Some retailers allow us to exchange an unwanted gift card for a more desired card. It’s usually not the best value, and you can likely do better selling the unwanted gift card for cash, but it’s interesting to see the possibilities.
- CVS has a partnership with Cardcash to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a CVS e-gift card. (Link)
- Dell has a partnership with Cardcash to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a Dell e-gift card. (Link)
- Hotels.com has a partnership with Cardcash to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a Hotels e-gift card. (Link)
- Amazon has a partnership with Cardcash to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for an Amazon e-gift card. (Link)
- eBay has a partnership with Cardcash to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for an eBay e-gift card. (Link)
- Walmart had a partnership with Cardcash last year, but it stopped after the holiday season.
- Cardcash now partners with Toys R Us, Sears/Kmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, GiftofCollege, and Speedy. Full list here.
Interestingly, although Amazon, Dell, CVS, Hotels, and eBay are all run by Cardcash on the same platform, the payout rates differ. Generally, CVS is 1% higher than Dell and 2% higher than eBay. Hotels is usually 3% or 4% higher than CVS, and Amazon is usually 3% or 4% lower than CVS. For example, when exchanging a $100 Target gift card, you can get $86 using the Amazon system, $89 using the eBay system, $90 using the Dell system, $91 using the CVS system, and $95 using the Hotels system.
- Gamestop has a partnership with Cardpool to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a Gamestop gift card. You can do this online or exchange in-store.
- Guitar Center has a partnership with Cardpool to allow swapping unwanted gift cards for a Guitar Center gift card. You can do this online.
- Cardpool offers to exchange your gift card for an Amazon gift card. They’ll pay you slightly more with an Amazon gift card than they do cash – a 6% bonus.
- Target just rolled out a service to swap an unwanted gift card with a Target gift card, in partnership with Cardpool. The payout rates are said to be subpar.
- You can also exchange a gift card for United Airline miles. (Link) You’ll get 2,660 per $100 gift card from any brand they accept. See a review on this option from Moneymetagame.
Did we miss any gift card exchange options? Let us know in the comments.
Cash is King
Of course, you can just sell an unwanted gift card for cash, and this will often give you the best value. Either use an exchange who will buy it from you – the major exchanges are Cardpool, Cashcash, Saveya, and Giftcardzen – or sell it yourself on eBay or Raise.
Want more information on selling gift cards? See The Complete Guide to Selling your Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash.
Anyone know how to fix the error of a gift card number being “not the appropriate length” when trying to exchange it for amazon gift card? The gift card is a hotels.com gift card and was originally bought from amazon 2 years ago, but balance is still in tact.
Hmm, maybe they switched how many numbers are on the card since then. No idea how to fix that.
I tried again for the hotels gc and it worked. Now it’s the Nike gc that’s not working. Oh well.
Guitar Center also has a gift card exchange option…
Interesting, I’ll add that in.
Coinstar Exchange kiosks accept gift cards from over 150 stores and restaurants including Game Stop, Starbucks, and Walmart, in exchange for cash voucher, redeemable for cash in-store. Also their website has an option to sell gift cards online for sellers in Boston.
Thanks, we once wrote up about Coinstar, but I didn’t include it since it’s a cash payment. I think we linked it in the main gift card selling post.
From what I understand, they offer subpar rates. Never knew about the Boston thing though.
Do you know of any way to consolidate Kmart/Sears GCs? I have a stack of ~$6 GCs here and I’d love to have only a few cards instead of a stack.
How about use the gift cards to buy something for the total amount you have, then return the item & hopefully they would just give you the bigger denomination gift card.
Yup, that’s what I was thinking too. It will be a PITA, but I don’t see any way to just combine the GCs.
Does anyone know how many GCs can be used in a single transaction?
15
Thanks!
I found this out by accident. You can exchange gift cards for porn ???? At naughtyamerica.com you can enter your cards for a membership.
LOL
ok, you win
😉