I'm earning 30,000 thankyou points by spending $2000 in first 3 months after opening the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. I'm disappointed by the point-to-dollar rate for cash (and statement credit) redemption.

Can I use my 30,000 points to buy $300 in WalMart gift cards and then use those gift cards to buy a prepaid debit... and then withdraw the cash from a no-fee ATM? Is there a way to do this with minimal overhead? Will Wal-Mart even allow me to buy prepaid debit with a Wal-Mart gift card? (or, if not, will any other store allow me to do something similar?)

I've read that redeeming the thankyou points by booking travel through Citi's interface offers a better value, but I'd really like to turn these points into cash rather than forced "spend" on something I don't necessarily need.

Thanks for any tips!