How to sell your unwanted gift cards

How to sell your unwanted gift cards

What do you do when you get a gift card for a place you aren't too happy about? Why, you sell it, of course!

Did you know you can sell or trade your unwanted gift cards?

Most people don't even know such an option is possible, when in fact it is, and can come in really handy around the holiday season when almost everyone gets at least one gift card.

Below you will find a rundown of a few Web sites that facilitate the buying and selling of unwanted gift cards as well as an ingenious way of dealing with those Visa/Amex gift cards.

Cardpool.com

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Cardpool allows you to buy, sell or trade gift cards with fellow Cardpool members. You're able to sell a gift card for a little less than the overall value of the card. If you opt to send the cards' info in electronically, you are going to get a little bit less for the card than if you choose to physically send the card in.

The actual percentage Cardpool takes per card varies based on the demand for the gift card, and not a flat fee across the board. You're given the option to get an Amazon gift card instead of a check for the value of the card(s) for payment methods.

If you're looking to buy a card, you will be able to buy cards at a lesser amount than the card is worth, allowing you to save some money. (Which is also a great way to buy the gift cards you plan to give.)

Raise

Raise iPhone AppScreenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Raise allows you to buy and sell gift cards directly from your iPhone using its free iOS app. While that may not seem like a big deal at first, think of the savings you can take advantage of by buying a gift card at a discounted price for the store you're currently shopping in. See something you want in Home Depot that's listed at $50? Launch Raise, search for Home Depot and buy a $50 card for $42.

Alternatively, you can keep tabs on the cards you have listed for sale on Raise directly from the app. Alerts are sent when a card is sold, letting you know you have funds available to deposit into your bank account or claim via check. You set the price for the gift card, deciding how much of a discount you're willing to give for someone to take it off your hands. For its part, Raise lays claim to 15 percent of the sales price.

Coinstar

Coinstar Exchange KioskScreenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Look for a Coinstar kiosk. I know what you're thinking: "Isn't that the company where you can dump years' worth of coins into one of its machines and get money back?" Yes, yes it is. Little did I realize it also has machines that offer cash in exchange for a gift card. You can locate a Coinstar Exchange kioskhere. Once you find a kiosk, you'll need to have a gift card with a minimum balance of $20 on it. Scan the card, verify your identity and wait for the machine to spit out cold, hard cash. Actually, it prints out a voucher for you to redeem inside whatever store the kiosk is located in. But it's all the same.

Gift Card Granny

Gift Card Granny's listing of gift card-selling sites.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Who doesn't love a Grandma that's always looking out for you? Gift Card Granny is a service that searches some of the leading gift card exchange sites and provides you with the current rates you'd receive when selling your card. Services covered include Raise and Cardpool (mentioned above),GiftCards.com, Giftcard Zen, ABC Gift Cards and MonsterGiftCard.com. The services use different fees and payment methods, so it's a wise idea to shop around and double-check that you're receiving the most money you can for your unwanted plastic.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Square

This next piece of advice comes from Twitter user @garz76, via @nanpalmero; when you receive a Visa or Amex gift card, instead of trying to manage the balance at retail outlets, simply transact a payment to yourself using a Square card reader.

Granted, you are going to be charged the 2.75 percent fee for the transaction, but you will have the remaining value of the card deposited into your bank account within a couple days. Now, instead of having to fumble through keeping track of the balance or worry about what places will accept the card, you have cash in your bank account, to be used however you choose.

It only takes a few minutes to request a free Square reader (or you can purchase them at most big-box retailers now) and set up an account via the Web site in just a few minutes more.

If none of the above solutions sounds like a winner to you, there is always eBay, which allows the selling of gift cards. Of course, eBay has its own set of fees along with PayPal that can end up costing you more in the end. Weigh your options and choose whichever one works best for you.

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Five tips for managing your money with Mint.com

Five tips for managing your money with Mint.com

Ready to get into financial shape? Get to know some of Mint.com's most helpful features.

It's around this time of year -- after more-than-intended gift spending and holiday travels -- that bank statements tend to get more of an eyebrow-raise than usual.

Mint.com, a free personal finance site, is one of the most popular choices for budgeting and record-keeping, thanks to its clean interface and long-standing reputation. Whether you're new to the service or want to get more out of it, here are some best practices.

