Wondering how to get cash from a Visa Gift Card? Looking to add those funds to your emergency fund instead of splurging on something you don’t need? Well, ponder no more as I’ve found several options to cash in your Visa Gift Cards.
Visa Gift Cards are a great gift or promotional idea as they can be used anywhere that Visa Credit or Debit Cards are accepted. They are the next best thing to cash.
But sometimes you have expenses that just can’t be paid with a gift card and you need cold, hard cash ASAP. Read on for great ways on how to convert Visa Gift Cards to cash. Or, skip reading and try Prepaid2Cash for your quickest option to cash in.
1. Transfer Visa Gift Card to Paypal
Paypal is an online payment system that supports online money transfers. You’ve most likely heard of the company. Fun fact: did you know Elon Musk was one of the founders?
According to PayPal’s website, you are allowed to add Visa Prepaid Cards, which should include their gift card, to your wallet.
In order to add your card, you’ll first log in and head to your ‘wallet.’ Next, click link a credit card.
Enter the Visa Gift Card information. Tap “link card” and you should see your funds in your PayPal wallet.
If you receive an error, you may need to register your gift card first. Head to Visa’s Gift Card website and register your card. Once completed, head back to PayPal and try again.
2. Transfer Visa Gift Card to Venmo
Venmo is a mobile payment service that’s actually owned by Paypal. It allows users to quickly and easily send and receive money. Venmo is also an accepted form of payment at thousands of retailers.
According to Venmo’s customer service, it is possible to fund your Venmo account using a Visa Gift Card. However, the only way to know if your particular Visa Gift Card will work is by trying to add it to your Venmo account.
To add your Visa Gift Card, you’ll first want to sign in to your Venmo account. Next, you’ll want to choose “Get Ready to Pay” which is how you add your funding source. Finally, you’ll enter the Visa Gift Card number, expiration date, security code (3 numbers on the back of your card), and zip code.
Once you hit “Add Card” you’ll know instantly whether this option works or not.
3. Gift Card Exchanges – Places to Buy and Sell Gift Cards
Prepaid2Cash
Direct from their site, “Prepaid2Cash is a quick and easy way for consumers to access their prepaid card and gift card funds. Customers can receive cash via direct deposit for most Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover branded prepaid card programs as well as branded gift cards.”
I tested their free app using a $20 Visa Gift Card. You can do this too as there’s no obligation to accept the offer and it’s free to get their quote.
My full review for Prepaid2Cash can be found here.
Here are the steps:
First login to the app. Next, click “New Transaction” towards the bottom of the app.
Here’s the most important part that may be confusing. You must choose PREPAID CARD and not gift card when selling Visa Gift Cards.
This is a bit confusing as you aren’t selling a Visa Prepaid Card, although it’s good to know you can with Prepaid2Cash.
The app makes it very easy as it takes a photo of the front and back of your Visa Gift Card. You may need to enter a few additional items such as expiration and the CVV code (3 digit code on the back).
I received an immediate response with two options.
An instant cash offer of $15.50 for my $20 Visa Gift Card. This included a 15% fee reducing my payout to $17, plus a $1.50 transaction fee. This brought the total payout for my Visa Gift Card to $15.50. The money would be deposited to my bank account the same day I accepted.
The other option was to receive payment the next business day. This option included a 7.5% fee of $1.5 plus the transaction fee of $1.50. The total payout for waiting an extra day was $17, or 7.5% more money.
I tried changing the value of the card to $100 to see if the fees changed. They did not, so it’s still the 15% fee for an instant cash offer or 7.5% for waiting. The transaction fee was still $1.50.
If you cannot use your Visa Gift Card and need cash, Prepaid2Cash is a great option. But the fees are steep so you will be losing purchasing power by converting it to cash.
Keep in mind the $1.50 transaction fee gets cheaper in terms of percentage the more the Visa Gift Card is worth. For my $20 Visa Gift Card, that $1.50 fee ends up being a 7.5% fee. For a $100 Visa Gift Card, that’s only a 1.5% fee.
Gift Card Spread
Gift Card Spread gives sellers the option to ‘offer’ their cards to the company. The offer is a percentage between 0-100% of the Visa Gift Cards value.
According to their site, the average agreed-upon price is between 60-90%. I was actually able to get an offer of 92% of my Visa Gift Cards value, probably because they can be used almost anywhere.
If the company accepts your offer, you will receive a check within 10 business days, although the fine print says it can take up to 20 days.
I’d suggest you review their BBB filing. There is an alert that looks to be from 2016 and it states it’s really not resolved. They have a C rating with more than 94 complaints.
Use Gift Card Spread at your own risk.
GiftCash
GiftCash is another site that accepts Visa Gift Cards. The process is simple as you just enter the “gift card name” which is Visa and “balance.”
The minimum GiftCash accepts is $25, so my $20 card didn’t qualify. You get instant offers, so I just entered $25 and $100 to see.
The offer of 90% of the Visa Gift Card’s value was the same for each dollar amount. That equates to a payment of $22.50 for a $25 Visa Gift Card and $90 for a $100 Visa Gift Card.
GiftCash is more convenient with its payment options which include check, ACH, Zelle, and bank wire. Certain payment options come with transaction fees, so be sure to review before accepting.
Like the other options, GiftCash doesn’t have a stellar BBB report card. They are not accredited and show a D+ rating. There is no alert, but over 10 complaints.
eBay
eBay is another option when considering how to sell your Visa Gift Card. It’s an auction site, so you’ll have to list the card to get an idea of how much someone is willing to pay.
Other Well-Known Online Gift Card Exchanges
Some of my favorite sites for buying and selling gift cards include Raise Marketplace, CardCash, and Card Pool.
