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Are your unused reward playing cards gathering mud? You could possibly trade these playing cards for money.
Present playing cards are among the many hottest items throughout the winter vacation season: 44% of shoppers deliberate to present one as a present in 2023, rating second solely to clothes, 56%, according to the Nationwide Retail Federation.
Many People do not use their playing cards. To that time, 47% of U.S. adults have at the least one unused card, in line with a 2023 Bankrate survey. Nationwide, these unused balances are price $23 billion, the report discovered.
Their common worth is $187 an individual — a 61% improve from $116 in June 2021, Bankrate discovered.
Nonetheless, sure web sites let shoppers promote their unused playing cards for cash.
“Shoppers actually needn’t depart these reward playing cards unused in a drawer someplace,” stated John Breyault, vp of public coverage, telecommunications and fraud on the Nationwide Shoppers League.
These web sites have a couple of completely different monetary fashions, which pay shoppers lower than the face worth of their card. Some distributors pay a share of a card’s worth, with quantities various by retailer, whereas others are like an eBay for reward playing cards, for instance, Breyault stated.
Examples embrace Elevate.com, CardCash.com and GiftCash.com, stated Ted Jenkin, a licensed monetary planner primarily based in Atlanta and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.
One “detriment” of vacation reward playing cards is that recipients are typically inclined to spend greater than a card’s worth whereas procuring, Jenkin stated. A $100 card would possibly flip right into a $118 whole buy, for instance, he stated.
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That is among the many causes retailers closely market reward playing cards.
They drive extra gross sales, Breyault stated. The worldwide reward card market is predicted to be $2.3 trillion by 2030, up from about $899 billion in 2022, according to World Business Analysts.
Recipients can as a substitute commerce in a present card to assist pay down family debt or construct up an emergency money reserve, Jenkin stated.
Some playing cards “have little or no worth and a few have much more worth,” so shoppers ought to do some comparability procuring on web sites to scout the perfect deal, Jenkin added.
The way to keep away from reward card sale scams
Breyault suggested in opposition to utilizing Fb Market or Craigslist to promote — or purchase — reward playing cards. He has seen “a number of stories” of fraud by way of these websites whereby shoppers have been duped.
For different websites, some due diligence is suggested earlier than transacting, Breyault stated. For instance, test with the Higher Enterprise Bureau to see if shoppers have lodged complaints a couple of explicit service.
One thing so simple as doing a Google seek for the identify of the location and the phrase “rip-off” may also be helpful, he stated.
Shoppers may search for a customer support telephone quantity for a website and examine whether or not it really works. A disconnected quantity or full voicemail inbox is commonly a crimson flag, Breyault stated.
There are alternatives past promoting an unused card, too, comparable to donating reward playing cards to charity and even regifting them, he added.
Moreover, a couple of dozen states have legal guidelines that require retailers to pay money again to shoppers who’ve partially used their reward playing cards. Card balances should fall beneath a sure monetary threshold, and a few restrictions might apply. Most states require this for card balances of about $5 or much less, whereas California, essentially the most beneficiant state, does so for playing cards of $9.99 or much less.
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