Cash Out Those Gift Cards with PayPal and PlasticJungle.com

PayPal and Plastic Jungle ventureNow, thanks to a new program being beta tested by PlasticJungle.com, people will be able to convert their unused gift card balances to PayPal funds. At this year’s Innovate 2010 conference in San Francisco PlasticJungle.com and PayPal announced a new application that will marry PayPal’s open global payments platform with Plastic Jungle’s leading gift card exchange program.

After being officially debuted at the PayPal X Innovate 2010 conference and offered to a select number of PayPal users, the application will be released to the general public early in 2011. The genius behind the program is to assist gift card holders relinquish unwanted cards for value and speed up the process by digitally transferring funds to other cards that they will use. Merchants love it because they can connect with productive customers in this new and innovative way. In the coming months, the transaction can be directly performed on the Plastic Jungle website.

PayPal’s new Adaptive Payments APIs application will allow PayPal’s millions of U.S. customers to sell gift cards on PlasticJungle.com and receive up to 92% of the verified balance transferred to their PayPal accounts to shop elsewhere or even pay a bill.

Plastic Jungle CEO Bruce Bower said:

“We’re very pleased to introduce an electronic, user-friendly gift card exchange experience to PayPal and Plastic Jungle users. One of the most exciting features of this new capability with PayPal will be the opportunity to convert the value of gift cards easily into digital funds. The PayPal feature on Plastic Jungle’s website will also give users purchasing power anywhere PayPal is accepted.”

It is estimated that there is over $30 billion in unredeemed gift cards out there and if those card holders can sell the unspent cards for cash, they might be able to capitalize on up to 30% discounts at some of their preferred stores. Over 400 national and local merchants are represented on PlasticJungle.com. They also have the ability to donate the balance of their cards to their favorite charity.

Senior director of PayPal X, Damon Hougland was quoted:

“Plastic Jungle’s work is a great example of how third-party developers can use PayPal X to take payments in creative directions. They’re providing a useful way for PayPal users to recapture money that is often trapped or lost in gift cards.”

The Adaptive Payments API, as part of the PayPay X platform serves as the base for developers to create customized payment services changing the where and how people can make and receive payments. Besides Plastic Jungle, several other companies are introducing the new technology at the Innovate 2010 conference.

Plastic Jungle is a privately held venture based in San Jose, California. For more information on Plastic Jungle please visit www.plasticjungle.com. For more information on PayPal, visit www.paypal.com.

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