Visa debit card
 

is it possible to buy a Visa debit card with a credit card and then use the debit card as a gift card? There's probably some fee with this but I assume it would be less than the Cash advance fee of 3%.

Basically I am trying to figure out ways to to meet the $750 minimum spend requirement for Citi cards to get the bonus miles. This was one way suggested to me by somebody at work.

I haven't purchased Visa gift cards, but I frequently use my Hilton HHonors AMEX card to buy store gift cards (Starbucks, Lowes, Target, etc.) at the grocery store to get 6 pts/$ vs. 3 pts. at the stores themselves. For my Citi cards, I will charge things like my electric bill, cable bill, EZ tag for tolls, etc.

I've read in various places that you need to be careful about fees associated with the Visa gift cards, but to be honest I haven't looked at it carefully.

Visa or AMEX gift cards carry hefty fee at purchase, plus fees to use (if certain conditions are triggered). Personally I think it is a complete rip-off just by the cursory look at it so never spend any time to really look into that.

Store-specific gift cards normally dont carry fee and many now do not expire, but you still need to double-check. If you dine out often, you may want to explore the restaurants you often go to, offer any type of gift vouchers, for example.

The $750 is easily to be met if you order the US Mint coins. There is a long-running thread in Miles Buzz forum - go check it out.