, if you still can’t find a specific gift card that your recipient would like, you can always opt to purchase either one from Visa or American Express. These can be used almost anywhere and are loadable for values between $25 and $500.

Just keep in mind that unlike cards for specific stores and restaurants, the American Express and Visa gift cards have activation fees. For AMEX, the fee was $5.95 to purchase. For Visa, check the racks carefully. Also for some reason, they had a range of activation prices between $3.95 and $5.95.

Read: Best American Express Cards: Best for Travelers, Business & Cash Backs

CVS ExtraCare Rewards and Members Discounts

CVS has a rewards program that provides participants with many coupons. Each purchase also adds up and becomes either Extra Bucks or Beauty Bucks. You can use Extra Bucks throughout the store, and Beauty Bucks are valid on beauty-related items.

Occasionally, CVS offers ExtraBucks when members purchase certain gift cards during a specified time frame. If you’re going to buy gift cards or prepaid cards at CVS regularly, it may be worth joining the rewards program. Additionally, CVS offers discounts for bulk gift card orders in excess of $500.