The company behind the gift card kiosks recently announced they are shutting their doors. While some kiosks may still be operational, I don’t know which ones. Check your local grocery store to find out.

There are many ways to sell gift cards for cash. The most common way is to sell a gift card online to a gift card reseller that buys the unwanted gift card, sends payment to the seller and then resells the gift card to another customer. In addition to true resellers, there are also online sites that match gift card sellers up with gift card buyers, facilitating transactions without actually touching the cards.
 

One of the benefits of selling your gift card to an online reseller is that the cash back offer will generally be higher than any other method. The one drawback to using these sites, however, is that you’ll generally have to wait for payment to arrive. Depending on the reseller and payment method selected, you might wait a couple of days for a PayPal deposit or a few days for a check to arrive in the mail. Because the cashback offer is so good, however, I think online resellers are the best choice when you don’t mind waiting to get your money.

What if you’re in a hurry and don’t want to wait for an online gift card exchange of dollars for digits? The fastest way to get cash for a gift card is to sell your card at a Gift Card Exchange kiosk—the yellow one.

Gift Card kiosks (formerly owned by Coinstar) look like the green kiosk that sounds like a slot machine when people pour coins into the hopper. That’s not the machine you need. I’m talking about the counterpart called Gift Card Exchange. It’s yellow, it accepts gift cards in one of two ways and prints out a voucher for cash or delivers a Visa gift card in exchange immediately. Then all you do is take the voucher to a cashier and get paid. One of the benefits of Gift Card Exchange is that you will get your money immediately.

Here’s the fastest way to get cash for gift cards:

1.  Check the balance of your gift card.
2.  Take the gift card to a Gift Card Exchange kiosk.
3.  Enter the gift card information into the system.
4.  Review the cash back offer and decide if you want to accept it.
5.  Upon acceptance, print the voucher.
6.  Take the voucher to a cashier and get paid.

NOTE: Some Grocery Store have stopped allowing the kiosk to give cash, but will only give a bank-issued gift card in exchange.

Now let me show you how Gift Card Exchange works in greater detail. In the steps below, you’ll see how we sold a $25 Best Buy gift card at a local Gift Card Exchange kiosk.

Even though the Gift Card Exchange machine will verify the balance of the gift card, you’ll want to know for yourself before accepting an offer. Plus, the kiosk will only accept gift cards with a balance minimum of $20. The easiest way to check the balance of your gift card is to look at the back of the card and either call the telephone number or go to the website listed.

When you get to the Gift Card Exchange machine, you’ll either have to swipe your gift card so the machine can read the magnetic stripe or you’ll have to hold the bar code up to a scanner. There is no way to key in the card number. If your gift card is an odd shape, too big, too small, has cut-outs, or is a printout of an electronic gift certificate, you might not be able to see it at the kiosk.

I took my son with me to a Gift Card Exchange machine once and he asked the obvious question, “How does the machine know that there’s money on the gift card? Couldn’t someone just say it has $20 and get cash back?” The answer is no. The Gift Card Exchange kiosk will check the balance of the gift card before accepting it. But just to avoid any potential tomfoolery, you’ll need to provide your mobile phone number and email address, plus scan your driver’s license (or other valid state-issued ID) and a credit or debit card in order to complete the transaction.

When you get to the machine, the first thing you’ll do is scan the bar code on the back of the gift card or swipe the card in the card reader. When the card is recognized, you’ll be asked to confirm the gift card retailer.

Once you confirm the type of card you’re selling, you’ll be asked to enter additional information such as the Personal Identification Number (PIN) or Sequence Number on the back of the card.

Gift Card Exchange pays up to 85% of the value of the gift card, but the amount of the offer you get will depend on the popularity of the gift card. Grocery store, gas station and large department store gift cards such as Target or Walmart generally fetch higher resale values than gift cards to smaller retailers. Though your experience may be different (exchange prices fluctuate frequently), we sold a $25 Best Buy gift card for $16.25.

Here’s a Tip! You can choose to accept the offer. Once you successfully enter the card information, the Gift Card Exchange machine will make you an offer for the card. If you are happy with the amount offered, then select “Accept.” If not, select “Decline.” You’re not obligated to complete the transaction until you accept the cash back offer.

To complete the transaction and get cash back for your gift card, you’ll need to agree to some fraud prevention stipulations, enter your driver’s license number, a credit card number and your email address so the company can contact you if there is a problem.

Once you’ve agreed to fair play, say goodbye to your gift card and take the receipt from the Gift Card Exchange machine.

Now all that’s left is to get your money! Take the Gift Card Exchange receipt to the customer service counter or to a cashier who will scan the receipt and give you cash in return! It’s that easy! Take a gift card you don’t want and turn it into cash that can be spent anywhere in a matter of minutes.

While we were at the grocery store selling this gift card, a customer approached me with three questions about how the Gift Card Exchange kiosk works. She said she’d walked by the machine many times, but was afraid to try it for fear the machine would take her card. I think her concern and questions are pretty common, so I want to answer them here as well.