Trick: Get 20% off gift cards to stack with offers. Eg, works on Gap 40% off, 10 cinema tickets for £20

From now until Sun 31 Mar, you can get 20% off gift cards at Tesco for Odeon, Gap and New Look. How it works, is you take a £25 gift card for one of those retailers to the till (you can only get this offer in store), and instead of paying £25, you pay £20 (or £40 instead of £50 and so on, as you can buy several). It means the amount on the gift card is worth more than you paid for it.

At MSE we’re not huge fans of gift cards as a present, as they can easily get lost or forgotten and go unspent, plus there’s a danger of losing out if the retailer on your gift card goes bust (see our full guide on Gift Card Rights).

How to stack it and boost the saving

While you’re effectively getting a free £5 to spend on what you like, this works even better if you can stack it with offers to max the discount.

You can use the New Look and Odeon gift cards in store or online, though it's worth noting you can only spend Gap gift cards in store, not online.

A few examples I found on Tue 19 Mar:

Gap: 40% off full-price items

Gap* currently has 40% off full-price items, and 10% off sale items, in store until Sun 24 Mar. So if you find something you want that is already reduced in store, you could use the discounted gift card to bag a sneaky extra saving.

New Look: £50 jacket for £20

New Look* doesn’t have any major sales or codes at the moment, but does have sale items online, which you can stack your gift card with.

• Grey Faux Fur Trim Hooded Puffer Jacket* - £25 (was £49.99). Your £25 gift card will drop it down to £0 (£20 total spend).
• AX Paris Navy Embroidered Strappy Dress* - £25 (was £45). Your £25 gift card will drop it down to £0 (£20 total spend).

Odeon: 10 cinema tickets for £20ish

You can use the gift card alongside Meerkat Movies to double your savings. If you don’t have Meerkat movies, see our guide to how you can get it for a whole year for £1.

On a Tuesday or Wednesday, you’ll get 2for1 tickets. The cheapest price at my local Odeon is £5 for an adult ticket if you buy in the cinema (but prices do vary by location). You’ll get two tickets for £5 of your gift card credit. This gets you five movie dates for a pair of tickets on the gift card, so essentially 10 tickets for a £20 spend.

Will you be getting a cheap gift card? What deals have you seen recently? I’d love to know in the comments below, on Twitter @MSE_Deals or on Facebook.