Good Ways to Deal with a Gift Card You Don't Like?

Two readers left similar comments on my post titled Review: Macy's (And the Problem with Gift Cards). They both offered comparable solutions on how to deal with a gift card you don't want/like. Here's the first comment:

Here's an experience I had with a gift card. Very little in that store appealed to me, but the card had an expiration date, and I didn't want its value to disappear.

I finally selected some curtains. After the sales tax, they ended up costing a bit more than the card's value. So I paid with both the gift card and a little extra cash.

But after taking them home, they didn't match very well with the rest of the room, so I took them back.

They gave me a refund all in cash! This meant there was no more expiration date to worry about, and I could go spend it elsewhere. So perhaps that's another alternative.

And the second has a bit of a twist:

Here is what I do if I have a GC from Macy's, and this only works if you have a Macy's CC also. Purchase an item with your GC, then return it and but the credit on your CC. Then call to get a credit balance refund, and ta da...cash.

I don't have a Macy's credit card, so I can't use that method, but the "buy something and return it for cash" method seems like it would work for almost any gift card you might have. But my question is this -- aren't stores on to this sort of activity? When you return the item, won't the see that the purchase was on a gift card and give you your refund back on a gift card (or in store credit)?

Comments

[Hank]

You can always buy, sell, or swap gift cards including a Macy's gift card at swapagift.com

[Dangger]

i thought most store already knew how your purchased the merchandise and will only refund you accordingly.

If you pay with CC, they refund only CC or Store Credit.
If you pay with GC, they refund only GC or Store Credit.
if you pay with Cash, they refund only Cash or Store Credit.

[cmadler]

My experience is similar to Dangger's, with the exception that on some small purchases they will just give you cash, and on some large cash/check purchases, they will mail a check to you.

["Mo" Money]

I have used the second method at stores other than Macy's.

[cherryblossom]

You can always re-gift the card.

[Jason]

www.plasticjungle.com......sell, trade, and buy gift cards. Great site I use it all the time.

[Rick]

Yes. Every store I've ever been to will only refund a purchase made with a gift card by giving you another gift card. However, there are a few states (not including my own) that have laws that require stores to exchange a gift card for cash. So the first commenter quoted in the article may live in one of these states.