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)
