From Gift Card Trash To Cold Hard Cash

Gift cards can be some of the most useful and exciting presents to be found under the tree or tucked away in a birthday card. They’re practically an entire industry all unto themselves nowadays with sales topping nearly $65 billion dollars annually. This holiday season will probably be no different.

Why should it? We turn to gift cards when we’re at a loss of what to get those friends and loved ones each year. Sometimes they’re the ideal solution for when we simply don’t have the time to spend looking for that perfect gift, a gift card lets your recipient do that for you. Besides, they know what they want or need a lot more than you do so why not give them the gift of buying the perfect item.

But sometimes you get that one gift card that just doesn’t quite fit the bill. It’s $20 or $40 that’s only good to spend at one specific retailer or chain store. A place you’ve never walked into before and even now that you have a gift card to spend you’re not all that sure you want to anyway. The truth is, this happens far too often and it’s a big part of why the gift card industry has grown so big. Retailers love when you purchase gift cards from them because, while these cards are good as cash and redeemable for anything they sell, far too many of us never actually use them.

The result is free money for those retailers from gift cards that are lost or forgotten by people who can’t use them for whatever reason. Sure we all love getting a gift card from Target but how many of us can really put $35 to use at O’Reilly Auto Parts? Maybe the next time you need coolant or a new set of windshield wipers you might stop in. But then some of these things might be cheaper at Target anyway.

Industry analysts predict that nearly one-fifth of all gift cards bought and exchanged this year will go unused and possibly never be redeemed. Is yours going to be one of them or do you want to get something for that gift card you’re never going to use? You can hold onto it the next time you need something at O’Reilly (that is if you even own an automobile) or you can get cold hard cash for that gift card.

That’s right, cold hard cash.

No, you can’t walk into the store and ask them to give you the cash equivalent of  the card as a refund. That’s against store policy (gee, we wonder why). So where can you go to get the balance from that gift card to turn it into actual money?

You can go online and sell gift cards to third party buyers who are ready to give you cash in exchange for them. The best part is…it’s a lot easier to do than you might think!

Why it Pays to Sell Gift Cards

For starters, selling your gift cards takes almost no time at all. You’ll find there are a number of online resources that are just waiting to offer you actual cash when you Sell steam card or a gift card from just about any retailer with any remaining balance. That means you can sell gift cards in full or with a little bit left to spend. It doesn’t matter, you can find online outlets who are ready to work with you and help you turn those cards into cash.

But there are a few things to know first. Just because you have a gift card doesn’t automatically mean it will be purchased from you. Many of these online exchanges have specific lists of retailers from whom they will accept gift cards. So if you have an Amazon gift card that you’ve done nothing with for some reason, you’ll have a much easier time of selling it than you might from a retailer that only has two or three stores Arizona, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Secondly, you shouldn’t always expect to get the full dollar amount that is listed on your gift card. That’s just the reality. You may get close to what the card is worth but you’ll probably never get the full value. This is especially true for cards that have low, partial balance on them.

Now with that being said, you’re still likely to come out ahead because while we may enjoy getting gift cards around Christmas time, we certainly love getting cash anytime of the year. So when you’re contemplating selling that gift card you’ve had stuck in a drawer all this time, ask yourself what you could do if that card were cash.

Chances are you’ll have a few ideas and when you decide it’s time to sell gift cards you won’t ever use, you should know that doing so couldn’t be simpler. You just enter the name of the store where the gift card was purchased and type in the amount available on it. You’ll then get a response in the form of a cash offer to buy that card from you.

If you’re happy with the amount you just accept the offer and you’ll be given instructions as to how you should submit the card to your online buyer. Getting paid is easy as well, you will receive your cash in as little as three days. That cash is yours to spend on whatever you want, wherever you want. The choice is entirely yours.

So the next time you get a gift card that you just can’t use or maybe you stumble upon some old gift cards that have some remaining balances left on them, don’t let them go to waste by tossing them in the garbage or back into that catch-all drawer,. Turn your gift card trash into cold hard cash and get the items you want with that money instead.

We could all use a little extra money in our pockets. Unused and unwanted gift cards can get you that money in no time at all.

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