Aggregating gift cards (or spending change)

oldsak

I'm in possession of a number of Amex gift cards with anywhere from $0.30 - $2.00 each on them.

What do I do with them? I don't really see any good reason Amex should just get to keep the money, but I also don't want to go into a store and ask a cashier to ring up like 15 gift cards to pay for some small thing.

The only idea I've been able to come up with is to try to deposit them all into either my fulltilt account or my paypal account.

Anyone have anything better?

RUNN1NGMAN

oldsak wrote: »

What do I do with them? I don't really see any good reason Amex should just get to keep the money, but I also don't want to go into a store and ask a cashier to ring up like 15 gift cards to pay for some small thing.

Damn the cashiers and do this. It's the most practical thing to do. Use them on your next grocery trip or something. I was a cashier at a supermarket, and someone unloading a bunch of low-value gift cards doesn't even register on my annoy-o-meter. I mean, it's like one extra button the cashier has to push. In fact, with the automatic POS terminals you can probably just swipe all the gift cards yourself and the cashier won't have to do a thing.

Improvolone

I've run into a couple of cashiers who need to be told how much you are taking off the gift card, which when it comes down to an unknown amount of change is a pain in the ass.

Deebaser

oldsak wrote: »

I'm in possession of a number of Amex gift cards with anywhere from $0.30 - $2.00 each on them.

What do I do with them? I don't really see any good reason Amex should just get to keep the money, but I also don't want to go into a store and ask a cashier to ring up like 15 gift cards to pay for some small thing.

The only idea I've been able to come up with is to try to deposit them all into either my fulltilt account or my paypal account.

Anyone have anything better?

Do you have any bills you can pay online? Empty your 'change drawer' into them.

Captain Vash

Improvolone wrote: »

I've run into a couple of cashiers who need to be told how much you are taking off the gift card, which when it comes down to an unknown amount of change is a pain in the ass.

any time you run one of these cards for more than the amount remaining it declines like a bad credit card. this is universal. check the balances on Amex's website and mark the cards with a sharpie or something before hand.

Shadowfire

Captain Vash wrote: »

Improvolone wrote: »

I've run into a couple of cashiers who need to be told how much you are taking off the gift card, which when it comes down to an unknown amount of change is a pain in the ass.

any time you run one of these cards for more than the amount remaining it declines like a bad credit card. this is universal. check the balances on Amex's website and mark the cards with a sharpie or something before hand.

This. All of this. Please god do this. We have people every day who don't realize this, and scream at us because we can't just "use the card."

oldsak

Yeah, I mean I'd actually tally and mark the values of the cards before I use them.

I don't really want to go to a store and pay for something with a whole mess of cards because it's a hassle for me, not out of any sympathy for the cashier.

If this was the only route I'd be more willing to take it, but I'd much rather do something online.