Is It Safe to Buy and Sell on Gift Card Exchangers?
After the holidays, a gift card store can sit in your wallet, unbothered for months – in fact, at any given time, between 10-19% of gift card balances remain unredeemed, and six percent of gift cards are never even used, according to Hustle . Luckily, you can sell these cards for real money on reseller sites. But are gift card exchange sites safe?
How does gift card exchange work?
You can buy or sell gift cards on gift card exchange websites that act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers. Typically, you advertise a gift card that you want to sell, and as part of that list, you include the card number and PIN. , which is confirmed by the site. The actual exchange is mostly digital, but it may involve the distribution of physical cards, with the intermediary acting as an intermediary.
However, you will never sell a gift card for 100% of its value as the broker charges a small percentage and buyers will expect some kind of discount (otherwise they would simply buy gift cards directly from retailers). But by losing some value, you also get cash that can be spent anywhere, not just in one store. Plus, it’s better to lose value than not using it at all – according to a Paytronix report, if you haven’t used your card for 180 days, you’re more likely to not redeem it at all.
How much you can earn also depends on the popularity of your gift card and its quantity in the market. For example, a $ 100 Amazon or Visa gift card will be in more demand than, say, a $ 100 Arby gift card. Expect earnings between 50% and 92% of the value of the card, depending on market demand.
A word of caution
Avoid the temptation to sell your cards yourself using eBay or Facebook, as it’s all too easy to get scammed without a third party broker. Instead, only use the most popular gift card sites that offer customer support such as CardCash , GiftCash, and Raise . You can start with GiftCardGranny.com , aggregator, which compares deals from other sites commercial intermediaries.
Even these larger sites should be approached with some caution, however, as they often receive complaints from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) about card refusals at retail stores, as well as delays in receiving cards and payments.
In December last year, BBB issued a notice about the popular shopping mediator Cardpool , which currently has a rating of «F» because of the large number of complaints. This does not mean that all other sites are the same, or that they do not offer support or respond to complaints – this is just something to keep in mind (personally, I would be comfortable buying a gift card from one of these sites). sites, but I would also try to use it right away).
The BBB offers the following tips when considering using a gift card reseller:
- Study the business before buying, selling, or trading.
- Visit BBB.org for a rating of the company.
- Read customer complaints and testimonials from any online gift card merchant you might be considering.
- Make sure the company has easy-to-find contact information.
- Find out what the company’s refund policy is.
- Use a payment method that allows you to dispute expenses.
- Check your balance and any passwords or pins immediately on any cards you buy.
- Use gift cards quickly. This is especially important during COVID-19, when more businesses are closing their doors. When a store goes down, so does its gift cards. Learn more about what to do with gift cards if the store goes out of business .