Walmart Says; Trade in that Gift Card!

America’s favorite store, Walmart, is taking trade ins. Walmart has teamed up with CardCash to launch a new Walmart-branded site  that allows consumers to trade in unused, partially used or unwanted gift cards. Every year gift cards by the tens of millions are given as gifts.  African-Americas are no more guilty than anybody else when it comes to taking the easy way out when it comes to gift buying.  And yes we love Walmart.

A report from MarketResearch.com  revealed that in 2014 the U.S. prepaid and gift card transaction value was projected to reach $247 billion. An 11 percent increase over 2013.

The new Walmart website, named walmart.cardcash.com, is now  being heavily promoted on the Walmart.com website. The trade in website was activated on Christmas day and offers up to 97 percent of the value of the original gift card. The site accepts cards from over 200 different retailers. Walmart seems to be targeting Amazon.com by offering as much as 95 percent in trade-in value for their cards. Other sites, such as the Gap for example, only garner 84 percent of their original value. A site that is intended to syphon off some of Amazon’s sales would not be a surprise since Walmart offered to match Amazon’s online prices during the holiday season. The exchange rate for card trade ins will fluctuate with market conditions. Conditions that impact the exchange rate include how many cards from similar retailers are being traded in and other factors.

The new service is simple to use. The consumer enters the merchant’s name on their card and the value. The website instantly makes an offer for the card that the consumer can either accept or reject. If they accept the offer they enter the full card number, PIN and other basic customer information. Walmart then emails a Walmart e-Card that can be used online or printed out and used at a local store.

There’s no minimum balance requirement so consumers can even exchange cards that have been used but still have a balance remaining on them.

Breaking It Down

Walmart did not get as big as they are without some smarts. It is obvious that they are fighting back against the big online retailers; think Amazon.com. But they also know that every year millions of gift cards go unused. In 2012 alone $2 billion dollars in gift cards went un-redeemed. Yeah, that’s billion with a capitol B! Walmart decided they wanted some of that easy cash floating around out there and this is how they decided to do it. As for the consumer how can you lose on this deal? What doesn’t Walmart have? And how often are you in the store? And how long have you had that $10 Jamba Juice gift card sitting in your wallet? Not much longer if Walmart can help it.