Turning Gift Cards into CASH!

Another holiday season has come and gone and in the process you’ve received another stack of Gift Cards. Your well intended friends, family or co-workers have once again showered you with the ultimate token of appreciation — the loving gesture — the present of all presents that says, “Buy what you want, I ran out of time while shopping.” OR “I have no idea what you want.”

Sarcasm aside, Gift Cards are awesome — if you remember to use them or if you actually frequent that particular store or restaurant. Statistics show that in the U.S. up to 20% of all gift cards are never redeemed and with over $120 Billion in annual Gift Card Sales each year, that’s a whole lot of wasted money.

So if there’s no sentimental intent and you don’t plan on using the card, what do you do? Try turning them into CASH!

You may be wondering, How do I do that?

Well, to find out the most popular ways to do this, I called in the crackerjack investigative team at FACE to help me find the major players in the industry and here’s what they discovered.

There are a few websites that cater to turning your gift cards into cash. They specialize in cards from national retailers and restaurants and from what we can determine; the process is fairly simple and affordable, with processing fees of approximately 10% to 25%.

The first site we reviewed is Raise.com, who allows you to list your gift card for sale and suggests the amount to list it for with promises of a quick sale. A $100 gift card was suggested to list at a 13.02% discount for $86.98. Selling at that price would net the seller $73.93, after fees.

Next, there’s CardPool.com. This site makes a direct offer to you and will mail a check or offer electronic redemptions for qualifying retailers if you accept the offer.  For a $100 gift certificate, a $77 offer was made.

Finally, there’s GiftCardGranny.com. A combination of the previous two sites that allows you to choose between selling your gift card directly to a list of online buyers or auctioning your card on Ebay.

All three sites offered multiple options on how to receive your payment, such as direct deposit, standard check, electronic redemption or PayPal. Check the sites for terms and conditions, as they may vary.

For a quick link to these sites and additional information on how to turn your unwanted Gift Cards into cash, visit us online at FaceAcadiana.com.

Most Gift cards for national brands are redeemable for up to five years.

For the past 8 years, gift cards have been the single most requested item on holiday wish lists.

The average Gift Card is worth $40.

Over the past 10 years Gift card spending has increased by 80%.