The last day you can use your Blockbuster gift cards in the United States has been announced, as of today April 7th, 2011 you only have until the end of the day to use your card before it becomes a worthless piece of plastic. You can thank the company’s bankruptcy for the mad scramble to use up your Blockbuster gift card balance. The companies recent bankruptcy filing forced it to put a premature expiry date on their cards. Starting tomorrow the recycled plastic from your gift card will be worth more than its phantom balance.

There is one benefit to Blockbusters bankruptcy filing and premature expiration of their gift cards. With so many Blockbuster locations being shuttered what merchandise remains will be sold at fire sale prices. This means you can use your gift card to pick up some great games, blurays or dvds at reasonable prices. It may not have been what you planned to do with your gift card, but it is better to get something rather than nothing for your Blockbuster gift card.   If the store nearest to you has no plans to close (hundreds of Blockbusters will reaming open through the bankruptcy filing) try to find another location that will be closing. The locations that are about to be shuttered will have the best deals as the owners will be looking to recoup every cent of their investment in the stores final days.

This is another prime example of a major retailer going under and leaving tens of thousands if not hundred of thousands of consumers with a gift card that has become useless. This happens more often than you might imagine, millions of dollars in gift cards are wiped out by bankruptcy proceedings every year. This won’t concern you unless you are stock holding one of the gift card that gets its balance wiped out by bankruptcy. If you are reading this post, chances are a retailers bankruptcy is about to affect your life. We are left with these useless cards usually because we received it as a gift years ago and let it sit in a drawer for weeks, then months then years. Many people forget they have the gift card all together while most people simply forget to take it with them when they are shopping. Whatever the reason is if you are not the type of person who uses their gift cards as soon as you receive them than you should consider turning them into cash.

You can now easily sell your unwanted gift cards online by using Giftah.com. Just submit your unwanted gift card and the site will turn it into cash, as long as the retailer has not gone bankrupt. Its simple to do and it frees up your cash to purchase what you really want, or even to pay some bills or save a little more. If you are not using the gift card right away its a much better and safer way to recoup the gift cards balance. Don’t lost another gift card to expiration or bankruptcy, sell gift cards that won’t be used and turn that plastic into cash.