Never Used

Don’t Let Your Gift Card Expire – Convert It Into Cash

If you search the term Gift Cards in Wikipedia they characterize it as a card that has a limited cash value that is issued by either a bank or a retailer that is given as an substitute to purchasing a physical gift.  They have become extremely prevalent as they offer a easy way of giving a gift you know the other person will love.  However to a bank or store it symbolizes a hell of a lot of revenue.  So much money, in fact, that a study in 2006 discovered that consumers in the U.S. and Canada spent a combined total of over $81 billion dollars on them.

This has spawned an entire industry focused around selling add-ons like gift card holders that mixes a greeting card and a place to put the gift card.  And if you want something a bit more substantial there are available a huge variety of various gift card packaging options like boxes, bags, envelopes and even tins.  This is all great but recent estimates on card redemption rates indicated that about 10% of these cards never get used. 

Stores are receiving billions in revenue without providing any merchandise.  Retailers, however, can make even more money if these cards were used.  Surveys have shown that consumers will generally spend more than the card’s value on merchandise or services.

Failure to cash in a gift card can come from several factors such as expiration dates, hard to understand redemption rules or lost cards.  There is another issue and that is simply that you just may not like the store the card has been issued for.  Now there are companies that are focusing on this niche.  Welcome to the world of gift card resellers.

These reseller websites, such as Plastic Jungle, offer the opportunity for people to buy gift cards at a reduced rate or sell a card you no longer want.  And it is not only buying and selling because you can trade cards also.  They can even guarantee the full value of cards that you buy through the site.

This is starting to be popular with consumers who otherwise would be stuck with a card they may never redeem.  Converting the card into cash allows you to use that money for anything you want.  Many cash-strapped customers would just prefer to use the money to pay some bills.

Part of the real interest in the reseller services is for buyers.  Most of the gift cards sold on these websites are sold at a discount.  The total discount may vary from site to site, but you can often expect to receive a ten percent discount off of the face value of the card. And if you add this with products that are already discounted the savings could be quite a bit.

Many of these resale sites have yet to make a profit themselves but interest appears to be rising.  It may help to make gift cards that much more desirable.  The monetary value can now be converted and put towards something that is really needed, want, or meaningful.