What to do when you don't love the gift cards you've got

Have you a gift card to a store that you don’t shop at? Have a large assortment of gift cards buried in the back of your junk drawer or bottom of your handbag? Don’t toss it, randomly give it away, or let it continue to gather dust. If you don’t want the gift card, re-gift it, donate it or better yet, trade or sell it on the web. After all, money is money!

Check out these ways of dispensing with your gift cards and reaping a better return on your unused cards:

1. Have a Girls Night Out that features a gift card swap. Label the back of the card with the amount of the card’s worth. Trade and swap with your friends. You might just find your self swapping out the 4 Target cards that you collected for one Crate and Barrel card with the same dollar value, giving you the ability to buy an item that you really wanted.

2. Donate your card to fundraiser event. Be sure to get a receipt for the donation so you can claim the tax-deduction.

3. Sell it on ebay or Craigslist. Today, I checked ebay. There were 4000+ auctions involving gift cards and/or gift card coupons. While you’re unlikely to sell the cards at full value, selling it at a 5%- 20% discount will at least net you some cash. (Caution on this approach: you’ll need to either very trustworthy or need some way to verify the remaining value of the card and its expiration date.)

4. Sell to a card swapping site such as Plastic jungle, Swapagift, cardavenue, giftcardrescue, and giftcardbuyback. Look for a website that verifies the validity of each card number prior to the completion of the transaction so you don’t wind up exchanging your legitimate card for one that isn’t valid. Most of these websites offer a no cost or low cost to post your card directly into their use base; others allow you to post for free but charge a small commission 10% based on selling price of the card. Most of these websites are also willing to purchase your gift cards for 55-70% of the remaining balance on the card. FYI - Some sites will charge to post a listing on their sites.

Happy Shopping!

Dedicating this entry to the fabulous Allison A. who inspired me to research a solution to her Christmas time problem of receiving gift cards that she can’t use.