PlasticJungle.com offers consumers a retail miracle: exchange unused gift cards collected over countless birthdays and office holiday gift exchanges for gift cards to the stores you plan to shop at, or better yet, exchange the unwanted cards for cash. Consumers can finally make the most of the $40 billion worth in gift cards collecting dust in junk drawers across America by buying, selling, or trading their gift cards online at PlasticJungle.com.

Intrigued? Thought so. First, you sign up online for free. Then, if you are looking to sell off your unwanted gift cards, PlasticJungle provides three “Cash in Now” options – get cash by check, get an Amazon gift card via email, or get a DonorsChoose.org Charity Gift Card. Your gift card will have different redeemable amounts based on which option you choose. If a consumer were to cash in a $200 Tiffany gift card, they would receive a $150 in cash, a $157.50 Amazon gift card, or a $200 DonorsChoose.org gift card. Not all cards are worth the same across the three options, but you can find out redemption values quickly and easily with the What is a Card is Worth? tool. The only limitation on selling your unused gift card is that it must have a value of $25 or greater.

If you wanted to buy gift cards at big-name brands like Old Navy, IKEA, Bloomingdales, and Best Buy, PlasticJungle offers a discounted price on all gift cards at an average savings of 10-15%. For consumer’s not wanting to “Cash in Now,” they can sell their gift cards at a price that they establish in the PlasticJungle marketplace. It can be a real win-win: sellers may get lucky and get a higher cash value selling it to other PlasticJungle users than what they would’ve received by cashing it in to PlasticJungle, and buyers get a much-wanted gift card at a discount. I did a quick and easy search of all gift cards in the marketplace to gauge what’s hot and what’s not in the Jungle, and found out that a lot of people are trying to unload Anthropologie and Bed Bath and Body Works gift cards, but I was out of luck looking for Target or Walmart cards for sale.

Last but not least, consumers can trade their gift cards with other users in a near dollar-for-dollar value. Users are charged a 10% transaction fee when their gift card is traded, but that’s often a lower fee than selling it outright. The hard thing about trades is finding someone who doesn’t love the stores you love, willing to trade for something they want from you. All in all, finding the perfect gift card for that hard-to-shop-for person is far easier and more convenient when clicking through Plastic Jungle’s marketplace to buy or trade gift cards rather than walking aimlessly around the mall, plus you can save some money on the gift card’s discounted price.

To make it even easier for you, PlasticJungle has several features to help select, keep you informed on availability, and organize your gift card portfolio. GiftGuru helps you figure out the right gift card to give others based on age, gender, and relationship to the gift giver. If the gift card you want isn’t available now, the Wish List will notify you when your desired gift card becomes available. MyWallet alerts via text or email keep you up to date on your Wish List and any trade requests. If you can’t remember all the gift cards you have, PlasticVault is a great tool to help keep track of your gift card portfolio so you’re always prepared to buy, sell, and trade.

Making gift cards more valuable for everyone is a brilliant idea, and PlasticJungle.com brings a robust gift card offering and great user experience to an underserved, but not undersold, market. Offering full guarantees on the value of cards bought and traded is just one more reason PlasticJungle is so appealing. So get going and clean out those junk drawers, trade or cash in those unwanted gift cards, and finally turn that plastic into real shopping power.

Good karma is in you and your wallet’s future with three standout credit card programs that turn your spending power into the power to give back. Whether it’s a green cause, a cause of your very own, or the fight against breast cancer, check out these credit cards and maybe you too can send good karma out into the world through your everyday spending.

While other credit cards continue to churn out cash back bonuses, travel miles, or reward points, these three cards caught my eye and my heart by offering consumers a chance to do good for a world beyond the shopping mall.

Good for the environment, good for your wallet

Help protect Mother Earth by shredding the not-so-eco-friendly credit cards you usually us to charge for purchases and start shopping with a biodegradable credit card from Discover. Jumping into the green movement with the first environmentally-conscious card of its kind, Discover provides consumers a bio-degradable card design that can be used with any Discover credit card. 99% of the special PVC material in the card’s plastic will breakdown in five years in landfill conditions, and if the trend catches on, will start to prevent the millions of discarded credit cards Americans go through a year from leaving a toxic effect on the environment. Do your part to save our environment and start charging for a greener tomorrow today.

Turning credit charges into fundraising

Raise money for your neighborhood Little League Team, your local Red Cross, or maybe your very own non-profit with the Capital One Card Lab Connect program. By using the program to support the cause you believe, your Capital One credit card becomes a convenient way to donate to the nonprofit or public organization of your choice anytime you shop. It works like this: nonprofits register for Card Lab Connect online, design credit cards unique to their organization, and then encourage their supporters to apply for their Capital One credit card; as a supporter of their organization, you simply sign up and open the nonprofit’s specific Capital One credit card, and 1% of all your net purchases, plus an additional $25 with the first purchase, will go directly to support your nonprofit. Capital One’s Card Lab Connect is the first to cater to nonprofit and public organizations of all sizes, from your living room book club to national nonprofit giants.

Bank of America has consumers seeing Pink in every purchase

Whether it’s using your credit or debit card, making purchases on Pink makes money to support Komen for the Cure. With every new pink ribbon-themed credit card, check card, or checking account opened, Bank of America will make a donation towards the fight against breast cancer. Bank of America has already pledged to donate more than $2 million to Komen for the Cure by the year 2011, and you can add-in your two cents by spending to promote breast cancer awareness and prevention. Think Pink and make every dollar you spend help bring us one step closer to saving countless of lives.

These three programs are the tip of the ever-growing iceberg in how credit card companies are finding value in helping cardholders do something more meaningful with their consumer power. Companies are beginning to see that going the extra mile to do a good deed is good for business, good for environment, and good for consumers. For consumers, those of us who did not think we have the time or resources to regularly support something we believe in now have an easy, no-hassle way of fitting charitable donations into our everyday lives. Cheers to putting a little bit of heart and a whole lot of warm, fuzzy feelings back into our plastic world.