You can get cash from a Visa gift card, but not straight from the card. It won’t work at an ATM and a store won’t hand you cash back on it, so every real option is indirect: spend it in place of money you would spend anyway, get paid back for a purchase you cover, or pay a cash-out app 10% plus $1.50 to send the balance to your bank.
Can You Get Cash From a Visa Gift Card?
Not at an ATM and not at a register. A Visa gift card is a prepaid card that can’t be reloaded, and Visa says you can use it anywhere Visa is accepted, including the supermarket, the gas station and online. What it doesn’t come with is cash access.
The banks that issue the cards put that in writing. We read three cardholder agreements for this update, two for cards issued by Pathward and one from U.S. Bank, and all three say the same thing. The card isn’t accepted at ATMs, you can’t get cash back with a purchase and you can’t trade the card in for its cash value. U.S. Bank’s agreement also rules out money orders and traveler’s checks.
That leaves two kinds of options. You can use the card for something you would pay for anyway, which is free. Or you can pay a company to take the card and send you money, which is not.
First, Check the Balance and Register the Card
Two small steps make everything below go smoother. First, look up your exact balance on the website or phone number printed on the back of the card. Stores often can’t see it, and U.S. Bank says a purchase for more than the balance will be declined.
Second, register the card with your name and address on that same site. U.S. Bank’s agreement says you have to do this before the card will work for online, mail or phone orders, and Venmo says some cards need a ZIP code on file before they can be linked. If your card comes with a PIN or lets you set one, keep it handy for debit purchases.
6 Ways to Turn a Visa Gift Card Into Cash
Here they are in the order we would try them, cheapest first. Costs are each company’s own published fees as of this update.
| Method | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bills, groceries and gas | $0 | Right away | One-time payments only, and you need to know the exact balance |
| Pay for someone, get paid back | $0 | Same day | You need someone you trust to pay you back |
| Amazon or store balance | $0 | Usually 5 minutes | It becomes store credit, not cash |
| Issuer refund check | No fee listed | By mail | Unused cards only, only some issuers, and no timeline is given |
| PayPal, Venmo or Cash App | $0 to 3% PayPal: 2.9% + $0.30 | Minutes | Only for money you really owe someone, and the charge can be declined |
| Cash-out app | 10% + $1.50 | Next business day | The priciest route, and your card’s terms may not allow it |
1. Use It for Bills, Groceries and Gas
This is the one that works for everybody and costs nothing. Put the card toward something you were going to pay for anyway, like your phone bill, a tank of gas or this week’s groceries. The cash you would have spent stays in your bank account, which is the same as getting cash out of the card.
A few things keep it from getting declined. Make it a one-time payment, not autopay, because the Pathward agreements say their cards can’t be used for recurring charges like subscriptions and memberships. At a store, tell the cashier the exact amount to put on the gift card and pay the rest another way. At a gas station, pay inside. U.S. Bank says paying at the pump can put a hold on the card for more than you pumped, and the hold can last up to 10 days.
Some billers add a fee for paying by card, so check before you pay. If the fee is more than a dollar or two, use the card at the grocery store.
2. Cover a Purchase for Someone Who Pays You Back
If you would rather have actual cash in hand, find someone who was about to spend money anyway. Pay for a friend’s groceries, a roommate’s share of the electric bill or a family member’s gas with the gift card, and have them give you the cash or send it to your bank.
It costs nothing and it stays inside the card’s rules, because the card is still being used for a normal purchase. If they pay you back through an app, a standard transfer to your bank is free on PayPal, Venmo and Cash App. Instant transfers cost extra. PayPal and Venmo charge 1.75%, and Cash App shows its instant fee before you confirm.
3. Move the Balance to an Amazon or Store Account
This is the fix for the odd few dollars left on a card. Amazon Reload lets you add money to your Amazon gift card balance with a prepaid card. You add the gift card as a payment method, enter the amount left on it and reload. Amazon says the money should show up within five minutes, though it can take up to four hours.
It isn’t cash. But if you shop there anyway, every dollar you move over is a dollar of your own money you don’t spend later, and nothing gets stranded on the card. If Amazon won’t take an amount that small, use the last few dollars as a split payment at a store.
4. Ask the Issuer for a Refund Check on an Unused Card
Here is a line most people never read. Both Pathward agreements tell cardholders that if they don’t agree to the terms, they should not use the card, and should call customer service to cancel it and request a refund check.
That makes one phone call worth trying before you pay anyone a fee, as long as you haven’t used the card yet. Call the number on the back and ask. The agreements don’t say how long the check takes or whether anything is deducted, and we have not tested how each issuer handles the request. On a card a company gave you as a reward, the company’s policy decides. It won’t work everywhere. U.S. Bank’s agreement says its gift card is not redeemable for cash.
5. Use PayPal, Venmo or Cash App to Pay Someone You Owe
All three apps take prepaid cards. PayPal accepts prepaid cards on the Visa network. Venmo allows prepaid cards that are registered in your name. Cash App says most standard U.S.-issued prepaid cards are supported.
What that gets you is a way to pay people. If you owe a friend $40 for concert tickets, pay them in the app with the gift card and keep your own $40. Venmo and Cash App charge nothing when a card is treated as a debit card and 3% when it is treated as a credit card. PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30 cents when any card funds a personal payment. Each app shows the fee before you send.
