My Blog, Your Money

We’re well into 2008 now and the holiday season has come and gone. Aside from holiday weight and broken resolutions, another likely holdover is the gift card. A few years ago, gift cards were not universally received as great gifts. How times have changed. The stigma that gift cards lack thought and effort has given way to widespread acceptance and a recent survey showed that a majority of Americans, 52%, preferred to receive gift cards/cash.

However, even with its surge in popularity, gift cards usually aren’t redeemed immediately and many recipients never use up the full value of their cards. TGFLC – Thank Goodness for LeverageCard.com. This site has sprung up with the promise of allowing you to better utilize your gaggle of idle gift cards.

Here’s a list of its various features:

• Manage cards – Lets you see all your gift cards and their values in one place.
• Earn interest – Earn interest on supported gift cards, 3.65% on virtual cards and 1% on physical cards. In my opinion, this is one of the most attractive features of the site. The rate isn’t that high, but it’s still better than nothing. Remember my mantra: Every little bit adds up.
• Register Gift Cards – In case you lose the physical card, this is a great way to backup the card’s information.
• Swap Gift Cards – Another valuable feature of the site is the ability to swap your gift card for one that would be more useful.
• Buy Gift Cards – This doesn’t seem to provide much benefit compared to just buying a card directly from the retailer, but it’s another option you have when shopping for gift cards. A minor benefit is that cards purchased through the site are automatically registered so that saves you the hassle of punching in some information.
• Loyalty Programs – Track all your loyalty programs in one place. Not many programs are listed as of this writing, but the site is still in its infancy so there should be more in the future.

Not only does the LeverageCard.com make gift card management simple, it also gives you the ability to wring more value out of your cards by paying interest on balances and swapping for cards that you would otherwise have had to shell out more cash for. Compared to the alternatives of just letting them lay dormant or selling them on eBay (especially with the recent hike in commission), it’s not hard to see that LeverageCard.com will give you more for your gift card money.