The Consumer Federation of America has put out a gift card advocacy brochure to help consumers better understand gift cards.
Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category
GiftCards.com has jumped on the no-fee band wagon and now offers Visa gift cards with no expiration or maintenance fees. As far as I can tell, this applies to all the fees they previously had, including the monthly administrative fees, fee to close an account, fee to replace a lost or stolen card, balance inquiry […]
Several days ago I posted on an extraordinary customer service experience that one AMEX gift card customer had. Well, today I am seriously feeling the love for AMEX gift cards: They have done away with the monthly fee, effective immediately, for new cards and all existing cards. AMEX fees were already low by open-loop gift cards […]
This is interesting. Here is an article that completely hammers what they call “rebate cards.” The claim is that companies make rebates incredibly hard to get and by issuing rebate cards instead of checks, they make them hard to spend too. They are so bad in fact that the Canadian government calls them deceptive and has […]
Virtual gift cards aren’t new, but this article in the Portland Press is very excited about a new virtual gift card offering by a local company. Bottom line: Virtual gift cards are a bad idea. If you think it is hard to remember to spend a gift card when you have it in your wallet, try […]
I personally think open-loop gift cards are a scam plain and simple. Yet, if you must choose an open-loop gift card, this experience might make you want to (a) always be persistent to get what you are owed and (b) choose AMEX over other the other branded open-loop gift cards. In short, the customer took his […]
Here is a nice little tutorial on how to use an open-loop (Visa/MasterCard/Amex/Discover) gift card with PayPal.
Apparently, Starbucks has not been abiding by the provisions of California’s gift card law in effect since January 2008; they haven’t been redeeming balances below $10 on gift cards for cash on request. However, they now claim that they are taking steps to train staff appropriately and add a redemption button to their cash registers […]
I’ve paid enough attention to know that, while open-loop gift cards (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) may be a rip off, you shouldn’t be too concerned about the cards being hacked, which is actually a big problem with store-specific gift cards. With close-loop/store specific cards, hackers often scan the cards in-store to get the numbers, wait for […]
This blog post in the Baltimore Sun is a great example of a concerned consumer researching the law related to gift cards in their state, verifying the law with the relevant authorities, and then contacting the issuer of the gift certificate to educate them on the law and make sure their gift certificate was treated as […]
GiftCardsAgain.com has launched a companion site GiftCardDonor.com that you can use to donate gift cards to one of their (limited) listed charities. They sell the card on GiftCardAgain.com and donate 75% of the proceeds to the charity. A better option might be simply to mail the cards to a charity of your choice with a […]
As a Mac owner, I’ve found Apple to be not very forthcoming when there are problems and unreasonable at times with their policies. This seems to be the tact there are taking with fraudulent iTunes gift cards, whether they were generated by people who hacked the algorithm or bought with stolen credit cards. If you […]
It isn’t clear exactly what the cash-in rates or for gift cards but Swapagift.com (part of GiftCards.com) has 600 partner locations where you can bring your gift cards and get cash on the spot. They take many open and closed loop gift cards. (story)
I came across this handy summary of prepaid debit and gift cards. The author makes a very valid point; even when you’ve managed to spend the last dime on your prepaid card, you may not want to get rid of it. In the case where you return something that was purchased using your prepaid card, it […]
In most cases gift cards should not be thought of as cash – they tend to lose value quickly, and you often can’t spend the last few bucks on your card. However, there is one case where you should think of them as cash – when you send them through the mail. Every week I […]
I’ve always liked the idea of the Coinstar machines where you an dump all of your change and get cash; much more productive than counting and rolling it all yourself. But I never wanted to pay the 15% commission for the service. Well now Coinstar will waive the fee if you take your money on […]
Some people like open-loop (Visa) gift cards because it affords them some privacy; the gift card is anonymous in that it is not associated with your name. Even if you are not a criminal, it can be disturbing to think how much information is collected about all of your spending habits, such as when you […]
GiftCardRescue.com has launched a site GiftCardBalance.com that lists the contact information (URL’s and phone numbers) for quite a few gift cards. It is a convenient place to find the balance check information. Or, you could just look on the back of your card for the same information, seeing as you are going to need your […]
I’ll admit it, I don’t get excited about gift card deals very often, but Restaurant.com does have some smoking deals on gift cards. You can normally buy a $25 gift card for $10, but until February 28th, they are selling all gift cards for 80% off. That’s just $2 for a $25 gift card. Perfect […]
The US Postal Service knows what can go wrong with the mail, and this article (sorry, link broken now) has some good tips about how to send gift cards. Personally, I feel about as comfortable sending gift cards through the mail as I do cash. Here is another article that has more info.
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