Here is a great tip from Lifehacker on draining the last few dollars from your open-loop (Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover) gift card buy buying Amazon.com gift bucks.
The problem with Visa/AMEX gift cards is that it’s difficult to spend every cent. It usually takes several transactions to whittle away the majority of the gift card’s value. Once the remaining balance gets low enough, you forget to use it or have trouble finding suitable transactions that are cheap enough. Adding to the frustration, most retailers won’t accept two forms of payment for a single bill so these cards just collect dust in your wallet.
The best way to get your money’s worth (literally) is to convert your Visa/AMEX gift cards into Amazon.com dollars. Since they are just credit cards with a spending limit, you can use them to purchase Amazon gift cards. Amazon makes this very easy to do because you can purchase a gift card in any incremental value up to $5,000. In order to redeem the entire value you will need to purchase TWO Amazon gift cards. The first gift card should be the Visa/AMEX gift card value minus $1. Then purchase a second gift card for the remaining $1 balance. Amazon uses a $1 authorization to confirm the credit card, or gift card in this case, is legitimate. If you try to use the full value initially, it will get declined. If you have a $50 AMEX gift card, buy a $49 Amazon gift card followed by a $1 gift card. If you have a $14.56 AMEX gift card, buy a $13.56 Amazon gift card followed by a $1 gift card. It’s that simple.
This seems WAY too confusing to follow through with. Essentially, I get it. I just don’t think a lot of people would feel it worth the trouble to purchase TWO cards just for an extra buck.
No matter how you slice it, it isn’t easy to completely use up an open-loop gift card. I’d personally be happy with getting all but the last buck off of it, so the tip to purchase Amazon.com credits for the balance minus $1 is useful, and then just forget the last dollar.