Do you have a couple of gift cards in your wallet, and youre not sure what to do with them? Well, did you know you could convert them into bitcoin? Here, we tell you how to buy Bitcoin using gift cards!
Can I Buy Bitcoin with a Gift Card?
Many buyers of Bitcoins remain uninformed about this avenue even when they have gift cards that they are not using.
You can, for example, buy BTC with Walmart gift card. The great part is that gift cards from almost all retailers work for the exchange. It doesn’t matter whether they are from Amazon, eBay or Bread Panera, anything will work. In fact, even Master Card or Visa gift cards will work just as well and allow you to easily buy Bitcoins.
Exchanging an Amazon Gift Card for Bitcoins
- In Paxful and other exchanges, sellers ask for a physical card and for the purchase to have been made with cash, as they don’t usually accept e-code.
- The code that appears on the card and on the receipt must match (you must send a picture).
- When the seller redeems the code in the store, he will pay you back in crypto coins.
- The entire operation will be registered in the platform, which also acts as an intermediary.
Exchanging a Visa Gift Card for Bitcoins
- You’ll be able to find several sellers who sell gift cards for bitcoins in the United States in Paxful, and most of them promise a quick person-to-person transaction.
- The sellers will ask for a photo ID, for the receipt or to only trade physical cards.
- They will prefer prepaid non-rechargeable cards that were purchased with cash.
- To close the deal, you’ll need to send them the card’s expiration date and CVV code. Once the seller checks the balance, they will transfer the BTC to your wallet.
Changing an iTunes Gift Card for Bitcoins
- Sellers are more willing to accept physical cards than electronic codes (USA iTunes), with balances that do not exceed $ 100.
- To start the deal, contact the seller and state your balance.
- Once they accept the deal, you’ll need to send them a clear picture of your card.
- The seller will check that everything is correct and then release the bitcoins, which will be deposited directly into your wallet.
Changing Your Apple Store Gift Card for Bitcoins
- In this case, you’ll be able to find sellers who accept E-codes and balances over 3000 USD.
- Contact the seller and indicate the balance you want to exchange.
- Send your card’s code, add an image of the email Apple sent you or a picture of the physical card.
- For high-value transactions, the bitcoins will be released only when the card has been verified.
So let’s get in and see some of the services that allow you to buy bitcoins with a gift card.
LocalBitcoins
LocalBitcoins is one of the most famous Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading platforms. It is based in Finland and has been functional since 2012. It is a very reputed site to buy bitcoins from sellers around the world. And the good news is, it supports more than 30 payment methods including dealings in iTunes gift cards!
LocalBitcoins does not have any restrictions. You can try to sell gift cards for BTC, even if they were issued by an unpopular store.
It is difficult to say how much money you will get for the card. The price usually goes down, on average about 50 percent on this service. However, it is still better than just keeping a useless card in a wallet.
Paxful
Paxful is like eBay for cryptocurrency. It is a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling BTC based out of New York City.
The platform offers more than 300 payment methods to choose from, including that of loaded gift cards, making it one of the most unique platforms on this list.
Also, apart from LocalBitcoins, this is the only platform which offers both buying and selling options, which is another great feature in itself.
It is important to note that Paxful is an open service. Hence, there may be many scammers trying to steal money. To ensure a safe exchange you should choose a seller prudently and always pay attention to the user’s reputation.
Cointal
The Coin Portal (Cointal) is another peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace where one can buy not only BTC but Ripple and Ethereum too.
The company’s objective is to simplify the purchase of cryptocurrencies by connecting sellers with buyers, and offering endless methods of payment. Here you can buy crypto assets not only with a gift card but also with PayPal, Google Wally, and many more digital wallets.
Purse
Purse.io is an escrow service and an online Bitcoin marketplace. It offers three services: Name Your Discount, Purse Instant, and Purse Merchants.
- Name Your Discount
Name Your Discount is Purse’s most popular feature. It matches buyers, who want to buy BTC, with spenders who are looking to spend coins.
The discount comes from buyers who exchange their Amazon credit for bitcoins. Gift card credits are hard to exchange, and Purse helps add liquidity to the market. Buying items on Amazon for someone else is an easy way to get bitcoins in return for the gift card credit that buyers don’t want.
