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Are your unused reward playing cards gathering mud? You might be able to alternate these playing cards for money.
Reward playing cards are among the many hottest items through the winter vacation season: 44% of customers deliberate to provide one as a present in 2023, rating second solely to clothes, 56%, in accordance to the Nationwide Retail Federation.
Many People do not use their playing cards. To that time, 47% of U.S. adults have at the very least one unused card, in keeping 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% enhance from $116 in June 2021, Bankrate discovered.
Nevertheless, sure web sites let customers promote their unused playing cards for cash.
“Customers actually need not go away these reward playing cards unused in a drawer someplace,” stated John Breyault, vp of public coverage, telecommunications and fraud on the Nationwide Customers League.
These web sites have a number of completely different monetary fashions, which pay customers lower than the face worth of their card. Some distributors pay a proportion 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, an authorized 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 buying, Jenkin stated. A $100 card may 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 further 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, in accordance to International Trade Analysts.
Recipients can as an alternative 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 customers ought to do some comparability buying on web sites to scout the very best deal, Jenkin added.
How you can keep away from reward card sale scams
Breyault suggested towards utilizing Fb Market or Craigslist to promote — or purchase — reward playing cards. He has seen “a variety of reviews” of fraud through these websites whereby customers have been duped.
For different websites, some due diligence is suggested earlier than transacting, Breyault stated. For instance, verify with the Higher Enterprise Bureau to see if customers 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” can be helpful, he stated.
Customers may also 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 usually 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 customers who’ve partially used their reward playing cards. Card balances should fall under 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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