Sell iTunes and Apple Gift Cards in the UK — 84% of Face Value
Apple and iTunes gift cards pay 84% at GiftCasher, cashed out to PayPal in pounds. Here is what your card is worth — and why this is the card British scammers ask for most.
Apple gift cards — the ones still widely called iTunes cards — pay 84% of face value. A £100 card is worth £84 in cash, paid to your PayPal in pounds.
They are among the better-paying cards we buy, sitting just below Amazon at 89% and level with Xbox and PlayStation. They are also, by a considerable margin, the card most often demanded by criminals in the UK. Both of those facts are worth your attention, so this article covers each in turn.
iTunes, App Store, Apple Store: which card do you have?
Apple used to sell several different cards. The old iTunes & App Store card bought apps, music and subscriptions. A separate Apple Store card bought hardware. In 2021 Apple merged them into a single Apple Gift Card that does both.
For selling purposes, this does not matter much. If it is a card issued by Apple, redeemable against your Apple ID balance, we buy it at 84%. The code is 16 characters, usually beginning with an X, found under a scratch panel on the back — or in the confirmation email if it was sent digitally.
What you get
| Apple / iTunes card | You receive |
|---|---|
| £20 | £16.80 |
| £50 | £42 |
| £100 | £84 |
| £200 | £168 |
| £500 | £420 |
The rate is the same whatever the size. Check any amount in the calculator.
Why 84% and not 90%
Steam pays 90%. Apple pays 84%. The gap is not a judgement about Apple — it is about how easily the credit resells.
Steam credit is global, permanent, and works on any account anywhere. Apple balances are tied to a regional Apple ID: a UK card credits a UK account, and it cannot be moved to a US or German one. That regional lock shrinks the pool of people who can use your card, and a smaller pool means a lower price.
It is the same reason a card for one British chain fetches 74% while Amazon fetches 89%. Rates follow demand, and demand follows how many people can actually spend the thing.
Getting paid in pounds
A UK Apple card pays into a sterling balance, and a PayPal withdrawal pays you in sterling. Nothing is converted along the way.
This is worth checking wherever you sell, because many gift card exchanges are built for the American market and quietly route sterling through dollars, taking a spread on the way past. You rarely see it happen — you just end up with slightly less than you expected and no obvious explanation.
If you cash out to crypto instead, note that USDT, ETH and BTC settle in US dollars, so your pound balance does get converted. We show the exchange rate and the exact dollar figure before you confirm. For pounds, use PayPal.
Selling one
- Check the payout in the calculator.
- Submit the 16-character code, plus a photo of the card if you have the physical one.
- Verification takes up to 24 hours — a person confirms the code is valid and the balance is what you said.
- Withdraw to PayPal in pounds.
Minimum card £20; minimum withdrawal £50. Part-used cards are fine: we pay the same 84% on whatever balance is genuinely left, with no penalty.
Now the important part: the Apple gift card scam
If you take one thing from this article, take this.
Apple gift cards are the single most common instrument of fraud in the United Kingdom. Not because there is anything wrong with the card, but because the codes are irreversible, untraceable, and can be read aloud over a telephone. That combination is exactly what a criminal needs.
The script is always some version of the same thing. Somebody contacts you, creates urgency, and tells you to go and buy Apple gift cards and read out the numbers on the back.
They may claim to be:
- HMRC, saying you owe tax and a warrant is being issued
- the police, or the National Crime Agency
- your bank's fraud team, moving your money "somewhere safe"
- Apple or Microsoft support, fixing a virus on your computer
- your energy supplier, threatening disconnection
- a grandchild in trouble, texting from a new number
- someone you have been talking to online for months
Every single one of these is a scam. There are no exceptions, and it is worth stating the rule as plainly as possible:
No legitimate organisation on Earth accepts payment in Apple gift cards. Not HMRC, not the police, not the DVLA, not your bank, not a utility company, not a court, not a hospital. Nobody.
If a conversation ends with you standing in a shop buying gift cards, the conversation was a crime.
Hang up. Do not buy the cards. Do not read out any numbers. If you have already given codes away, ring Apple immediately on 0800 048 0408 — occasionally a card can be frozen if it has not yet been spent — and report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. If you think your bank is involved, call 159, which connects you securely to your own bank.
And the other direction: don't be a mule
The reverse trap catches people who are simply trying to make some money.
If somebody asks you to receive Apple gift cards and cash them out, and to forward the proceeds on to them, that is a money mule arrangement. It is a criminal offence in the UK — and, importantly, it remains an offence even if you did not know where the cards came from. "I was just helping a friend" and "it was a job I found online" are not defences. People have been prosecuted.
Sell your own cards. Keep your own money. Our Anti-Fraud Policy sets out how we handle this, and what happens if we suspect it.
Other Apple-adjacent cards
- Google Play — 74%
- Steam — 90%
- Xbox and PlayStation — 84%
- Amazon — 89%