7 Gift Cards for College Grads They'll Actually Use

College grads are always appreciative of gift cards to celebrate their special occasion! 

College grads are heading out into the wide world for, perhaps, the first time in their life. They need help! They have a place, they are in the workforce, and they have a lot of the habits they picked up living in a college dorm for a handful of years. A gift card is a perfect nudge to a college grad to get them thinking about something important that they might be missing in their daily life. We are certain that they would appreciate a bit of direction as to all the odds and ends they will need as they start up the next phase of their life. A bit of money along with the advice will, we believe, go a long way! 

Gift Card Granny is an excellent site where you can shop for all of your gift cards. Not sure where to start? No worries! In this article, we are covering the top 6 gift card ideas for college grads, including: 

  • Gift cards for style
  • Gift cards for food
  • Gift cards for home supplies

Earn Cash Back On Gift Cards for College Grads with Gift Card Granny

As a quick reminder, we’ve pointed out all of the retailers on this list that you can find on Gift Card Granny as of this writing. Gift Card Granny makes it easy to buy and send customized gift cards online and earn cash back while you do. Gift Card Granny carries thousands of local and national brands including Visa gift cards, Mastercard gift cards, and gift cards for many of the awesome spots on this list.

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s jump right into our list!

1. Sephora

Get a gift card for a quality beauty product

Buy a Sephora gift card

Buy Sephora Gift Cards

Beauty products are very popular with college grads, and a gift card to Sephora is the perfect gift to let them pick out the products they love or even try out some new ones! They can use this card to pick out the perfect look to take into the workforce, whether it’s as simple as a new tone of eye shadow to a whole face makeover. Sephora is a great choice because they are dotted all over the country, maximizing the chance that there is one nearby. 

When push comes to shove, they can also shop online for their beauty products! More than anyone, they will know which products need to be refilled, and your gift card can take a bit of the weight off of them getting that expensive bottle of hand cream that they love. 

Finding ways to relax is a must in a grad’s life, and Sephora is a great place to start.  Start earning cash back when you pick up a Sephora gift card today.

2. Daily Harvest

A gift card to keep them healthy!

Buy a Daily Harvest gift card

Daily Harvest Gift Cards

It is no secret that many college grads are not eating the most balanced of diets. There’s nothing wrong with that! College is the perfect time to enjoy a few midnight pizzas and double-packet-of-ramen dinners. We cannot, alas, eat that way forever. Daily Harvest is a company that delivers ready-to-eat meals that are healthy and delicious. Even the pickiest eater is bound to find something that they would enjoy on this website! 

Daily Harvest is similar to companies like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh where they deliver food to your door, saving you the trouble of planning out your meal. With a gift card to Daily Harvest, college grads can pick out a subscription that is best for them and try out some of these decadent meals. That might kick-start them towards the track of eating healthier! If not, well, we’d wager they enjoyed every bite of the meals they got through Daily Harvest! 

Unfortunately, Daily Harvest is not one of the many retailers available at Gift Card Granny. You can, however, pick up a Daily Harvest gift card right off of their website! 

3. Dunkin’ Donuts

A gift card for coffee-lovers

Buy a Dunkin’ gift card 

Buy Dunkin Donuts GIft Cards

A gift card to Dunkin’ Donuts is a superb gift for college grads. This is a low-risk high reward gift card. Dunkin’ Donuts offers coffee, cocoa, donuts, breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and more. While a far sight from how healthy the Daily Harvest meals are, Dunkin’ is quick, easy, and a great callback to their college days. 

From coffee to pastries, Dunkin’ Donuts lets him get a variety of sweet treats when the mood strikes him. Start earning cash back when you pick up a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card today.

4. Prepaid Visa Gift Card

Endless doors to be opened to the recipients of a Visa gift card

Buy a Visa gift card

Buy Visa Gift Cards

A prepaid Visa gift card is a shoo-in for a college grad. This is a time when they have a lot of items on their shopping list. Some can wait, but others are pretty necessary for their new place. A prepaid Visa gift card gives them the flexibility to shop wherever they want whenever they want, and they can use it for one of those bigger items for their new place or for the week’s groceries. Your gift funding their grocery run might not be the most exciting, but rest assured that college grads will jump gratefully on any opportunity to save on some of their week’s budget.

Visa Gift Cards are one of the thousands of retailers you can find on Gift Card Granny. Start earning cash back when you pick up a Visa gift card today.

