A Guide to Trading Gift Cards
Gift cards can be a fantastic way to show employees or customers your appreciation, whether it’s a birthday, holiday or performance bonus. Gift cards are equally nice to receive, but what if you have a card balance – upwards of $2.5 billion goes unused annually -- or the gift card is restricted to goods, services, or a retailer you don’t use? Trading in gift cards for money online is often an option, but you need to keep a few things in mind before going this route.
Trading Gift Cards for Money Online
There are a number of web sites that will pay you anywhere from 50 to 95 percent for your pre-paid gift cards. These sites in turn re-sell the cards, at a discount, to other customers. Some cards are worth more than others, and you’ll have to shop the various sites to find which has the best deal, and the accepted minimum value, for the gift card you want to trade.
Most of the web sites for trading in gift cards operate the same way: type in the retailer name and the balance left on the card, and the site will give you an exchange amount. Because these sites both buy and sell gift cards, you will have the option to trade for cash or trade for a different gift card.
When reviewing gift-card-for-cash web sites you should carefully review each one’s Guarantee Policy because it varies from site to site. To complete the transaction you’re required to open an account and send the physical gift card to the vendor. You’ll get the cash trade amount once the vendor receives your gift card (many vendors offer free shipping) and verifies the funds available on it. Keep the tracking number for each transaction and expect the verification process to take approximately one week.
Gift Card Restrictions, Fees and Expiration Dates
On May 22 2009, the Credit CARD Act of 2009 was signed into law, and it went into effect on August 22, 2010. Most of this Act relates to credit cards, but it does include gift card regulations for store issued gift cards (physical/plastic, electronic/email) and bank issued gift cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover). There are additional State regulations that vary by location and can be found online, but the Federal regulations dictate that gift card funds may not expire before five years, and that if a gift card is reloadable, any funds added to the card must remain valid for a full five years.
The 2009 Act also restricts post-sale fees associated with gift cards. All fees must be clearly disclosed on the card or the card's packaging, and post-sale fees may be imposed only if the card has not been used for one year or more and no more than once per month. Card replacement fees are not allowed for cards that expire, but are allowed when replacing lost or stolen gift cards.
