Manage Your Gift Card Balances
I don’t know about you, but some people never know what to buy me for my birthday or on holidays. That means I get loaded up with gift cards, many, which I’m embarrassed to report, that get lost, thrown away or forgotten about. (Sorry, Aunt Bea!) Retailers bank on this, and laugh all the way to the bank. Well now you can stop the madness. Leverage is a Web site that lets you register all of your gift cards, monitor your current balances, and if you don’t want a gift card from a certain store, you can trade it for something else.
Not lucky enough to get gift card presents? You can also use the Web site to manage any rewards programs you might be enrolled in.
The site is free for users, as the two-year-old company hopes to make money by selling targeted ads, as well as data to retailers. Stores might know who buys the gift card, but they do not know where it ends up. This is valubale marketing data that Leverage hopes to leverage into some cash. These metrics could yield some serious cash.
Foe consumers, all of your information is displayed on a single dashboard. If you choose to receive communications from select retailers, it will populate here, and not in your inbox.
Is it worth your time to manually enter information about your gift cards? We’re undecided. Leverage realizes the hurdle and has come up with a plan they hope will entice you. They are offering “interest” on cards that you register; 3.2% on cards purchased through the Web site and 1% on cards purchased elsewhere.
With the holiday season ramping up into high gear, gift card sales are projected to be higher than ever before. Goad to see I’m not the only one it’s hard to buy for.
