Sending money from a pre-paid Visa gift card?

[eaultman]

My husband and I have two prepaid Visa gift cards that we were given at our wedding in the US. He is Canadian, and we currently live in Canada. The cards are only valid in the United States, so we are trying to figure out how to access the money. (Cardholder services was not very helpful in this case...) My thought is to try to transfer the balance from the pre-paid card to my bank account using PayPal. Has anyone done this before? Does anyone know if this is possible?

[Oregon11]

@eaultman

Canadian PayPal accounts are able to add funds into their account balance with a credit card, but there are limits on how the funds can be used. I'm not sure if gift cards would be compatible. Since you have opened your PayPal account in the US, your account would not be able to use this feature even if gift cards are compatible. Here is a PayPal link with details on this issue.

https://www.paypal.com/ca/smarthelp/article/Why-can%E2%80%99t-I-use-my-balance-FAQ1849

The type of transaction you are describing (obtaining cash from your own gift card and withdrawing the funds to your bank account) would be a cash advance type transaction. PayPal ask users to not use the service to obtain cash advances for themselves and to also not help others obtain cash advances. This is why it's stated in the link—there are limits on withdrawing funds that were added with a credit card.