Order food for less — restaurant and delivery-app gift cards, in escrow

A gift card for a restaurant or a delivery app is the most common unused gift card in the US, and the most awkward to sell: a code-buying site pays 70–80 cents on the dollar, and a stranger buying the code has no way to know it is loaded. FlipGift does it the other way round. The seller keeps the card and spends it on your order — in the app, to your door or ready for pickup under your name — and you pay a below-app price into escrow that reaches the seller only once the food is in your hands.

How a food order works here

1. Build your cart in the app as usual and screenshot it. Upload the screenshot; we read the app, the restaurant, the items and the total, and you correct anything we got wrong.
2. Choose delivery or pickup, and when. As soon as possible, or a scheduled slot from 90 minutes to 7 days out. For delivery you add a drop-off note the courier can follow without a phone call.
3. A seller with that app's card is matched in minutes. Sellers list the hours they answer in; a paid order is offered for ten minutes and then moves to the next seller. You pay the discounted price from your FlipGift balance the moment one accepts.
4. The seller places the exact order in the app with their card. They upload the app's order screen; we read the delivery address (or the pickup location) off it and check it against yours.
5. The food arrives, you confirm, escrow releases. The seller uploads the app's "delivered" screen — with the courier's drop-off photo where the app takes one — and you confirm with one tap. Say nothing and it releases on its own about an hour later; say something is wrong and an arbiter reads the app's own evidence first.

The whole thing usually takes under an hour for an as-soon-as-possible order.

Who the courier calls

This is the one thing that is different from ordering yourself. On DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart the courier calls and texts the account that placed the order — that is the seller's phone, not yours. Your drop-off note is what the courier reads, the seller relays anything else into the deal chat, and the seller can paste the app's live-tracking link on the deal page. Domino's, Papa Johns and Panera take a phone number on the order itself, so yours goes on it. Pickup orders at any restaurant are simply called out by the name on the order.

The apps and restaurants

What it costs, and who pays what

You ask for a minimum discount (10% is typical; restaurant cards trade at 8–15%) and are matched with the seller offering the deepest one. You pay the app's total minus that discount, plus a 2.5% platform fee, from your FlipGift balance. Fees and tip in a delivery app move with the address, so the seller's total can differ a little from your screenshot: up to 10% over is the seller's to absorb, more than that comes back to you to approve, and a lower total is refunded to you automatically.

Holding a restaurant card yourself?

List it on the food sell form: name the hours you answer in, tick delivery and/or pickup, and buyers' paid orders come to you. You place the order in the app with your card and are paid — the order minus your discount, minus 2.5% — about an hour after the buyer has their food. Nobody ever sees your card.

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