I live with my parents so I don’t pay rent or buy groceries right now. As far as I can tell there is no way to convert the gift cards into money (into my bank account). I can’t add them to Amazon or PayPal or use them to pay off any debt.
Is my only option to literally keep track of how much is left on these gift cards everytime I go out? I have like $550 in gift cards from work that I have received over the last 2 years and never used.
Do you pay any other bills? Cell phone, internet? If your cell phone bill is $40/m and you get a $100 gift card you can usually make an advanced payment or $100 and then carry a credit on your bill for a month, then only need to pay $20 on the third month.
I think this is the best answer. It’s so annoying to keep track of balances over multiple cards. And split payments can be unavailable or confusing to navigate on some selling sites. I’ve thrown out cards before with small balances (i.e. $1.67) because too much of a hassle to use. This answer here is gold.
This is how those giftcard companies make their money. They keep the unspent remainders. I like to use these nearly-depleted gift cards to sign up for audible subscriptions and get free audiobooks lmao.
Maybe your drug dealer will just take the card as payment if you have a good relationship with them.