These are the major players in this space and not surprisingly, none of them allow Visa Gift Cards to be bought and sold on their site.
My guess is it’s a money laundering risk that these sites don’t want any part of. If you’re looking to sell your Visa Gift Card at an online exchange, you’ll have to rely on the smaller shops I mentioned earlier.
4. Transfer Visa Gift Card to a Money Order
A money order is a possible option to convert Visa Gift Cards to cash. Money orders are a form of payment, similar to a check. They are usually in denominations under $1,000, over that amount and cashier’s checks are used.
There are many places to get money orders, but Walmart is one of the best options. At $0.88 per money order, the cost to convert your Visa Gift Card to cash is pretty cheap.
According to Walmart’s website, only cash and debit cards are accepted for money orders.
Did you know that you can use your Visa Gift Card as a debit card? It doesn’t allow you to use ATMs or get cash back when making purchases but should do the trick when obtaining a money order.
You’ll need to visit Visa’s Gift Card website to setup your PIN.
Once you get your money order from Walmart, you can deposit it into your bank account. IMPORTANT: Do not lose your money order. The process of placing a stop payment and getting a new money order issued is lengthy and expensive.
So, make sure you head straight to the bank to deposit the money order into your account.
5. Buy & Return Merchandise – Not as Honest of an Option
I don’t condone this option, but I’d be remiss not to include it. Have you ever bought something at a store and later returned it?
Of course!
Well, let’s say you used a credit card. They’ll usually ask if you’d like the return put back on the card.
What if you said no? Sometimes, they’ll offer you cash. Voila!
If you use your Visa Gift Card to purchase an item, then return it at a later date, you may just end up getting cashback.
This doesn’t always work as some stores may only offer the balance back on their own gift card. You’re then worse off than you were before.
So, yea…there’s this option for you.
6. Buying Merchandise Just to Sell It
It’s a simple concept that’s similar to the buy & return method, just takes longer with a bit more risk of not getting back near the balance of your original Visa Gift Card.
The first step is to purchase a product. Preferably, that product is in high demand and can be resold quickly for at least the amount you paid.
After buying, you turnaround and try to sell the product.
Where? Maybe eBay, friends, family, Craigslist, really anyhow or any way that works.
Honestly, this method is more of a pain in the ass, but I guess it’s an option. For me, a win would be purchasing a product in such high demand that the resale cost is higher than the actual purchase price.
7. Pay Your Bills
A lot of other sites mention using a service like Plastiq to pay your bills with your Visa Gift Card. Unfortunately, as of January 2020, Plastiq no longer lets you use a Visa Gift Card or Prepaid Card.
That doesn’t mean you still can’t use your card to pay some bills.
Certain types of bills can still be paid using credit cards, which means you most likely can use your Visa Gift Card.
Think utility bills, phone bills, and gym memberships. These all should allow you to use your Visa Gift Card to make a payment.
Beware that most will charge you a transaction fee for using a credit card, aka your Visa Gift Card. ComEd, for instance, shows a $1.75 transaction fee for using a credit card.
8. Gift Card Exchange Kiosk
I did not have luck using a gift card exchange kiosk. Coinstar used to work but they sold to Cardpool, who decided to shut down all of their Kiosks.
I’m including this option since GiftCardBin is still around and might work for you. They would not accept my Visa Gift Card, but this may change by location so it’s worth checking it out.
The kiosks are often at local businesses, such as grocery stores. At least that’s where mine was located.
9. Sell to Loved Ones
Alright, yes, I’m stretching with this one. But I have to include any and all ways to convert these cards into cash, don’t I?
Reach out to your family and friends to see if anyone is interested in buying your Visa Gift Card.
Maybe they’ll pay you for the exact gift card balance? Maybe they’ll want a sweetener where you discount the price a bit.
Either way, it’s a great option to quickly convert your Visa Gift Card into cash.
10. Become a Processor
Here’s another option that I highly discourage but will include as an option. You could charge yourself for a ‘transaction’ and get some cash.
Payment processing companies like Square have made it very easy for small businesses to process credit cards at the point of sale.
They offer a manual entry option in their app or even a free credit card reader that can be mailed to you.
The idea is to charge yourself, using the Visa Gift Card for payment. There is a 2.6% processing fee plus $0.10 per transaction.
I highly encourage you to do your research or discuss this with your accountant before proceeding. This could be a taxable event, so don’t go messing up your finances and get audited.
How to Get Cash From a Visa Gift Card: Helpful Facts
How to Cash Out a Prepaid Visa?
If you have a prepaid Visa Card you should have no problem withdrawing cash out of an ATM or requesting cash back at retailers. Just watch out for ATM surcharge fees.
How to Get Cash From a Vanilla Visa Gift Card?
If you have a Vanilla Visa Gift Card and are wondering how to get cash out, you’re in luck. All the ways listed above should work the same for your Vanilla Visa Gift Card.
How to Check Your Visa Gift Card Balance
Before you convert your Visa Gift Card to cash, you’ll need to know the balance. Head over to Visa’s website where you can check your balance and even register your card.
Visa Gift Card: Converted
If you’re the proud holder of a Visa Gift Card, know that you can use your card at more than 44 million merchants across 200 countries. Visa Gift Cards are the most widely accepted form of payment next to cash.
Sometimes, plastic just won’t do and you need a few Benjamins. I get it. That’s why I went through the trouble of finding proven ways you can convert your Visa Gift Card to cash today.
I reviewed quite a few other sites with options that simply don’t apply anymore.
If you have trouble or find any of the above options don’t work in getting cash for your Visa Gift Card, please leave a comment or send an email.
The post How to Get Cash From a Visa Gift Card: 10 Tested Options appeared first on The Income Finder.