Author Topic: Gift Card ==> Cash  (Read 5496 times)

B L I S S

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Gift Card ==> Cash
« on: January 08, 2015, 06:36:18 PM »
Anyone know of the best method for turning a gift card into cash? My company just gave us our quarterly bonus, about $500 on a Visa card to spend how we like. Well, I'd like to spend that on my future. But I don't know of any method to turn this card into cash that I could transfer to one of my accounts. Do you?

campath

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2015, 06:44:03 PM »
Use Evolve http://www.evolvemoney.com/ to pay a bill with the gift card. Will work with Visa and Mastercard but not an Amex gift card.

surfhb

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2015, 06:44:43 PM »
ebay

Researcher

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2015, 07:21:35 PM »
I use my Target Prepaid REDCard for this. You can load it with a credit card and it is basically a virtual bank account. You can transfer the funds to your regular bank account, or use it to pay off a credit card. There are limits, but $500 isn't even close.

terran

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2015, 08:31:46 PM »
Could you just use the card for regular expenses and put the money you would have otherwise spent into your account?

Spork

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2015, 08:59:00 PM »
Not cash, but almost...

What I do is use the gift card to buy exact same amount of an Amazon gift card.   This is especially useful for those little odd-amount-left-over cards.   It's hard to find a place to spend $5.68... but if you just put it in as a positive Amazon balance, it gets spent the next time you buy something.

4alpacas

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2015, 09:37:17 PM »
Not cash, but almost...

What I do is use the gift card to buy exact same amount of an Amazon gift card.   This is especially useful for those little odd-amount-left-over cards.   It's hard to find a place to spend $5.68... but if you just put it in as a positive Amazon balance, it gets spent the next time you buy something.
I do that when I have $0.50 on a Visa gift card.  :)  Otherwise I would lose the change!

socaso

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2015, 11:12:34 AM »
I recently found out that in my state those types of cards can be deposited as cash in your account. You might research your state laws and see if that is the case in your state. Otherwise pay a bill.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2015, 11:35:39 AM »
Could you just use the card for regular expenses and put the money you would have otherwise spent into your account?

This is what I would do. If I absolutely needed the money today, I'd call the number on the package or back of the card, set up a pin for the card, and go buy a money order from WalMart or the grocery store. You'd lose some pocket change in the process though.

Nothlit

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2015, 11:53:23 AM »
Not cash, but almost...

What I do is use the gift card to buy exact same amount of an Amazon gift card.   This is especially useful for those little odd-amount-left-over cards.   It's hard to find a place to spend $5.68... but if you just put it in as a positive Amazon balance, it gets spent the next time you buy something.
I do that when I have $0.50 on a Visa gift card.  :)  Otherwise I would lose the change!

You don't need to find a way to spend exactly $5.68 or $0.50 (or whatever is left over). Cashiers at most stores can easily split your payment across multiple cards for a single transaction. Even in the self-checkout lane at the grocery store, when you swipe the card and the little pin-pad-device says "Your total is $23.45. YES/NO" hit NO, and it should prompt you to enter an alternate amount. You just enter $5.68, it will charge that amount to that card, and then ask you for further payment for the remaining balance of the transaction.

be

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2015, 12:52:40 PM »
Don't know where you live, but in the state of California, if a gift card is under $10, the store is supposed to give you the cash back.  However a couple of caveats, 1. most places don't know this and aren't very excited about pulling money FROM the till, 2. usually I have to find a manager to do this for me and pray they've heard of this law and know how to do it, 3. it doesn't work for amazon (the customer service person told me since they aren't in California, it doesn't apply.)  and she wasn't interested in the fact that it's $5 in WA.

+1 for paying and prepaying utilities.  I realize if you do cash back on your credit cards, you'll be missing out on the "free money" but it is nice to not have to pay a utility company every time.  And just for clarification, when I say "cash back" I mean when you pay by credit card the credit card company awards you a cash back reward e.g. 1%, 2%.  Not "cash back" as in "my bill is $40, so i'll put $60 on my credit card and get $20 back from the cashier."

larmando

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Re: Gift Card ==> Cash
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2015, 01:34:58 AM »
Just buying groceries for a while won't work? (In case utilities don't want it as it would be here)