Who you are selling to
Unspent buys unused gift cards outright. That is the whole business, and the distinction matters more than it sounds: we are not a marketplace, so there is no listing to write, no buyer to wait for, and no payment that can be reversed a week later. You tell us the brand and the balance, we make an offer, and if you accept it the card becomes ours and the money becomes yours.
What we actually do
We pay a flat 80% of a card's verified balance for almost every brand we buy. A $250 card is $200. A $2,000 card is $1,600. Two categories price differently and the brand page always says so before you enter anything: travel brands are 76% and luxury fashion is 78%, because those cards are harder to resell and hold their value less predictably. The minimum balance we will buy is $10. There is no maximum — a large card goes through on the same form as a small one.
Where the other 20% goes
This is the question we get most, so here is the honest answer. The moment we pay you, the risk is entirely ours. We have sent money and we have not resold anything yet. A share of the cards we buy arrive already drained by somebody who had the number before we did, and there is no recourse on a gift card — it is a bearer instrument, and whoever spends it first wins. That margin covers those losses, the cost of verifying every balance with the brand, and the payment fees. It is not pure profit, and anyone quoting you 95% is either planning to revise it after you have committed or is not paying at all.
What we will never do
We will never ask you to pay a fee to receive a payment. We will never ask for your bank login, your online banking password, or a verification payment up front. We will never email you asking for a card number or PIN — the only place those are ever entered is this site, over HTTPS, on a form you navigated to yourself. If you get a message claiming to be us and asking for any of that, it is not us.
Why the balance gets checked
Every card is verified against the brand's own system before money moves. This is the only thing standing between you and the payment, and it is also the reason we can pay quickly rather than holding funds for a month. If the verified balance comes back lower than what you entered, we recalculate at the same rate and show you the corrected offer before anything is sent. You can decline at that point and keep the card, and nothing has been lost on either side.
How you get paid
PayPal and Cash App payments go out within 24 hours of verification, often the same afternoon. A mailed paper check takes five to seven business days, because the mail is the mail. Nothing is deducted for fees on any method — the figure you accept is the figure you receive. We do not do bank transfers, and the payouts page explains why.
Brands we decline, and why we say so
We do not buy every card. Open-loop prepaid cards, digital wallet codes and a handful of retailers with unreliable balance systems are all declined, and each one has its own page explaining the specific reason rather than a blank refusal. We would rather tell you in a second than after you have filled in a form.
Talking to a person
One address reaches us and somebody reads it: [email protected]. If you are chasing a submission, include the UN- reference from your confirmation screen. More on what to send is on the contact page.