Gift cards are a great way to get someone a present without having to choose the actual gift, but they come with a few stipulations you might not be aware of. We'll look at the best practices for giving cards as well as what to do if you've received one you can't use.
Photo by Arvind Grover.
While you'll always be able to purchase gift cards directly from a retailer, gift card exchange sites have risen up as fast as gift cards. You can often find big discounts on cards by checking these sites first. Gift exchange sites allow you to purchase or sell your gift cards, so if you've received one you cannot or won't use, they're a great way to offload the card and not let the card go to waste. Let's start by taking a look at how the selling process works.
Selling Unwanted Gift Cards
These sites work in one of two ways if you're selling a card. Some, like Card Hub, allow you to set a price and allow someone to purchase directly from you, like eBay or Craigslist, while others will outright buy a card from you for a specific amount of cash based on demand. You can either mail your card in or give them the number on the back of the card. Based on our tests of a $60 Apple gift card, here are the sites we found offered the best price, although your results may vary based on the gift card you're selling.
As you can see, $52.80 is the most common offer. Each of the services base their payout rate on percentages. If you're okay with receiving an Amazon gift card in return, the Plastic Jungle offer is the best. The services seem to base percentage paid out on how many cards they have or demand, so you're going to get a different result depending on what you're trying to sell and when. For instance, a Chili's gift card for the same amount paid out a bit less, ($48 at both Cardpool and Plastic Jungle), so it might be worth shopping around a little before selling.
Purchasing Gift Cards Second Hand
You can, of course, also purchase cards from these resellers. The same principles as selling apply here, with the cards ranging in discounts on each site. The more specific the store and the higher the card's value, the better the savings are. Regal Entertainment, for instance, averaged about 15 percent savings at the same sites we checked above, while a store like Target or Nordstrom only offered savings of 2 percent.
For selection and overall experience, Cardpool seems to have the most variety in stores, with Plastic Jungle coming in next. GiftCards and GiftCard Castle don't have a lot, but they're worth checking when you make the rounds. If you're looking to check them all at once, including auctions on eBay, Gift Card Granny and Card Hub aggregate many of the deals in one place.
Obviously you want to pick a gift card to a store the person you're gifting to might shop at, but be sure to also consider their physical location if they're not in the same state. Check Google Maps with their address and a store's location to make sure they won't have to drive three hours just to use the card. The safer option is to purchase cards for outlets that have a good online store.
Since August of last year, rules protect you from wasting your gift card. You have at least five years to use the card, but the value can start depreciating after one year, so be careful if you're holding off on using the card right away. The card itself has all of the terms of use on the back, so take a close look if you plan on storing it and not using it right away.
If you purchase a card from a reseller that comes in an odd amount, MSNBC recommends taking the card into the retailer and having them break the card's total up into round number chunks before you give it away. If there's an awkward amount leftover, you can either use the remainder for yourself or add a couple dollars to the difference to round the total out.
If you've received a gift card for a company that has gone out of business, the FTC recommends calling the company or a competitor to see who might still accept the card.
If you struggle to remember to use your cards, you might also consider our previously mentioned tips of setting reminders in your calendar, keeping the cards in your wallet, and keeping track of the usage with services like Evernote. A card's value can start depreciating after a year, so it's important to use it quickly. Photo by Nate Grigg.
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