Making the most of your Christmas gift cards

If you are like most people, you probably got at least one gift card this holiday season. If not, I am sure your kids did! You don’t want to let that money go to waste or forget to use those cards. Did you know that many times if you have less than a 10% balance on the card, you might be able to just cash it out at the store for cash? Check and see what your states cash back laws are and get your money from your card! PLUS you can check your state to see how they rank as far as consumer protection. Sadly Texas ranked poor 🙁

Know your rights: 

In 2010 many states saw a change in their “gift card” laws, meaning as the consumer you have more rights to the value of the card.

• Dormancy, inactivity, and service fees can only be assessed for a gift certificate or card if there has been at least one year of inactivity on the certificate or card
• No more than one such fee is charged per month
• The consumer has to be given clear and conspicuous disclosures about the fees.

Here are a few things that you can do to get the most out of your gift cards:

• Know the amount on the card and when you can, spend it all. Don’t get stuck with $4 on a card and never use it.
• Sell unwanted cards at places like Cardpool, Giftcard Granny, Plastic Jungle and even EBAY.
• Register your card in case you lose it. Check the back of the gift card for the phone number or the website where you can go to register the card. Many times it is not activated until it is registered.
• You can donate unwanted cards at Giftcard Giver which is an organization that collects unused and partly used gift cards for charitable causes.

Also one really cool thing you can do, is buy gift cards from stores that have a “Gold” rating with consumers. You can find more information on which stores do, HERE.