I love getting and giving gift cards as gifts! Not only can people buy what they want, but I’m not giving away clutter that people don’t need or won’t use. But if you’re like me, you have some gift cards that you’ve had for quite a long time. Sometimes you don’t have the store near you and you don’t shop that website or maybe you just don’t shop there often enough or at all. And you don’t want to buy things you don’t love, want or need just to use up the gift card….right? Please don’t. So what are you left to do? Trade or exchange them!
- Consider donating them to a local charity that can pass them along to people in need. This is great to do during the holidays for Adopt-a-Family. Or use the gift card and buy basic goods to donate.
- Have a swap party with your friends. Maybe someone you know will trade you their restaurant gift card for your movie theater card. (Check the balance first and make sure the card is NOT associated with any of your info that would create a problem for a new user.)
- Consider selling it to someone who will trade cash for the card, or maybe give them a deal for taking it off your hands. For example, $40 cash for a $50 gift card. Wouldn’t you rather have $40 that you can use instead of a gift card that has no value to you?
- Use a service to sell or trade such as Plastic Jungle or Cardpool. Note: If you use a service like this, you don’t get the full value of your card.
Back to the gift cards I was hanging onto (some, for years). Sure, I could have found something, but I don’t shop for shopping’s sake. So I used Cardpool and it was perfect for me. I got a higher value for my cards than Plastic Jungle was offering and the process was super easy. Register on their site, enter the card’s info and you choose an option for your trade. I chose to receive an Amazon gift card in exchange since I buy Kindle books and other household items. I chose options that netted me the most money too. I printed a mailing label with paid postage and sent it in. I’m not far from the San Francisco destination and I got emails that my cards were received in just a day or two and an email with an electronic gift card to Amazon that I immediately applied to my account. It was pretty easy and I’m much happier having $100+ worth of Amazon credit than $120 of cards that were just sitting there for 2 years. For me, I added VALUE even though there was a cost.
Clean out your wallet and piles of gift cards to turn them into something you will use, whether it be donations, trade or using a service for “cashing” it in!
Happy Organizing!
