Got a pile of gift cards you don’t know what to do with? Sick of drinking at Starbucks or eating at Outback? No matter where your gift cads came from or how long you’ve had them, you can trade a gift card for something you’d rather have. While this is an exciting option, it’s one that many people don’t even know they have! If you’re in this boat, read on to learn more about how you can trade a gift card for something more exciting.
First Things First – Do You Really Want to Trade it?
While the option to trade a gift card will always exist, take a moment now to consider whether trading it is what you really want to do. Could you use it for something else, instead? Maybe Christmas is coming up and you can use the card to get some unique gifts for your friends and family. Maybe you can use it to take that special someone out on a nice date. Maybe it’s the ideal stocking stuffer for someone in your family.
No to all of those things? No worries! The decision to trade a gift card is simple and straightforward, and it won’t take you more than just a few minutes.
How to Trade a Gift Card: 5 Options
If you want to trade a gift card, you’ve got a few options to get you started.
1. Ask to swap with a friend
The most local approach to trading a gift card is to swap it out with a friend. For example, maybe someone in your life has a Target gift card that they’d like to trade for your Amazon gift card. Think of it like trading Pokémon cards, but with real monetary value at stake!
While you won’t make any money on your gift card, trading straight across with a friend is the easiest and most straightforward way to get something you’ll use for a gift card that you won’t.
2. Sell the gift card
One form of trading gift cards is to sell yours. While it’s technically not “trade” (meaning you won’t get another gift card in exchange for yours), you can “trade” it for cash, which is valuable enough in its own rite. If you’re considering selling your gift card, you have a few options. You could, of course, sell it online on a site like eBay or Craigslist.
You could also sell it through a trusted card sales site, like ejGiftCards. The latter is generally the better option, since you’ll get more for your card’s face value. No matter what you do, though, selling your gift card online is a great way to get money to do whatever you’d like with.
3. Trade the card straight across
Trading the gift card is a great way to get a card you’ll use in exchange for one you won’t. There are a few different ways to do this. For one, you can head to a big box store like Walmart or Target and trade the card in-person at the kiosks located within many of them. If you don’t like this approach, though, it’s easy to use a gift card trade-in site, where you’ll likely get more money for your card and have a larger selection of vendors to choose from. Keep in mind that there are dozens of available cards, so it’s smart to have an idea of what retailer you’d prefer before you drop in, since this will save you time in the back-end of the decision making process!
4. Go online
The online community can be a great place to find other people who want to trade gift cards with you. Forum sites like Quora and Reddit are ideal for this, although people who choose this option will need to be prepared to put in a high level of screening work, and take the risk of sending their card off and not seeing anything come their way in return. It’s a risky business, so be advised!
5. Wait until after the holidays, then start a text chain
The holidays are a big time for gift cards, and it’s highly likely that your friends and family members will receive cards they don’t want to use, either. With this in mind, consider putting your trade efforts on hold until the holidays have passed, and then finding someone to swap cards with!
If you want to trade gift cards, you have options. Any of these five approaches could be ideal, and you’ll likely be very happy that you chose to swap rather than sit on that unused card!
