What to do with unwanted gifts this holiday?

Chances are there that you'll get a bunch of gifts this holiday season - whether you welcome it or not. If you are lucky, you might find some among them handy and useful. However, if you are not, you'll end up with a basket-full of pointless gifts - like a gift card to a store that you hate like anything. Even worse, you can receive an inexpensive gift card to a place where there is everything expensive.

However, there are ways out to this kind of disaster. You can sell the gifts, trade them, or maximize the benefits.

Below are some gift card strategies worth trying.

  1. Sell your gift card: If the gift cards you receive this holiday are no use to you, you can sell them and earn some cash. Websites like GiftCardGranny.com, GiftCards.com, CardPool.com, etc., help you unload your unused or useless gift cards - for a fee. These websites offer you up to 95% money back on your card's net worth. For instance, if you sell a gift card worth $25, you can expect to get $23.75 in your pocket. Undoubtedly, this is much better than leaving the card in your pocket for the whole year.

  2. Trade your cards: Websites like GiftCardZen.com and CardPool.com allow you to trade gift cards for a veriety of other cards you might find useful. You can even first sell off your card and then use that credit to buy another you know will be helpful. No matter how you make use of your gift cards this year, make sure they never go in vain. According to MarketWatch, around $1 billion in gift cards go unredeemed each year.

  3. Re-gift your cards: Many might deem it as a controversial option, you can definitely consider re-gifting your cards to people who need it the most. For instance, you have received a gift card using which you can avail 2.5% discount in any apple store. What if you are not looking to buy any apple this season? The card will go in vain. So it's better to give it to someone who needs it the most. Just unwrap, remove your name, and re-gift. Well don't give it to the person who gave it to you.

  4. Check with gift card retailers: Most major gift card stores accept their own cards. Moreover, many gift cards issued by large stores are accepted by other retailers of the same company. For instance, a Gap card can be used at other stores like Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperline, etc. See if there is any retailer you could give back your card.

  5. Give your cards to charity: A JCPenney gift card offering 11% off might not mean anything to you, but it could prove to be helpful for someone less fortunate. You could consider giving out unwanted gift cards to charities. This way the cards will too find people who need them the most.

And now when you know that you no longer need to keep the unwanted cards with you all the year in your wallet and a whole world of options are available to you, what would you do? A gift might not prove suitable to you. You just need to transfer it to the right hands.

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