In California by law (CIV § 1749.5CIV § 1749.5) any gift certificate with a cash value of less than ten dollars ($10) is redeemable in cash for its cash value. Other states have similar laws but for lower amounts:
- Colorado, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington: <$5
- Rhode Island and Vermont: <$1
- Massachusetts: <10% or less of the original value
In many cases the gift card needs to be used before the law applies (e.g you can’t purchase a $4 gift card and then immediately cash it out) to prevent abuse. The main problem with this is a lot of cashiers don’t know how to do it and it can be extremely time consuming in person. Some merchants allow this to be done online, below is a list of these:
Other use cases:
- Micro center (when making a purchase if the remaining value of the gift card is less than $10 they will refund this amount on the spot)
Very interesting. Wish they had virtual card option as well, instead of only checks.
Maybe a stupid question, but these are sites where you can get cash from their own gift cards? The title makes it seem like it’s a place to redeem gift cards in general. But then both examples only refer to the company’s closed loop cards.
I’ve done this many times with physical gift cards, but when I attempted to cash out an e-gift card that I had on my phone at a Walmart’s customer service desk, they didn’t know what to do and said that they couldn’t do egift cards which I think is incorrect. They looked kind of puzzled and not sure what to do.
What’s your experience cashing out physical gift cards at walmart?
Mixed. It has depended on the employee at the customer service counter’s knowledge and willingness.
Cash is (still) king
I don’t understand how you can redeem for cash online? Unless your computer is connected to an ATM??? Surely they send you a check or paypal right?
They send a check to your address.
(h) For purposes of this section, “cash” includes, but is not limited to, currency or check. If accepted by both parties, an electronic funds transfer or an application of the balance to a subscriber’s wireless telecommunications account is permissible.
I’m in CA. When making an in-store Home Depot purchase with a gift card at a self-checkout machine that also takes cash, the machine will automatically dispense cash if the remaining gift card value is less than $10.
I’ve noticed this as well – great if you can buy gift cards online for a discount or on the spot via apps etc
In addition to hd, cvs, tacobell, and starbucks , gift and prepaid cards issued by banks can usually be cashed out regardless of balance. For example, zift zillions, green dot visa, netspend. These have all been successfully cashed out without using them.
I know that Target and Walmart also cash out under $5 or $10 at cs desk but not sco.
Hi just wondering how can you do it with the Zift zillion GC? For Zift zillion I thought you have to first choose a retailer and swap the zilion into a particular retailer’s GC ?
I used to try (Washington State) by asking the cashier during the transaction. None ever knew what I was talking about, and about half the managers didn’t either. It was a big PITA and the managers often acted like I was a scammer. Staples, Cabelas, Rite Aid, Safeway…always the same reaction. I don’t bother anymore.
You can combine the balances of Shell gift cards by email. You send them pictures of the barcode on the cards you want to drain and give them the number of the card you want the balance to be transferred to. Email is [email protected].
You are trying to do the opposite of what this post is about.
It’s still useful
There’s a version of that at Shell stations, if you prefer. You can buy a larger gift card, like $25 or $50, and pay for it with multiple smaller gift cards.
Are there deals or discounts on shell gift cards often that people are sharing ideas to combine them? Makes me wonder if I’m missing deals on shell gift cards
I remember Target stores would just charge what is left on the card when paying, I used to bring handful of physical ccs and just use them up for something needed.
As usual Red states business friendly, blue states consumer friendly, clearly shows in this case also , from the map
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gift-card-laws-by-state
Let me see, Il, NY,MI, CT, DE,WI, MN, NM, HI all No – so less than half blue states are consumer friendly for this issue
I think you are intentionally missing the point of this comment. Look at the list of states that are mentioned in the original post. They (almost) all have something in common.
sir this is a wendys
NJ CVS automatically cashes out the remaining balance on those free $5 GC’s I used to get all the time from Citi Easy Deals.
I think you may be trying to make a political point when there is none to be made. Solid blue NY, HI, DE and NH have the same policies as solid red FL, TX, WY and SC. I think the point of the post is to inform us of the policies in our particular states, not try to show a statistical correlation between political leanings and the refund of $5 gift cards.