You can cash a gift card by selling it on a resale platform, transferring the balance to your bank account (for prepaid Visa or Mastercard gift cards), or requesting a cash redemption from the retailer if your state requires it. The method that works best depends on whether you have a store-specific gift card or a prepaid card branded by a payment network.
Store Gift Cards vs. Prepaid Gift Cards
The type of gift card you have determines which options are available to you. A store gift card (like one from Target, Amazon, or Starbucks) can only be spent at that retailer or sold to someone else. You cannot swipe it at an ATM or transfer its balance electronically.
A prepaid gift card carrying a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express logo works more like a debit card. It can be used almost anywhere that network is accepted, and in some cases you can move the money directly into a bank account. If your goal is simply to get cash in hand or in your checking account, a prepaid gift card gives you more direct routes.
Sell It on a Resale Platform
Online marketplaces let you sell unwanted gift cards for a percentage of their face value. CardCash is one of the larger platforms: you enter the gift card brand and balance, receive an instant offer, and if you accept, you provide the card number and PIN. Payouts can go to your bank account via ACH direct deposit or to PayPal. Offers typically reach up to 92% of the card’s value, though the exact percentage varies by retailer. Popular brands like Amazon or Walmart tend to fetch higher percentages than niche stores.
Other platforms like Raise and GiftDeals operate similarly, listing your card for sale to other buyers. Some pay you immediately at a discounted rate, while others list your card at your asking price and take a commission when it sells. Expect to lose somewhere between 8% and 25% of the card’s value depending on the brand and the platform’s fee structure.
If you go this route, stick to well-known marketplaces with buyer and seller protections. Avoid any site or social media buyer that asks you to simply send photos of the card or read off the numbers before any payment is confirmed. Once someone has the card number and PIN, they can drain the balance instantly.
Transfer a Prepaid Card Balance to Your Bank
If you have a Visa, Mastercard, or Amex prepaid gift card, you may be able to move the funds electronically into your bank account. The process depends on the card issuer and the transfer service you use.
Some prepaid card issuers offer their own apps or websites where you can link a bank account using your routing and account numbers, then initiate a transfer. Netspend, for example, does not charge a fee for mobile transfers into your bank account, though it charges $4.95 if you complete the transfer by phone with a customer service representative. The Brink’s Prepaid Mastercard charges a $3.00 fee for ACH transfers to an external bank account.
Third-party services like MoneyGram also handle prepaid card transfers. You create an account, enter your card details and bank information, and select the amount to send. MoneyGram charges a flat $1.99 for transfers under $200. For amounts above $200, the fee is $1.99 plus 1% of the total.
Not every prepaid gift card supports these transfers. Many single-use gift cards from Visa or Mastercard (the kind you buy at a drugstore checkout) are not registered to a specific account and may not work with issuer apps. You can often register the card on its issuer’s website using the URL printed on the back, which sometimes unlocks transfer options. If that doesn’t work, buying a money order with the card at a post office or grocery store and depositing it into your bank account is another workaround, though some locations may not accept prepaid cards for money order purchases.
Request a Cash Redemption From the Retailer
About 15 states and Puerto Rico have laws requiring retailers to redeem gift cards for cash once the balance drops below a certain threshold. The threshold varies but is commonly $5 or $10. If you live in one of these states, you can spend down most of the card’s balance on a purchase and then ask the cashier to refund the remainder in cash.
This approach works best for using up a small leftover balance rather than cashing out a full gift card. If you have a $50 gift card you want to convert entirely, you would need to make purchases first to bring the balance under the threshold, then request the cash back on what remains. Check your state’s consumer protection statutes to see whether this option applies to you and what the specific dollar cutoff is.
Use a Peer-to-Peer Payment App
Some people convert gift card balances by adding a prepaid gift card as a payment method in apps like Venmo or Cash App, then sending the balance to a trusted friend or second account. The friend sends the money back from their own balance, and you withdraw it to your bank. This works with network-branded prepaid cards (Visa, Mastercard) but not with store-specific cards.
Be aware that payment apps sometimes block prepaid cards or flag transactions that look like balance transfers. You may need to register the card with a name and billing address first. And because this method relies on trust between two people, only do it with someone you know personally.
What Coinstar Kiosks Can and Cannot Do
If you’ve seen older articles mentioning Coinstar Exchange kiosks as a way to trade gift cards for cash, that service was discontinued in 2019. Coinstar machines still convert loose coins into cash or e-gift cards, but they no longer accept gift cards as input. There is currently no widely available in-store kiosk network for exchanging gift cards for cash.
Protecting Yourself From Gift Card Scams
The secondary gift card market attracts fraud. If you are selling a card online, never share the card number and PIN with a buyer before the platform has confirmed the transaction and guaranteed your payment. The card number and PIN together are all anyone needs to spend the balance, so treat them like cash.
A separate but common scam involves someone posing as your boss, a government agency, or a tech support representative and asking you to buy gift cards and read the numbers over the phone. The FTC warns that no legitimate business or government entity will ever ask for payment in gift cards. If someone contacts you with an urgent request to purchase gift cards and share the numbers, it is a scam regardless of how convincing the message sounds.