What it doesn’t get you is a free transfer to yourself. PayPal says it is generally not possible to move money from a prepaid card into a PayPal balance. Venmo says a card can be declined by its issuer or by Venmo, and the issuers’ terms say the card can’t be used to get cash. If a payment is declined, that is the answer. Don’t try to route around it. If you are sending a larger amount, check Cash App’s sending limits first.
MoreHow to add money to your Cash App card
New to Cash App? Its sign-up offer is $5 once you enter a referral code and send $5 or more within 14 days.
Cash App is a mobile payment service available in the United States and the United Kingdom that allows users to transfer money to one another using a mobile phone app.
6. Pay a Cash-Out App to Send It to Your Bank
This is the only route here that ends with the card’s balance sitting in your bank account, and it is the most expensive. Prepaid2Cash is an app built for exactly this. You scan the card, link a bank account in your own name and it sends you the balance minus its fee.
The fee is 10% plus $1.50 for delivery by the next business day, according to its help center. On a $50 card that is $6.50, so you receive $43.50. On a $100 card you receive $88.50. The help center also lists a 15-minute option at 15% plus $1.50, marked temporarily unavailable as of this update.
Two cautions before you use it. Your card’s terms may not allow it, since the agreements we read say the card can’t be used to obtain cash, and the issuer can decline the charge. And the price is steep next to the free options above. Use it when you need the money in your bank and nothing else fits.
How to Transfer a Visa Gift Card to Your Bank Account
There is no direct way. A gift card has no routing or account number, and none of the agreements we read offers a transfer to a bank. Two workarounds get you to the same place.
The free one is to pay a bill with the gift card that you would normally pay from your checking account. The money that would have left your account stays put. The paid one is a cash-out app, which sends the balance to your bank for 10% plus $1.50.
Either way the money ends up in a bank account, so it helps to have one that doesn’t take a cut of it every month. Our list of the best checking accounts shows each account’s monthly fee and how to avoid it.
What Does Not Work
A few tricks still get passed around. Skip them.
ATMs and cash back at the register are out, because the cards are built without cash access. Money orders are the same story. The Postal Service sells them for cash or a debit card, and some gift cards have a PIN, which is why the idea keeps circulating. But U.S. Bank’s agreement bans money orders by name, and the Pathward agreements ban using the card to get cash in any transaction.
Buying something and returning it for cash doesn’t work either. Visa says the store handles the return like any other Visa transaction and may put the money back on the card. That is also why you should hold on to a gift card until the return window closes on anything you bought with it.
Running the card through your own Square reader breaks Square’s payment terms, which don’t allow processing your own cards or cash advances. Sending money to a friend who sends it right back is the kind of card abuse PayPal’s user agreement prohibits, and PayPal would charge 2.9% plus 30 cents for it anyway.
Selling the card online is mostly closed off too. eBay doesn’t allow prepaid Visa cards, Facebook Marketplace limits gift card listings to approved sellers and OfferUp bans gift cards outright. The big gift card exchanges won’t take them either. GCX, the marketplace that used to live at Raise, lists Visa among the brands it doesn’t accept, and CardCash’s sell form has no Visa option.
Use the Card Before Fees Eat It
By federal law the money on a Visa gift card has to stay good for at least five years, according to Visa. Fees are a different matter. The two Pathward agreements start charging a monthly fee, $2.95 on one card and $5.95 on the other, once a card has gone 12 months without being used. U.S. Bank’s agreement charges no inactivity fee.
So don’t let a card sit in a drawer while you look for the perfect way to cash it out. A $25 card with a $5.95 monthly fee is empty five months after the fees start.
Visa Gift Card to Cash FAQ
Cash App says most standard U.S.-issued prepaid cards are supported, so a registered Visa gift card can often be linked and used to pay someone. Whether a payment goes through is up to Cash App and the bank that issued the card. Cash App also says withdrawing to a prepaid card may not work, so link a bank account or a regular debit card for cashing out.
There is no direct transfer, because a gift card has no account or routing number. The free workaround is to pay a bill with the card that you would normally pay from your bank account, which leaves that money in the bank. The paid one is a cash-out app. Prepaid2Cash lists a fee of 10% plus $1.50 to send the balance to your bank by the next business day.
No. The cardholder agreements we read from Pathward and U.S. Bank all say the cards are not accepted at ATMs and have no cash access. Reloadable prepaid debit cards are a different product with different rules.
Yes, in most cases. Venmo allows prepaid cards that are registered in your name, and PayPal accepts prepaid cards on the Visa network. You can use the card to pay people or to check out online. PayPal says it is generally not possible to move money from a prepaid card into a PayPal balance, so do not count on either app as a way to send the money to yourself.
No. The agreements we read say the card cannot be used to get cash in a purchase, even when you run it as debit with a PIN. What a store can do is split the payment, so you can use up the exact balance and pay the rest another way.
Do not plan on it. The U.S. Bank gift card agreement says its card cannot be used to purchase money orders, and the Pathward agreements we read say their cards cannot be used to obtain cash in any transaction.
The money has to stay good for at least five years under federal law, according to Visa. The card itself has a valid thru date, and the agreements we read say an expired card with money left on it is replaced at no charge. Watch for inactivity fees, which some cards start charging after 12 months without a purchase.
