New York – Best Buy and Walmart are offering gift cards and cash to goose sales of tablets and smartphones.
In a year-long promotion, Best Buy is providing a $50 gift card with the purchase and activation of a smartphone under a two-year contract with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. Customers can sign up for the promotion now through Feb. 15, and have until the end of the year to buy and activate a phone. The gift card can be applied to the purchase.
This is the third consecutive year that Best Buy has run the $50 gift card promo.
Meanwhile, Walmart will pay customers at least $100 for any working smartphone when they trade it in for select iPhone or Samsung Galaxy models under a two-year contract with AT&T or Verizon. iPhone models include the 16GB 5s, for $45, and 16GB 5c, for a penny, while Galaxy models include the S III, also for one cent; the S4 and Mega, for $1; and the Note 3, for $186.
In addition, the discount chain has cut the price of a 16GB Apple iPad 2 with Wi-Fi by $100, to $299, and is offering a minimum of $100 for any iPad trade-in.
The Walmart promotions run through March 7.
