How to Receive Money for Every Gift Card You Never Really Wanted

How to Receive Money for Every Gift Card You Never Really Wanted

WalletHub found that the most sought-after gift this Christmas season is a gift card. However, you might find yourself seeking for methods to swap your gift card or exchange it for cash if you find one under the tree from a retailer you've never heard of or would never willingly purchase at.

Although gift cards cannot be returned, you can exchange them online for credit at another store or sell them for cash in a number of ways. As a result, you won't truly be left holding gift card duds, withholding money, or aimlessly perusing the store in an attempt to find the least horrible thing.


The greatest places to trade or sell unwanted gift cards are listed below.

Exchange Gift Cards Online

You can utilize one of the many gift card exchange services to trade your unwanted gift card for cash or a gift card from another merchant.

Exchanges of gift cards made online will never result in a 100% refund. This is because customers utilizing the exchange won't want to spend full price to purchase a used gift card, and the exchange itself usually charges a small fee. However, you ought to be able to recover at least half of the total value if you swap your gift card online.

According to Mark Romanelli, executive vice president of product at GiftCardGranny.com, the largest aggregator of online gift card exchanges, you could earn anywhere from 54% to 92% of the value of the card through an online gift card exchange, depending on the kind of card, the amount, and the availability of similar cards.

Get Cash by Selling Gift Cards

Romanelli states that exchanging your gift card for one from a different retailer would maximize your return, while selling it for cash will result in a lower return.

GiftCardGranny.com discovered that the cards with the best resale value are for petrol stations (Shell and ARCO rank No. 2 and 3), groceries (Safeway is ranked #1), or big-box stores (Amazon and Walmart round out the top five). (See These Are the Best Gift Cards to Give This Year for a comprehensive list of favorites.)

Use Raise.com to sell your gift card for cash if you want to avoid having a reseller determine its value. You determine your own price; it's similar to eBay without the bidding. Raise.com is the second-best gift card exchange for sellers according to WalletHub, where the average resale value of a $100 gift card is more than $81 on the platform.

Any online gift card can be listed on the website for free; for physical gift cards, the fee is $1 or one percent of the outstanding balance, whichever is higher. However, you might have to wait for a buyer who is willing to pay the asking amount. Additionally, the business will deduct 12% from the sale price of the card; this means that even if you can find a buyer to pay the entire amount of the gift card, your profit margin won't exceed 88%.

How Soon Should You Sell Your Gift Card?

Romanelli cautions that gift card swaps typically give lower resale values just after the holidays. "Many cards don't sell for as much as they might in the summer because there is so much supply coming into the market," he claims. He points out that some recipients decide to keep their gift cards for an additional month or two in an effort to increase their percentage points.

GiftCards.com's content manager Shelley Hunter cautions against waiting so long that you forget to replace your gift card altogether. According to her, the longer someone keeps a gift card, the more likely it is that they will forget about it and never sell or swap it.

Since they aren't gaining anything by holding the card, "people shouldn't be heartbroken over not receiving 100% of its value back," she argues.

How to Sell Your Gift Card for the Most Money

Make sure you receive the best deal possible by comparing offers from a few different gift card exchange websites.

Visit GiftCardGranny.com first. Using this online aggregator for gift cards, you may choose your card's merchant and quickly compare prices from different reseller websites, such as Cardpool.com and ABCGiftCards.com, to find the best offer from their partners.

An analysis of the main gift card exchanges by WalletHub found that CardCash.com was the best option for sellers. It provides instant sales and, for a $100 gift card, an average resale value of $76.50.

Keep in mind that the fees and methods of payment vary for each gift card exchange. Make sure you read the fine print to understand precisely what you will receive in exchange for your card.

In-person Gift Card Sales

You have a few choices if you would prefer sell your gift card in person than deal with online gift card exchanges.

• Gift card kiosks operated by Cardpool.com (previously Coinstar): If you would rather not exchange money online, Cardpool.com operates a few in-store kiosks that you can visit. Gift cards from over 150 stores and restaurants can be redeemed at these machines, which were formerly run by Coinstar, provided they had a minimum balance of $15. If you accept the offer made by the kiosk for the card, you will receive a voucher that you can exchange for cash at the register of the store where the kiosk is situated

• .Target trade-in: If you enjoy shopping at Target, you'll be happy to hear that the big-box company offers an in-store exchange where you can exchange store credit for gift cards from over 100 other stores and restaurants. You should check the website to find out if your neighborhood Target is a part of the Target trade-in program as not all Target locations are.

Although the reward is more quick, in-store trade-ins typically yield lower resale returns than online exchange marketplaces, according to Hunter: "You've got to ask yourself if you value the dollar amount or convenience more."

Give Your Gift Card Away

If giving your unwanted gift card away will make you feel less like Scrooge and prevent another service from making money off of it, or if you just don't think the exchange is worth it, get in touch with your preferred nonprofit charity and inquire about accepting gift cards. If you itemize your taxes, giving away the card could potentially reduce your tax liability and increase your holiday giving.