While I was organizing my wallet today I realized that I had several prepaid debit cards taking up valuable space. They had been given to me as gifts on special occasions, and I knew I had long since used up the majority of the value of each of them. Still, each had a little bit of money left over.
How could I use up prepaid debit cards with small balances?
On the back of each of the prepaid debit cards there was a website where I could check the card balance. After looking up my three prepaid debit cards, I found that I had a total of $8.45 in unused cash! Not a tremendous amount, but certainly not to be thrown away, either.
How to use up small balances on prepaid debit cards
Many brick-and-mortar stores will permit “split transactions”, allowing you to charge a certain amount to one card and then pay the balance with another method. If you know the exact balance on your prepaid debit cards, you can certainly use them that way.
Unless the prepaid debit cards are associated with a particular store, however, the cashier cannot look up the balance for you — you will need to know the exact amount you have left to spend. It’s much more difficult to find websites that will allow split transactions.
Since I’ve been doing a lot of my shopping online these days, I decided to hunt around for websites that would allow me to purchase gift cards in any amount. I discovered that Amazon.com was one of the few places where I could enter any gift card amount I chose.
So, I used up prepaid debit cards to buy Amazon.com gift cards worth $0.76, $1.69 and $6.00, which I emailed to myself. The best part: I can combine all of those Amazon gift cards to use on a single Amazon.com purchase if I want to.
It took me a matter of minutes to look up the balances on my prepaid debit cards and convert them to Amazon gift cards to make the most of this found money. It’s definitely a worthwhile exercise if you have small balances left over — time to look through your wallet and junk drawer and use up prepaid debit cards!
Thanks for the post! I have a stack of cards with small balances that I need to convert!
You’re welcome, Michelle–glad you found it helpful!
Brilliant! Thanks for doing the leg work and letting us know.
You’re welcome, Amanda!
this is genius! thank you
I agree, genius! Gift cards mean well, but I don’t care for them. I forget about them, they get lost, and using them can be problematic – like split payments.
Just converted two cards to Amazon. Thanks!
Great idea. Thanks for sharing! Hubs found an Amex I got as compensation for a campaign that originally had $500 on it. I had tucked it away in the office with postage stamps and papers and forgotten about it. Checked the balance and it was $178! Talk about finding money in your coat pocket. We went out to eat that night. LOL