If you find yourself with one or more prepaid gift cards but you don’t know what to do with them, you need to act quickly. If not, you may end up with a wallet full of worthless plastic. Let’s take a look at the reasons many people have trouble cashing out their prepaid cards.
Hidden fees with Prepaid Cards
Wondering why that $100 gift card won’t cover the cost of that $90 item you’ve been wanting? If you’ve ever had this problem, then you most likely got hit by some of the hidden fees that the issuing companies charge.
Some banks and credit card companies will charge a monthly maintenance fee. These fees usually begin to kick in after a brief grace period. After that, they will continue until the gift card has a zero balance.
That’s right! If you hold onto a prepaid card for too long, the value can be completely eaten up by monthly maintenance fees. As if that’s not bad enough, there are also fees for checking your balance. To top it all off, some prepaid gift cards can simply expire.
Can I get cash with my PIN?
Unfortunately, the answer here is no. Unlike debit cards or regular credit cards, your prepaid cards cannot be used to get cash from an ATM, even though you may have a PIN number. The PIN number that you get with your prepaid gift cards simply allows for processing it at retail locations.
How about buying stuff and returning it for cash?
Nice try, but this isn’t going to work either. Retailers are not going to allow you to do this. Most Point of Sale (POS) systems will only allow a refund to be issued to the card that was used to purchase it. So trying this method will just put you back where you started.
Oh, and don’t try telling them that you threw the gift card away after you used it all up. The retailer will just give you store credit. They might even put the amount on one of their own prepaid gift cards which again brings you back to square one.
There is a better way
The easiest way to avoid all this hassle is to use our Prepaid2Cash app for your Android or iOS device. With this handy app, you can quickly and easily convert your prepaid gift cards to cold hard cash.
We made sure that you can get your cash FAST, usually within 2-3 business days. Plus, we’ve partnered with some of the biggest financial players in the market, so you know your transaction will be safe and secure.
So what are you waiting for? Download the Prepaid2Cash app today, set up an account and turn your prepaid gift cards into cash that you can use on purchases, meals, gas, or even your bills.
May want to say gift card (which means its locked at that merchant, not freely used elsewhere).
By prepaid2cash