Techniques are provided for allowing a merchant to process third party closed-loop instruments (such as gift cards) as if the closed-loop instruments were open-loop instruments. A customer provides card data of a third party gift card to a merchant, e.g., online or in a merchant store, for the purchase of one or more items provided by the merchant. The merchant sends the gift card data to an intermediary that deducts at least a portion of the balance of the gift card. The intermediary sends an offer for the gift card to the customer. If the customer accepts the offer, then the merchant applies the offer towards the total purchase price of the one or more items.