I am in the US. I received a Mastercard gift card this week that basically works as a debit card. I got a similar card last year but I could not get all of the money off of it and there is still $2 left on last year‘s card.
I tried to buy an Amazon gift card with it, but the transaction was declined by the merchant because of some combination of the lack of billing address and cardholder name on the card.
Are there any online merchants that do not ask for a billing address or cardholder name that sells gift cards or credits? The second part is important so I can get the round number value out of the card without having a little money stuck in the card. Or are there any physical stores where I can split my purchase and get all the money out that way?
Do you guys have any other ideas or any suggestions on subreddit to ask this question at?
How do I get all the money off of a gift card?
byu/acegikmo21767 inpersonalfinance
Posted by acegikmo21767
12 Comments
Most grocery stores will let you split the purchase amounts between two cards.
Walmart allows you to key in a specific amount for a card transaction at self checkout at my local stores.
Costco is also pretty consistent about allowing partial approvals to use up visa gift cards at the register.
Aldi gave me the option to split my payment the other day. I think target did as well.
Is self checkout important for some reason?
In any case I’ve always just used the gift card with the smallest balance and let them run that for the purchase, lets say $30. More often than not it comes back and applies the $2 that’s left on the card and says ‘The balance is $28, pay us’. Use the new gift card and pay the rest of what’s owed. In a small number of cases the purchase is just denied if there’s not enough of a balance to pay for it in full.
Buy gas with it. Pump the exact amount left on the card and then go inside and pay with it. Easy Peasy.
You can load money directly to your Amazon account, you don’t need to buy a gift card with a gift card.
I don’t know what state you’re in, but under $10 gift cards can be redeemed for cash in California
If you have PayPal you can add it there and split an online payment if the vendor takes paypal
Other ideas: target let’s you split payment online. You may also be able to redeem for cash value once it’s low enough. This may depend on where you live though
You can reload an Amazon gift card with the exact balance of your gift card.
Mine like that have allowed me to log on and add my name and address to the card for online purchases. I’ve done that and loaded it to Amazon.
1. For your gift MasterCard, find the way to register the card with your info. Name and address. That will let you use it online
2. Use the gift card online to buy an Amazon gift card etc.
I had one of those and ended up using one to buy a gift card at an online store I actually wanted to shop at for the same amount.