- Purse Instant
Purse instant offers customers a 5% discount on any item on Amazon, with free 2-day Amazon Prime shipping. The discount is less than using Name your Discount but offers customers an easy and fast way to buy online from Amazon.
- Purse Merchants
Purse Merchants makes it easy for anyone to create an online store that accepts BTC. Like eBay, Purse created a centralized database that makes it easy for buyers to spend their coins. Purse Merchants is a cheaper alternative to eBay, as its free plans allow merchants to sell unlimited items for just a 5% fee. Large merchants can pay just $20 per month and 1% per transaction.
There is another way to sell a gift card. You can sell it directly to Purse Company. It is less beneficial if we are talking about money, but the deal executes instantly, so you get money quite faster.
CoinCards
Coincards.ca is a subsidiary of Stuff Technologies Inc. and is Canada’s leading crypto to gift card exchange platform, offering gift card options from more than 300 recognized brands. Coincards.ca allows users to buy gift cards now using Dash along with Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin, while also featuring Shapeshift integration to allow for payment with other coins.
Additionally, the platform is rapidly gaining a following and popularity due to the great exchange rates they offer.
However, CoinCards is currently available only for Canadian residents. The rest of the world might have to patiently wait for a really long time before they plan to expand their business.
Bitit
Bitit is a Paris-based company that makes buying bitcoin as fast and easy as possible, no matter where you are in the world.
Its most notable feature is the ability to make quick purchases with cash or card, from almost anywhere in the world.
Bitit lets users buy Bitcoin through its prepaid vouchers and Bitcoin gift cards.
Use Bitcoin Bitit Gift Card to redeem your Bitcoins as it is the perfect tool to buy, offer and receive Bitcoin. It is easy to understand the 3-step process to gift/redeem Bitcoin:
- Buy from one of Bitit partners and get your gift card delivered by post or email.
- Redeem your gift card on bitit.io for the leading cryptocurrencies.
- Express delivery. Receive your cryptocurrency in minutes.
Bitcoin vouchers benefits:
- Instant Bitcoins with 3DS Banking Cards, Sofort Banking and by cash with Neosurf prepaid vouchers.
- Express Bitcoin delivery.
- No paperwork required.
- Get a full control of the Bitcoin exchange rate.
- Earns points for each order and get a discount on your next Bitit purchase.
- Make a great gift to family & friends.
Redeeem
Founded in 2018, Redeeem is a peer-to-peer gift card trading company based in Los Angeles, California. Redeeem is a fast, safe, and easy way to buy and sell gift cards using Bitcoin and 19 other cryptocurrencies. They offer dozens of different brands, including Amazon gift cards.
Redeeem is unique for a few reasons.
First, their anti-fraud technology requires buyers screen-record while redeeming cards, to protect against disputes between buyers and sellers. This has reduced fraud to near 0% levels, and may just be the safest way to trade gift cards with bitcoin anywhere.
Second, buyers and sellers do not need to open chat conversations, instead, the trading process is automated. Sellers create the offer, buyers accept the offer and bitcoin is automatically deposited into the sellers wallet after the trade window is closed (usually 20 minutes max).
Third, the attention to detail is A+, with custom brand alerts to get notified when brands go on sale, fast live chat support, a 1% affiliate program (paid in bitcoin), deep analytics for sellers to see buyer demand in real-time, and a super-easy dispute process.
Redeeem is a new contentor and is out there to do things differently, I encourage you to sign up and take a look.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
- Wise investment
If a gift card is just kept in your wallet, you will not get any profit from this. At the same time, if you exchange it for Bitcoins, you will get a digital currency that tends to increase its course.
- Bypass government regulations
The constant influx of regulations by the United States government, coupled with the lack of feasible and convenient international buying options have only worsened the situation. But with the gift card method, you simply bypass all these restrictions and get direct access to your coins.
Disadvantages
- The exchanging rate is low
Keep in mind that any card is a less liquid asset then cryptocurrency. Hence, it is no wonder that after exchanging the amount of cryptocurrency you will get less than the value of the card.
Summary
Remember that while LocalBitcoins and Paxful are both widely used, well respected and trustable websites in their own right, they can’t possibly vouch for every single seller or user on their platform. There are some decisions that the buyers need to take for themselves as it is practically not possible for the website to carry out background checks on each and every seller that registers on their platform.