Author Topic: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?  (Read 3975 times)

tensile

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How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« on: October 28, 2015, 04:38:57 PM »
I've been hustling setting up websites and stuff and now I've got a trickle of income coming in from the American Amazon store (via their affiliate program). Great.
But wait! I can be paid in either Amazon gift cards (bit of a scam, but understandable from their point of view) - or check (i.e. cheque). I live in Switzerland at the mo and my local bank will have kittens if I start bringing them checks. They haven't had them here since the 70s as far as I can tell! We're talking huge fees if they accept them at all. I'm stuck with the gift cards.

I found a service that will pay 80 cents on the dollar for the cards, but that's awful, especially if I can grow the affiliate income into something decent.

So, how do I extract the most value from these gift cards?


seattlecyclone

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Re: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2015, 06:04:06 PM »
Find someone who spends a lot of time and money in the US (or knows people who do) and arrange a direct sale for near face value?

It would be hard to move a large quantity of gift cards in this manner though. Perhaps the check cashing fees would amount to much less than 20% once the income stream is significant.

Are you sure they won't do an electronic fund transfer to your bank account? IIRC they do this for American banks, but it wouldn't surprise me much if other countries weren't supported.

Megma

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Re: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2015, 08:10:48 PM »
Can't you just buy everything you need from Amazon using gift cards? I don't know what they have and the prices in Switzerland but in the US they sell everything under the sun including a wide variety of nonperishable food. If it's side income form affiliate links, how much are you going to rack up? I would think I could spend 1k on Amazon a month if I bought everything from there, if it's side income how much will you accumulate?

Will the checks be in USD? If so, set up a U.S. bank account, mail the checks to the bank for deposit and periodically send yourself a wire transfer. In my experience an international wire is  $15-30. It would be easier to set up a U.S. Account from the U.S. If you have any trips planned but if it's a large international bank I bet you can still do it from Switzerland.

tensile

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Re: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2015, 02:58:37 PM »
Thanks for replying, guys!

Can't you just buy everything you need from Amazon using gift cards? I don't know what they have and the prices in Switzerland but in the US they sell everything under the sun including a wide variety of nonperishable food. If it's side income form affiliate links, how much are you going to rack up? I would think I could spend 1k on Amazon a month if I bought everything from there, if it's side income how much will you accumulate?

Will the checks be in USD? If so, set up a U.S. bank account, mail the checks to the bank for deposit and periodically send yourself a wire transfer. In my experience an international wire is  $15-30. It would be easier to set up a U.S. Account from the U.S. If you have any trips planned but if it's a large international bank I bet you can still do it from Switzerland.

Yep, certain things are much cheaper in the States so it's definitely an option. Especially anything that doesn't need shipping like digital codes for video games or something. But I'd rather have the cash and follow my normal spending habits.

It isn't much at the moment - something like 40 dollars a month, but I'm hoping to grow it!

That's another point - the checks WILL be in USD so I'll get slapped on the currency conversion too. Setting up a US bank account might be an option. I'll put that option in my pocket in case nothing else turns up.


Are you sure they won't do an electronic fund transfer to your bank account? IIRC they do this for American banks, but it wouldn't surprise me much if other countries weren't supported.

They pay in gift cards, direct deposit (US only), or check. Bit limited given how massive they are.

stashing_it

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Re: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2015, 10:05:47 PM »
If you get large enough, then set up a US bank account and simply wire transfer the money.

Note, I don't know the rules about non-residents setting up a bank account, but I assume it's possible.  You might need to take a trip to the states to do it

At 40 bucks a month, I'd either just spend it, or be willing to take the 20% hit

NextTime

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Re: How to Make the Most of My Amazon Gift Cards?
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2015, 09:24:25 AM »
Probably not ideal, but Amazon sells a pretty wide selection of gift cards to other stores/merchants.

If you can find one or more  that works for you, you can at least get a 1:1 exchange.