Wouldn’t it be super nice to convert all the gift cards you got into cash? I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to see money trapped in a card that I can only use in a certain way. And as a marketer I can tell you that a lot of people are searching for a way to convert their gift card balances to cash.

For instance, I can’t pay the rent with gift cards, even if it was a Visa gift card. For some reason landlords only accept cash or checks. So a collection of gift cards that contain enough money to pay the rent are useless now and I have to use them to buy stuff that I don’t need!

The good thing about the Internet is that you can virtually do anything without having to leave your place. I did the research and yes there is a way to convert gift cards into cash.

First off, the stores that issued the card are not going to give you the cash back. They just got the money and will never give it back. Like when you return something you baught (and found deffective) and they give you store credit instead of giving you your money back.

This is not the same as gift certificates though. In some places I could use the gift certificate to buy something for a lower value and get the remaining cash back. Gift cards don’t work this way.

So the way I found to convert gift cards into cash is to do any of the following:

1. Sell them on an auction site like ebay. And in this case you need to know exactly how much you have in the gift card and you can expect to sell it for like half the amount.

2. Go to websites specialized in trading and selling gift cards, like plastic jungle or card pool. Only their there’s a chance you can get close to the full amount.

You can also sell your card to a company like those listed on Gift Card Granny.

Ok that was the second best (to cashing out your gift cards in full). It’s not fair, but this is how it is.