Our financial systems are some of the most complicated things we deal with, and they say a lot about how we run the world.
New banks are coming up each year, and they all have exciting ways of attracting users to their services.
Regardless of how much the new banks are growing, we can’t forget the giants that have held the market for decades.
Visa, in particular, has grown, and it is now an international organization with reach across the globe. Let us look into their gift card system and its perks;
Can You Combine Visa Gift Cards?
You can’t combine Visa gift cards by moving the fund balance from one card onto another. If you have several cards with small balances, you can use the two cards to pay for the same product. If you have two $2 gift cards, you can use them to buy something worth $18 at a store that supports the program.
How To Turn Visa Gift Cards Into Cash
You can get a free Visa gift card from the company during your birthday or wedding or most other special dates on your calendar if they have that information. Sometimes they give it to you simply to stay loyal to them and use their services for long.
Gift cards are great, and you can use them for shopping, but sometimes you might not need the gift and want money instead. You will be happy to know that you can convert the gift card into cash in a few minutes.
This is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to get your money from a Visa gift card. There are a lot of websites that offer money in exchange for your gift cards, but they can charge you anywhere between 5 and 15%, which is a ridiculous amount.
You might be wondering why you need to transfer the money to a checking account when the gift card works like a debit card.
Changing the money will give you some additional cash to spend anywhere you need, especially if you want something the card can’t pay for.
- First, you will need two PayPal accounts; one will be the regular account to buy things online and the second account. It will take about a minute to sign up, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
- Log into the new account and update it, so it uses the gift card as the actual payment. Go to the wallet and link a new credit card or debit card. Here, use the information from the Visa gift card since it matches a credit card.
You will get confirmation that PayPal has linked to your gift card. This way, PayPal will recognize your gift card as the actual payment source, and your new balance will be the amount on the gift card.
- Go back to the home page and click send or request money. Now you will have a balance in the new PayPal account, and you will be sending the funds to your primary PayPal account.
It will charge you a fee of $0.30 and an additional transaction cost of 2.9% of the amount you will send. Choose the option to send to a friend when processing the payment since it will charge you fewer commissions, input the correct amount and send it to your new account.
- After sending the money and getting an approval screen, log into your primary PayPal account and check the balance. You can take the money from PayPal and deposit it into a checking account to use at your own time.
If you want to withdraw the money immediately, you can take it out, but it will charge you an additional 1% of the amount you want to withdraw. You can avoid this fee by waiting one or two days for the money to go into your checking account.
It is better to change it this way and lose $3 rather than use a website and lose about 15% of the total amount on the card.
Transferring it will allow you to use the money in places that don’t take gift cards, so it is a good trade.
How To Get Free Visa Gift Cards
Everyone loves free money, and you can’t miss out on an opportunity to make a few dollars without working for it.
Visa gift cards are a solid option, and you can use them anywhere you need to; the only problem is that no one will give you free Visa Gift cards.
It is much easier than you think to get your hands on a free Visa gift card. All you need to do is complete a simple survey or task on plenty of free sites where you will get a gift card for your opinions and time.
There are two types of gift cards, the first is physical, and you will use it as a debit card to shop for items, but you can’t make an ATM withdrawal.
The second option is a virtual card, and this will come as an email, and you will get the code for the card.
You can get as many gift cards as you can find since there isn’t a limit to how many you can cash.
However, since you need to fulfill some tasks on websites to earn enough for a gift card, you may have to juggle a lot of websites at a time.
This will be time-consuming, so eventually, it will depend on your efficiency and the time on your hands.
You only need as many as five sites, and it will depend on how active you are on each of them to help you make more money.
- One website you can try is Lifepoints; it is a relatively new snowballing platform. The site partners with many brands and retailers to offer you amazing deals and gift cards. You will get points to try out products.
You can sign up for free, and the best way to earn points is to fill out surveys you qualify for. You can earn points tracking your experience as you shop on Amazon or other companies working with the website.
- Branded surveys is another website that gives you the chance to win Visa gift cards. This is one of the most significant market research communities, and they pay their users in points to fill surveys in their spare time.
This is a new platform, but it is growing popular because it offers relatively high pay for each survey.
Some users make as much as $10 an hour or more by answering questions. Like the other site, you can convert the points to cash or get a Visa gift card.
More websites offer gift cards, and you can look for one that suits you. In most cases, the websites will ask many questions when you log in to determine the kinds of surveys you are eligible to participate in.
Problems With Visa Gift Cards
When you want to get someone a gift and don’t know what will work best, most people send a gift card, so the recipient buys whatever they want.
You can buy a Visa gift card, but that is not always a good idea, and here are some reasons why you shouldn’t;
1. Fees
There are a lot of fees that come with buying gift cards, and it will just not be worth the trouble in the end.
You have to pay the initial fee to purchase them, and you have to pay an inactivity fee for when the card stays long before you use it to keep it legible.
This makes it hard to manage the funds, and you might have better results by sending a check or giving them cash instead of a gift card.
2. They are not easy to use
In most places you go, you will not use the gift card since there are so many problems. Sometimes it might be at gas stations or restaurants, and the card is not entirely reliable; they are not as good as cash, and they can leave you stranded.
3. Gift card fraud
This is the most significant issue with gift cards and why you should avoid using them if you can. You don’t get the usual protection against fraudsters with a gift card, and it is easy to lose your money.
New regulations give them more protection, but it isn’t good enough. Anyone with a physical gift card can use the funds, so it is easy for someone to take the funds.
Conclusion
Visa gift cards are standard today, and they often don’t have large balances on them, so you might wonder if you can combine gift cards. You can’t join the funds onto a card, but you can use two or more cards to make payments at one location.
Sometimes gift cards are not a good choice, especially if you want to buy them for someone for a special occasion or as a gift. They are hard to use and unsafe from fraud; thus, you will be safer giving the other person cash rather than a gift card.