5. Macy’s

A gift card perfect for seasonal shopping

Buy a Macy’s gift card

Buy Macy's Gift Cards

A gift card to Macy’s lets the college grad pick out some new, cute clothes for the fall. Coming out of college it is likely that they will need some new clothes for work and for going out to dinner with their friends. Macy’s has a great selection of clothes in a wide variety of styles and they have a pretty substantial bath and body section as well. Macy’s is a great place to shop around, especially if they like to try on clothes. 

Clothes can be a hard purchase to make, especially as you are coming out of college. There are so many things that college grads need to put on their list and clothes don’t always make it to the top. That’s where your gift card comes in! With your gift card, it might ease the strain of the receipt at the end of the shopping trip just enough that they will enjoy it and let you know how amazing your gift card turned out to be. 

A Macy’s gift card opens up a lot of options for college grads to pick out the items they really want. Start earning cash back when you pick up a Macy’s gift card today.

6. Banana Republic

A gift card for paragons of style

Buy a Banana Republic gift card

Buy Banana Republic Gift Cards

A clothing store for people and dogs? That’s hard to beat. A gift card to the Banana Republic is a great way to give college grads some money towards a fantastic piece of clothing. The Banana Republic is on the expensive side, so we recommend one of two things if you plan on going with this gift card. One is to make sure that they are used to shopping in places like this. Under normal circumstances, your gift card will not cover their whole bill if they purchase something here and you don’t want to pressure them to buy something just because they have a gift card. Make sure they will happily get some discounted clothing with your card before you finalize the purchase!

You can do that or you can get some friends together to go in on a gift card of greater value. This is a bit more work but it can pay out dividends if it’s done right. If you know that they love the Banana Republic, or you know that there is some particular store that they can’t get enough of then going for a gift card with various people together is a fantastic option.

A gift card to the Banana Republic is a great place to start if your friend is fashionable and interested in buying new clothing. Start earning cash back when you pick up a Banana Republic gift card today.

7. Bed Bath and Beyond

A gift card for their new home

Buy a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card

Buy Gift Cards Online

Bed Bath and Beyond has a huge selection of items for daily use or decoration around their home. Bed Bath and Beyond, unlike the Banana Republic, has a ton of items in the lower price range that your gift card could completely cover. Most college students are not living in, shall we say, the cleanest of apartments. Now that they’ve graduated and are moving up in the world, some supremely scented hand soap and amazing shampoo could be right up their alley. Oh, and candles! Candles do wonders to spruce up any house, filling it with warm light and fantastically fragrant smell. 

A gift card for a college grad lets them decide what kind of products with which to populate their home. They will need cleaning products and self-care products, and there are a lot of varieties from which to choose. A gift card lets them leisurely make that choice, and that’s a great situation to be in. 

Bed Bath and Beyond is an excellent choice when giving a gift card to a recent college grad. Start earning cash back at Gift Card Granny when you pick up a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card today.

Buy Gift Cards Online

They made it! Now is a great time to celebrate their college graduation, and a gift card is just the thing that they need. 

These are our gift cards for college grads! We hope that this list has brought you to the right conclusion where you know exactly what card you are going to purchase for the college grad. If not, you can always reach out to their family and see what gifts are a good bet for them! A little chat with someone who knows them well can go a long way in allowing you to cross items off your list as well as bring you closer to the right item. 

College grads are in a pretty significant state of flux. They are going out into the workforce, moving out on their own, and are finally not students for the first time in over a decade. Well, are they moving out of their parent's house? If not, that should have a big impact on the kind of gift card you get for them! If they do have their own place, you can always ask them what they really need. No one will know better than they do. It takes some of the excitement and surprises out of the gift but it does let you rest easy that it will be perfect for them. 

Gift cards are a fantastic way to show your appreciation and a great gift. They allow the recipient to go out and try something new, whether it’s shopping at a clothing store, going out and getting some necessities for their home, or through Daily Harvest to find the perfect meal for the weekend. Gift cards allow them to take the initiative, and sometimes you get to come along for the ride. Gift cards are always valuable gifts, and we hope that you have found the perfect card for the occasion with the new knowledge you possess. 

Remember: many of the retailers on this list are available at Gift Card Granny, where you can earn cashback and rewards on all of your gift card purchases. 

From all of us here at Gift Card Granny, happy shopping!