Best way to turn gift cards into cash?

[masscredit]

I have some gift cards left over from when I didn't have any credit cards to use. Aside from using them for everything I buy over the next couple of months, are there any good ways to turn them into cash without losing much money? I did some searching online, there are places that will buy them but I'd lose over 20%. I found that requesting cash back when I make purchases in stores doesn't work. That gets denied. 

[NRB525]

Which gift card brands do you have? 
I try to limit the gift cards I pick up, because I tend to lose track of them if I don't use them right away, so I get the desire to liquidate them. 

[masscredit]

They are all Visa gift cards.

[coldfusion]

Ability to do this has been to a large extent curtailed over the last few years because the practice had become widely abused either to facilitate fraud or engage in ethically questionable practices that we can't discuss here.  It's become an example of why we collectively cannot have nice things. 

[NRB525]

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@masscredit wrote:

They are all Visa gift cards.

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Then you have cash. I thought you might be dealing with store gift cards you never shop at anymore. 

I'm not seeing the challenge here. 

[masscredit]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@masscredit wrote:

They are all Visa gift cards.

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Then you have cash. I thought you might be dealing with store gift cards you never shop at anymore. 

I'm not seeing the challenge here. 

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I've tried requesting cash back when checking out at registers but haven't been able to.  I'd like to convert them to green cash 🙂

[FinStar]

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@masscredit wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@masscredit wrote:

They are all Visa gift cards.

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Then you have cash. I thought you might be dealing with store gift cards you never shop at anymore. 

I'm not seeing the challenge here. 

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I've tried requesting cash back when checking out at registers but haven't been able to.  I'd like to convert them to green cash 🙂

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Unfortunately, as mentioned further upthread, these are going to be loss leaders. You're not going to get the full cash value on them through any of the exchange portals, not without incurring some loss in value.

[ptatohed]

As mentioned, if they are Visa "gift" cards, then what is the problem?  They are as good as cash.  Just use them to buy everyday things you already would have.  The only neg I can think of is you lose the opportunity to otherwise use a CB card.  But small price to pay.  If you truly, truly want 100% cash for them, the only thing I can think of is buying something at a store that has a liberal return policy, return the item, and some stores will give you cash from the register.  But, you may have to make multiple smaller purchases for this to work.  Not worth it in my opinion.  Just spend them on needed goods.    

[masscredit]

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@ptatohed wrote:

As mentioned, if they are Visa "gift" cards, then what is the problem?  They are as good as cash.  Just use them to buy everyday things you already would have.  The only neg I can think of is you lose the opportunity to otherwise use a CB card.  But small price to pay.  If you truly, truly want 100% cash for them, the only thing I can think of is buying something at a store that has a liberal return policy, return the item, and some stores will give you cash from the register.  But, you may have to make multiple smaller purchases for this to work.  Not worth it in my opinion.  Just spend them on needed goods.    

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I'd like to move past having to use gift cards and start using my new secured cards to start rebuilding. Getting 1-2% cash back would also be nice but I mainly want to use real cards. You do have a good suggestion. I'm might try that. And/or I can set up normal monthly expenses on the GCs and let them run down.

[masscredit]

I did some research on Google. A few of the popular suggestions are -

Use the GCs to purchase money orders at places like Walmart and the postal service. Walmart tends to be the most popular. The card has to have a pin number to be able to do it.

Link the card to a Venmo or PayPal account. Should be able to move funds to the bank account that is attached to it.

I'm going to try these this week.