Business View Magazine | March 2018

93 PREFERRED VENDOR n PayPal www.paypal.com actual store location.” BVM: Will there be anyother changes in the compa- ny’s businessmodel over the next severalyears? Bohm: “We’re working closer and closer with retail- ers to give them the abilityto accept other competitors’ gift cards,which is taking our trade option to the next level.Instead of coming to CardCash to actuallydo the trades,our goal is,one day,you’ll bewalking in CVS and you have aMacy’s gift card,and you should be able to go ahead and just checkout of CVS usingyour Macy’s gift card.Now,youwon’t be getting your full value for it,but,at least,it providesmore universal use for your card.We’re putting some technologyin place to get there and there’s definitelya lot of interest from the retailers to start accepting their competitors’gift cards –CVSwould love to acceptWalgreen’s gift cards.” BVM: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to knowabout CardCash? Bohm: “All of your readers shop at retailers and if theyall want to savemoney,I would definitelyen- courage them to download the CardCashmobile app, which is available onAndroid and IOS,and go through the experience of buying a gift card and having it de- livered almost instantly to their phones.You download the app,and you put your credit card information in the app to pay for your purchase.Once you set it up prop- erly,it’s a frictionless experience,and at some retailers you’ll save three percent,and at some you’ll save 20 or 30 percent.It’s something that everyconsumer should try.It involves just a little bit of forethought. “It’s reallymoney thrown out,if youwalk into aWal- Mart or a Target and just swipe your Visa,Mastercard, orAmerican Express card tomake your purchase and not use the CardCashmobile app to get aWal-Mart gift card for five percent off.You’re literallythrowing away that five percent. “On the other side of the business,anyone who has a gift card that theydon’t intend to usewithin the next 60 days–it’s foolish on their part to be optimisticthat they’re eventuallygoing to use it and not lose it.So, theymight as well convert it either into cash or into a retailer that theywill use.If you have a gift card for a brand that you either are going to force yourself to buy something you don’t need,just because youwant to spend the gift card,or you’re going to hold it untilyou eventually lose it,get cash for it,today,or trade it in for something that youwill use,and you’ll end up ahead.”