Unwanted Gift Cards: 5 Ways to Use Them Up
Filed under: money
Photo: arvindgrover, Flickr
Did Santa bring you gift cards that holiday season? whether they’re for stores you actually like, soon after shop away! But what whether your gift cards are for places you consider more ho hum than ho, ho, ho — and you know you’ll never use them? Letting them sit in your wallet unused is just a big waste of money. The retailer gets paid, and doesn’t even have to sell any merchandise.
It’s estimated that 5 billion dollars from last year’s gift card sales will go unspent. Yes, 5 billion! Don’t become a statistic; instead, produce the most of unwanted gift cards with these 5 smart strategies:
1. Sell/swap. Thanks to sites like Ebay, Plastic Jungle, Swapagift, Gift Card Buy Back and GiftCardRescue you can now buy, sell or swap gift cards online. MSN Money has a great spread explaining some of the ins and outs of using gift card swap/sell/buy sites.
2. Shop for others. Use your card’s balance to buy stuff for that year’s birthday gifts or even next year’s holiday season. Who says the balance has to be spent on something for you, anyway? Free from Broke has a bunch of ideas for maximizing your gift card’s spending power.
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Original post by Diane Rixon
