Unused Gift Cards

[BamaRo]

I got some for Christmas that my best friend regifted to me. She is a teacher and gets lots of them. She gave me one to Belk, a department store. My son got one from her for JC Penny and one for Wal-Mart.

[mbhunter]

I happen to like gift cards. I don't think that they have to be the impersonal, thoughtless token of nothing that some people think they are. The trick is to use them, sell them, or re-gift them quickly, for the very reason that they're quickly thrown in a drawer and forgotten about.

I'll be happy to purchase gift cards from anybody here for 50% of the balance on the card. After all, I am the Mighty Bargain Hunter.

[KelR1]

I love getting gift cards! If you can't/don't want to use them yourself or re-gift them there's giftcardbuyback.com, swapagift.com, and plasticjungle.com where you can post them to sell or send them in to quickly receive a percentage of the face value.

[GOTO Fashion]

I never give gift cards as gifts, and I prefer not to receive them. I have an entire stash of cards that I carry around (most dating to 2005) that I haven't had a chance to use.

I recently successfully got an ULTA store to honor a gift card from 2005 for $25 - I had never used it but the "inactivity fees" had zeroed out the balance. I explained this to the cashier, who gave me a helpless "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do" look. So, I asked to speak to a manager, who helpfully dialed an 800 number. After about 30 minutes of holding, the manager found someone able to verify that the charges were all inactivity fees and they refunded the entire balance.

It took forever, and I tied up their register for more than 40 minutes on a busy Saturday morning, but in the end the store did the right thing and honored the card.

[AnotherDave]

Another route is to just send a Visa Gift Card that they can just use as a credit card although this may feel impersonal. One thing I would suggest the next time you send a gift card to someone is to send one that recipients can redeem for multiple cards from multiple stores like the Gifts.com Gift Card. The universal gift card lets them redeem part at one store and then the rest at a place like Starbucks where they are more likely to redeem the card in full. I know I've always used up my Starbucks cards but rarely a Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble just because I forget about them. Go with a coffee card or the universal gift card and your recipient will probably be better off.