Editor’s note: This is a transcript of the audio file.
Did you include the receipt with your holiday gift? I’m Kristin Arnold with your Personal Finance Minute.
The unpleasant process of a gift return has a better chance of being merry and bright if the gift box includes a gift receipt. Most realtailers give store credit if you can’t produce a receipt. be forewarned that if the item in your possession is on sale and you don’t have the receipt – the sale price is likely the value of the store credit you’ll receive.
if you received a gift card that you don’t care for – there are few if any companies that will give you cash back if you try to return it. however, you can trade it in for cash at websites like cardpool.com or giftcardrescue.com…but, don’t expect to get face value.
Retailers’ gift return policies are posted online. Some have time limits on returned goods, although few are likely to quibble if an item bought in November is exchanged before New Year’s.
Some people just don’t use or return unwanted gifts. about $5 billion in gift cards go unused every year because people forget about htem or couldn’t find anything they wanted.
you can always try regifting! For Bankrate.com, I’m kristin Arnold.
