Show HN: I just launched Gift Card Drainer.

It is a convenience service.

The major part of the service is that Gift Card Drainer determines the balance of your card for you. Some people don't know to or don't want to take the time to go to the card issuer site to determine the balance.

Secondly, learning how to transfer money to yourself via credit card without a merchant account takes a fair amount of investigation.

The thing that sparked the idea for me was that I had a couple visa gift cards that I had used but I didn't know the remaining balance. I tried to get a gas station clerk to just use the remaining balance but they didn't know how and therefore wanted an exact dollar amount to put on the card. I really wanted the remaining balance out of principal even if it was only a couple of bucks! My feeling was why should the credit card company get to keep it?

Also I've had several friends that have told me they would just use the site for brand new gift cards they had because they don't want to keep the card around they just want the balance.

I'm aware that the fee is pretty high. I'm not trying to gouge people. The problem I face is that I get charged for the transfer from the card. Then I get charged for the transfer to the card holder. After those two expenses I still have to take a cut, otherwise it's not worth it for me to do this. I'm working on cutting the cost down, but for now that's where I am. Do you think that the fee is a major detractor? I've labored over that point quite a bit.