Do you have a gift card that you don’t actually want to use? You’re not alone!
Studies have shown that more than 50% of Americans have at least one unused gift card in their wallets. As a result, more than $15 billion worth of gift cards aren’t used during any given year.
The companies that sell these gift cards don’t mind this one bit. They’re able to make money on gift cards without ever having to accept those gift cards later. It’s basically free money for them.
But you should mind if you’re carrying around a gift card that you don’t ever intend to use. You should learn how to exchange a gift card for cash so that you can use it to buy something you want.
Today, we’re going to talk to you about the different ways in which you can go about exchanging a gift card. You can’t do gift card exchanges at most stores that sell gift cards. But there are other ways to pull off a gift card exchange to get your hands on cash.
Here are some of the ways you can do it fast.
Sell a Gift Card to a Family Member or a Friend
Do you have a gift card for a store that you know you will never, ever shop at? If you do, you should think about whether or not you might know someone else who would shop at this particular store.
You might have a family member who loves to shop at this store. Or you might have a friend who is always making purchases from this store.
Whatever the case, they might be more than happy to help you out by buying your gift card from you. They might even be willing to pay you full price for it since they know that they’ll use the gift card, which, as you’ll see in a few seconds, isn’t always going to be the case when you sell a gift card in other ways.
It would be worth exploring this option first as it’ll be the quickest and easiest way to exchange a gift card for cash.
Trade a Gift Card for a Gift Card That You Like Better
People don’t always feel super comfortable selling something like a gift card to a family member or friend. They would rather just give them something like a gift card as opposed to asking them for cash for it.
If you fall into this category, you’re welcome to give away a gift card that you don’t want to a family member or friend if you know that you’re going to feel bad accepting cash from them. But you might also want to propose another deal.
Instead of accepting cash in exchange for a gift card that you don’t want, you can ask a family member or friend if they have any gift cards that they don’t want. There is a decent chance that they’ll have at least one of them in their wallet, if not more.
You can then trade your gift card in exchange for one of their gift cards of equal or lesser value. You obviously won’t walk away with cash after doing a deal like this. But you will obtain a gift card that you’ll be able to put to good use, which isn’t something you can do with the gift card you have now.
Put a Gift Card Up For Sale Online
If you aren’t able to find any family members or friends who want to either buy or make a trade for your unused gift card, the next thing you’ll want to consider doing is trying to sell your gift card online. In this day and age, it’s so easy to sell just about anything online, including gift cards.
You can list a gift card for sale on an auction site like eBay. You can also attempt to sell a gift card on a marketplace site like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
You’re usually not going to be able to get face value for a gift card when you take this approach to sell it. You might have to sell a $50 gift card for, say, $45 to strike a deal with someone.
But it’s better to have $45 in cash in your pocket versus a $50 gift card that you know you won’t ever get around to using. So it would be worth taking a small hit on the value of a gift card in exchange for cash that you can spend right away.
Find a Website That Will Buy a Gift Card From You
Because there are so many people out there who have gift cards that they aren’t ever going to use, a lot of companies that specialize in buying unused gift cards have started to pop up. Google “sell gift cards” and you’ll see a long list of them that will appear.
You should visit the websites of some of these companies to see what they will offer you for an unused gift card. Many of them will buy a gift card from you instantly, no questions asked.
The only downside to selling a gift card like this is that it’s usually going to leave you with an electronic gift card that you can use to shop versus cash. It’s why you might not want to go with this option if you want to put cash into your pocket.
But if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to part ways with a gift card in no time at all, you can’t beat selling a gift card on a website that buys gift cards from people. It’ll be much simpler to sell a gift card in this way versus trying to list it for sale on your own.
Take Your Gift Card to a Gift Card Exchange Kiosk
As we just mentioned, one of the biggest downsides of selling a gift card on a website is that, while you’ll be able to sell the gift card fast, you will have to wait to get your hands on money for it. You’ll also often have to accept payment in the form of an electronic gift card that will be emailed to you.
If you’re not a huge fan of this, you might be able to sell a gift card to a company that specializes in buying them from people at a gift card exchange kiosk. These kinds of kiosks have started to appear all over the place over the last few years.
You can Google “gift card exchange kiosk near me” to see if there are any of these kiosks in your area. If there is one, you can then take a gift card there, pop it into one of these kiosks, and get treated to cash on the spot.
More often than not, you are going to have to accept less than what your gift card is worth. The companies that operate these kiosks do it to turn a profit, and they’re able to make a profit by offering to buy gift cards from people for less than they’re worth.
But as we alluded to earlier, it’s better to accept a little less than what a gift card is worth to get rid of it than it is to continue to walk around with a gift card that you aren’t ever going to use.
Some of the kiosks that are out there will also let you buy gift cards if you’re interested in doing that. You can do this at any Byte Federal gift card exchange kiosk if you would like.
Use a Gift Card to Buy Something and Then Sell It
What if we told you that there might be a way to take a $50 gift card that you don’t want and turn it into more than $50? It seems impossible, right? But you might be able to pull it off!
You can do it by using a gift card to buy something at a store when it’s on sale and then turning around and selling it online for full price (or as close to full price as you can get!) later on.
If nothing else, this should help you to get as close to $50 as you can for a gift card. It is going to take some extra work on your part to buy an item and then resell it. But it could be a fun way to put even more than $50 into your pocket in the end.
Regift a Gift Card to Someone Else
A recent survey revealed that almost half of all Americans would prefer to get a gift card for Christmas over an actual gift. Many people would also prefer to get gift cards over gifts for other special occasions like their birthdays, too.
With this in mind, you should strongly consider giving people gift cards when you’re shopping around for gifts for them. And if you happen to already have a gift card that you think they would like? There is nothing wrong with re-gifting a gift card to them!
Under normal circumstances, regifting a gift that you received from someone else would be seen as tacky. But regifting a gift card is different as long as you give someone a gift card that you know they’ll actually use.
So instead of running out and spending $50 on a gift card for someone, you can just give them a $50 gift card that you already have. It will keep $50 in your pocket and pay off in the end for you.
Donate a Gift Card to a Good Cause
Exchanging a gift card for cash is going to feel good. But do you know what would feel even better? Use a gift card that you don’t want to make a donation to a good cause.
There are many organizations that have started to accept donations in the form of gift cards in one way or another. In some cases, they’ll take an actual gift card from you and put it to good use themselves. In other instances, they’ll turn a gift card into cash and use the cash to do some good in the world.
After donating a gift card to a good cause, you aren’t going to be any richer in a financial sense. But you will get the satisfaction that comes along with knowing that you did something good for the world.
You might even be inspired to tell some of your family members and friends about this option. It may get them to consider donating some of the gift cards that they don’t want so that you can all work together to make a difference without having to spend a cent.
Figure Out the Best Way to Turn a Gift Card Into Cash Today
It’s become clear that gift cards aren’t going to go away anytime soon. But it’s also become clear that there are tens of millions of Americans walking around with gift cards that they don’t want or need.
If you have any gift cards that you’re not interested in using, you should find out the best way to exchange them for cash today. Or at the very least, you should set out to learn more about how to donate gift cards so that they don’t just go to waste.
There is no reason for you to continue to hang onto gift cards that aren’t going to get used, especially when there are so many other things that you can do with them.
Would you like to read some more informative articles about gift cards? Search for them in some of the other sections of our blog.
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