Sync all your financials

Mint works best when it can see your entire financial picture. That means entering all accounts, including savings, checking and even credit cards. But don't stop there: Any student loans, car loans and mortgages should be entered, too. And to make sure your net worth is accurate, take a moment to add in your assets, such as cars and real estate.

Once that data is entered, Mint can more accurately suggest budgets, goals and display your net worth.

Set goals

Mint's most valuable tool, at least for me, is Goals, which can be accessed from the desktop website (the tool isn't yet available for mobile). Goals is a well-designed tool that automatically tells you how to best allocate your money based on what you'd like to accomplish.

For instance, let's say you have two debts to eliminate -- student loans and a credit card balance. If you create a goal to pay off your debts (that's a goal type you can choose from the tool), and indicate how much you'd like to put against those balances each month, Mint will automatically tell you how to distribute that money based on the interest on each loan and credit card.

There's even a useful (and somewhat scary) slider that calculates how much interest you'll pay over time. Of course, the more money you put toward the debts, the less time they'll take to pay off, and the less interest you'll have to pay.

There are similar automated goal tools for purchasing a home, creating an emergency savings account and even saving for sizable purchases, like a new computer.

Keep transactions in check

After you've configured your budgets, Mint will keep track of how you're doing by automatically categorizing transactions as groceries, gas, utilities, entertainment and so on. But Mint doesn't always get things right and sometimes, it leaves things uncategorized. Leaving transactions inaccurately categorized not only makes your budgets less useful, but it also affects your Trends.

Once or twice a week, take moment to review your transactions and make sure they're properly categorized. You can do this in the app or online.

In addition to categorizing your transactions, you can also add Tags. The two available by default are Vacation and Reimbursable. Reimbursable is especially useful because if it is a business expense, tagging the transaction as such will exclude it from your budgets.

You can also create your own tags and set them to exclude any associated transactions from your budgets by going to Accounts > Hide on the Mint desktop site.

Tips for tracking cash

Keeping track of cash is one of the most common challenges, but there are a couple straightforward solutions.

Option 1: The first strategy (and the one I use) is to set a budget for Cash & ATM, and forego tracking cash transactions entirely. You can even go as far as deciding to solely use your cash for restaurants and coffee, for example, and let your Cash & ATM budget reflect that.

Option 2: This one is a little more labor-intensive, but valuable if you want to get a precise analysis of your financials. Each time you spend cash, head into the Mint app, tap the + symbol in the upper-right corner, and enter the transaction.

If you take this approach, just be sure to delete or exclude any cash withdrawals so that Mint doesn't think you're spending twice as much as you are.

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Apple, Microsoft, Sony sell smartphone patents for $900M

Apple, Microsoft, Sony sell smartphone patents for $900M

The tech giants finally relinquish their hold on the highly-coveted technology rights, possibly marking the end of a patent fight between Android phone manufacturers and competitors.

An Apple-led group is selling off its portfolio of smartphone technology patents following a settlement with Google and other Android handset makers.James Martin/CNET

Apple and other high-profile tech companies sold 4,000 smartphone patents for $900 million to a clearinghouse, the patents' new owner announcedTuesday, in an effort to put a long-fought courtroom battle behind them.

The Apple-led Rockstar Consortium -- which includes Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony -- sold the patents, initially purchased for $4.5 billion four years ago, to the San Francisco-based RPX Corp. RDX plans to license the patents to another group of about 30 tech companies, including Google and Cisco Systems, according to a press release.

The deal is expected to end a series of lawsuits -- which effectively pitted Rockstar against smartphone makers who developed Android phones -- around patents for some basic smartphone technology, including navigating through documents, data networking and Internet access.

"Today's announcement is good news for our industry as it demonstrates our patent system working to promote innovation," said Erich Andersen, vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft, said in the release. "We joined Rockstar to ensure that both Microsoft and our industry would have broad access to the Nortel patent portfolio, and we're pleased to have accomplished that goal through this sale and our valuable license to the patents being sold."

BlackBerry and Google declined to comment. Apple, Ericsson and Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This could indicate the tech companies willingness to move away from often drawn-out and expensive patent lawsuits. Rights to a patent typically prevent competitors from profiting from a company's original ideas.

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