Gift card tips that actually help

Check your balance before you buy anything

This sounds obvious, but most people skip it. They get to the register, swipe the card, and find out there's $1.12 left on a card they thought had $25. That's a bad moment to be in.

Take ten seconds before you leave the house. Open GiftCardMall, enter your card details, and you'll know exactly what you're working with. If the balance is lower than you expected, you can plan around it instead of being caught off guard.

Don't let your cards collect dust

Gift cards sitting in a junk drawer are slowly losing value. Not all of them — the CARD Act protects most gift cards from expiring within five years — but prepaid Visa and Mastercard cards can start charging inactivity fees after 12 months of no use.

Those fees are usually small, maybe $2-3 per month, but they add up. A $50 card left alone for 18 months could lose $15-$20 to fees. The fix is simple: use the card, or at least check the balance on GiftCardMall every few months to make sure fees aren't chipping away at it.

Small balances are still money

A lot of people throw gift cards away when the balance gets low. A card with $3.18 on it doesn't feel useful, but that's still real money you can spend.

At most stores — online and in person — you can split your payment across two methods. Use the gift card for the $3.18, then pay the difference with a debit card or cash. Most checkout systems handle this automatically. Some online stores like Amazon even let you add the gift card to your account balance, where it just sits until your next order and gets applied automatically.

Keep a list of your gift cards

If you've got more than two or three gift cards floating around, write them down somewhere. A note on your phone works fine. Jot down the store name and the approximate balance. You don't need to track every cent, just enough to remember what you've got.

This sounds tedious, but it pays off. Next time you're shopping at Target and the total is $47, you might remember you've got a $20 Target card in your wallet. Without the list, that card stays forgotten.

What to do if you lose a gift card

First — don't panic. If you registered the card with the issuer's website before you lost it, you're in decent shape. Call the issuer and explain what happened. They can usually freeze the balance and send you a replacement card or transfer the funds to a new one.

If you didn't register the card, it's harder. But if you still have the original receipt or packaging, some issuers will work with you. The receipt often has the card number on it, which is enough for them to look up the account.

Going forward: snap a photo of the front and back of every gift card you get. Keep the photos in a dedicated folder on your phone. If you lose the card later, you'll still have the number and PIN.

Combine leftover cards into one

Got four gift cards from different stores, each with $5-$10 on them? That's annoying to manage. Here's a trick: some stores let you buy a store gift card using a prepaid Visa or Mastercard.

So if you shop at Target a lot, you could use your leftover Visa cards to buy a single Target gift card. Now instead of carrying four cards, you've got one with a bigger balance at a store you actually use. Not every retailer allows this, but enough do that it's worth trying.

Watch out for gift card scams

This is a real thing. Some scammers tamper with gift cards on store shelves — they copy the card number, put the card back, and then wait for someone to buy it and load money onto it. Once the card is activated, the scammer drains the balance.

To protect yourself: buy gift cards from behind the counter when possible, or choose cards that come in sealed packaging. After buying, check the balance right away on GiftCardMall. If the balance doesn't match what you paid, contact the store immediately.

Also, no legitimate business or government agency will ever ask you to pay with gift cards. If someone is asking you to buy gift cards and read them the numbers, that's a scam. Full stop.

Got a stack of cards you haven't checked in a while? Go check them now — it only takes a few seconds each.