Five ways to use up prepaid cards

I mentioned in a previous post that prepaid cards can be very annoying to use online, since you usually end up with a small, random amount leftover.

Rebates sometimes come in the form of a prepaid card!

For instance, if I have a $50 prepaid card, I’ll tend to use it for something less than $50 (since online retailers rarely are set up to take a partial payment), and then I end up with a small amount left on the card.

Or, in the case of my recent class action payment, I started out with an odd amount: $7.44!

You all had some great ideas to solve this dilemma, so I’m rounding them up here.

1. Use it right away to buy a branded gift card

Sak said:

A good way to use up random prepaid cards is to buy a gift card for a place you frequent regularly because stores will allow you to apply your gift card balance and pay for the rest.

This isn’t going to work well if you have a random amount left on a gift card (I don’t think you can buy a gift card for, say, $8.62), but if you get a $50 prepaid Visa gift card, you could definitely use that to buy a $50 store-branded gift card.

And that would be much easier to use.

2. Use them toward a utility bill

Marcy said: 

I always use those random prepaid cards as a partial payment on my utilities. I have everything setup on autopay, but if I get one of these cards, I simply log in and apply the full card amount to my bill, then the autopay adjusts. This way, I don’t have to figure out how or where to use the card, plus, I get to use the full amount of the card.

This is a creative idea, and would work as long as you don’t mind using your gift card for something utilitarian (literally. ha.)

3. Buy an Amazon gift card

Michelle suggested this (and so did other readers!):

Prepaid gift cards – the inability to use them for partial payments drives me nuts, so I log into my Amazon account, and use the prepaid card to buy an Amazon gift card for the same amount, that I then add to my Amazon gift card balance.

4. Use them to buy gas

Bobi said:

Tip for prepaid cards: use them at the gas pump and you can pump the exact amount (even if the card doesn’t scan at the pump, you can usually pay inside.)

5. Use them at Aldi

From me (ha!):

I don’t know if this works at every retailer, but if it’s a physical prepaid card (like those Visa ones), I have successfully swiped them at Aldi to use them up, and then the machine asks me to use another card to pay the remainder of my grocery bill. 

Did I miss any? If you have other ideas, drop them in the comments!