Carrabba's: Get a Free $10 Bonus Card* when you buy $50 in gift cards Starts November 1st thru 12/31/2017!

very popular for restaurants to do this. it's a "bonus" card, not a gift card. federal gift card laws don't exactly apply. state gc laws may or may not apply. either way, it's the merchant's way to yet again cheat the customer by sticking it to them by finding a loophole in the rules/laws. why even have gift card laws if the merchant can just call it something else and skip it all? for now, they are getting away with it and for now, nothing will be done about it. but as i said, state law ymmv. while i believe any $10 on $50 offer is a good offer (even on their stupid terms) if it's somewhere you plan to eat often, i still think it stinks. bottom line is i feel the offer is a bit deceptive and certainly confusing to some folks which is the main reason why i object to it.

Quote from kensteele : very popular for restaurants to do this. it's a "bonus" card, not a gift card. federal gift card laws don't exactly apply. state gc laws may or may not apply.

Agreed. The wife and I bought two sets of these back when it was buy a $50 gift card, get $50 in bonus cards ($10/mo). They told us verbally we could use two $10 bonus cards per visit even though we later read the fine print on the cards saying only one could be used. Luckily, all the Carrabba's we went to allowed us to use 2 cards per visit (sometimes with manager approval required), but on our most recent visit we were told Corporate issued an edict that only one card could be used per table, no exceptions. So this turned out to be a complete bait and switch - yes, the fine print stated the one-card limitation, but we were verbally told by staff at two different locations that the limit was two per table per visit.

On top of this, Carrabba's has a rewards program called Dine Rewards. For every 4 visits, you get 50% off a meal up to $20. But of course you can't combine this with the use of bonus cards, so when you earn that reward 2 or 3 and still have 2 or 3 months bonus cards to use, you then are faced with deciding whether to use your reward (which expires, of course, after a few months) or the bonus cards. If you're a regular customer (someone who goes 2 or more times/month) then this isn't an issue, but if you generally only prefer to go once a month it means you're going to end up losing a reward or bonus card.

The whole thing ends up being a marketing scheme to try to get you to come into the restaurant more than you otherwise would, and kudos to them as it undoubtedly works. But customers should realize all the rules of the game they're playing before they decide to participate.

This all said I love Carrabba's food, and any discount you can get is a great deal.