Utterly stupid little things, its money that is less useful in EVERY situation and expires! Even at the store where you can use it, what do you do with the money that’s leftover but too little to spend? Especially at expensive places, you could very well end up with 10-20$ OF YOUR OWN MONEY, that you can’t even use!
I was given a dunkin giftcard for volunteering at a repair cafe. First of all I’m on a diet but secondly I stuffed it in my wallet so quickly I completely forgot about it. The day I remember and go through the trouble of attending such a wretched establishment I was told it expired after I finished giving my order! After such bother to try to use this cursed thing I refuse to return fruitless from my endeavors so I paid with my own cash.
It is now, sulking into my hashbrowns and Boston cream do I realize I am now poorer, fatter and fucking miserable. FUCK gift cards.
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IIRC they can’t legally expire in Canada, at least.
If you’re giving a gift, it’s more personal than cash because it displays a knowledge of what they like, but has some of the same flexibility.
Also, the codes are used as a non-physical way to transfer money sometimes. That’s not really an intended use unless it’s a devoted prepaid credit card, though.
The only ones I’ve seen expire in the US are the VISA ones but those are basically debit cards.
There are a few legitimate uses for gift cards.
- You can get extra rewards by buying them and using them vs directly buying. Lots of stores give extra fuel or reward points for buying cards, or you could have better cash back rewards at store A and shift spending to there.
- It’s a way to give kids money in a more controlled way than a credit or debit card.
- It allows someone without a Bank or credit card access a way to turn cash into digital currency.
only time I ever bought gift cards was when I worked at restaurant. each Christmas theyd give us employees 20% off gift cards. id buy a bunch of them (usually like 500$ worth). then when a customer paid in cash, I’d pay with my gift card, and pocket the change. I always told the customer what I was doing and made sure it was ok with them, it was a chain so most people were just kinda thrilled they could help me beat the system.
I got a Dunkin Donuts card a few years ago too. The nearest location to me is about 600 miles away. Awesome.
We have family on otherside of country, sending cash via mail is risky, so we sometimes default to a gift card for something in their local area.
Typically only promotional/giveaway gift cards expire here in Canada.
I’ve done this same thing. My dad lived on the other side of the country and it was a way for me to “take him out to eat” at a restaurant that he loved but was too expe dive for his tastes. Another time, I bought him a round of golf at a nice golf course that he would not treat himself to. He did not “believe” in gift cards wither, but on both occasions he mentioned that it was as if I took him to eat/golf and it was a nice gift for the guy who has everything.
I agree, but I’ve gotten less annoyed by it over the years. When I was young it really didn’t make sense to me. Money can do literally the same and is way more versatile.
However, now that I’m trying to survive this adulting thing it does start to make more sense, even if I still don’t like it. If someone gives me money, it ends up on the big pile of money that’s constantly flowing around. Give me 20 euros and it just adds 20 to the number in my bank account, which will eventually end up being used on groceries, bills, mortgage, etc. if you give someone money as a present you don’t want this. You don’t know what to give the other person ans you want them to choose something nice for themselves. But buying them part of their groceries or a part of their bills isn’t exactly a fun gift. You want to “force” them to buy something nice, something that they want to spend money on instead of need to spend money on. A gift card does this.
Then again, giving me physical money would also do this. Or asking me to say when I bought something nice with it. When people gift me money I tend to tell them where it went and that works way better than gift cards imo.
I fully agree. My christmas bonus at work is in one of those visa gift cards and I wish they’d just direct deposit it (but I’m sure my boss gets some kind of deal from visa so they’re cheaper or something due to his business acct, that has to be why.)
That said though, if you have $20 left over but need like $30 for the purchase, you tell the cashier “hey I have $20 on this I want to use up, then I have cash/card for the remainder.” They’ll let you.
I mean, they have to.
Here they usually give you the reminder in cash if you but something for less, say you have a 50 dollar gift card and buy something for 45, you get 5 bucks
That’s cool! Nowhere near me does cash back on them, you just have to say “I have fourteen cents on this card and the rest will be on my debit” or whatever haha. I wish we did the cash back around here!
I think it’s because people think giving pure cash is thoughtless and basic. If you give a gift card for that persons favorite restaurant, then it feels more personable.
Obviously having cash is better for flexibility but people don’t care sometimes
For me, I use gift cards I receive as a test of the person that gave it. Someone I consider a collegue but not friend giving me a gift card to a place I like instantly makes me think they value me more than I thought. Person I consider a friend gives me a gift card instead of a gift, depending on the occasion, makes me think they like me, but can’t be bothered to put too much effort in, or are just doing because they feel obligated.
I think it’s because people think giving pure cash is thoughtless and basic.
This idea needs to die. I’d rather have $10 cash that I can stash away to save up for something that I actually want than a $25 gift card that locks me in to a single store.
I’m at a stage in my life where I can generally buy little things when I want to. But my wife and I don’t make enough to regularly drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on non-essentials, and my other family members can’t do more than $25 or maybe $50 for birthdays or Christmas.
It took me years to convince my parents and wife to just give me cash. When I finally did, it enabled me to save up for a $1k guitar over several years.
I’d much rather have one awesome gift every 5 years than a steady stream of $35 gift certificates to various stores and restaurants.
Not giving someone what they’re actually asking for is far less thoughtful than cash.
Think the FTC should get involved on this one. One gift cards should never expire. Two you should have the right to cash it out and every fucking penny off of that card. Third and last no fucking fees that eat away at the balance. If they did that then gift cards would be nice beyond that not buying those.
One gift cards should never expire.
They don’t. It’s illegal.Two you should have the right to cash it out and every fucking penny off of that card.
Money laundering.
Third and last no fucking fees that eat away at the balance.
Also illegal.What talking about. Yes the cards do expire and I have had gift cards that charge fees every time I use it quarter here 50 cents. And what meant on getting every dime if there 3 cebts left on the card the place should have to give you a 3 cent credit. Allowing you to use all of the value of the card.
Oh it’s five years
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2010/11/ftc-has-gift-card-tips-holiday-buying
I haven’t run into one that expires or charges fees, weird.
There’s reloadable debit cards that have lots of fees. They are similar to gift cards, but are more something to tax the unbanked.
You live in the united states right?
That’s the fancy answer.
My son receives gift cards from his friends for birthdays, and we buy them for other birthdays. I think they suck, but the truth is, we usually have no idea what to buy and this is socially acceptable to give.
Does anyone besides boomers think this?
Because someone conviced people that giving money as a present is a no no, but a “gift card” isn’t, I’d rather you give me $20 cash over a $30 gift card for one specific set of stores that you’d never goto.
This
Volunteering?
There’s a good chance got them because dunkin donated them or because the cafe didn’t want to give cash for fear it could be construed as pay.
The point of gift cards is that they’re: a. Not money (when using money might have some sort of disadvantage for either side). b. Have restrictions that the person who gave it to you might want to impose. c. Are usually cheaper than paying money directly to the vendor.
And frankly, no one forced you to try and use them. They were given as a gesture of appreciation, and you could have given them to someone who would have been happy to have them, or just politely refuse to accept them. Also, not checking the expiration date is on you.
The only reason I buy them is cash back / rewards credit cards. Say I know I want to spend $225 on something on amazon? I whip out my visa dividends, MC world elite or Amex Cobalt at the grocery store for 3-5% cash back or rewards card while purchasing groceries, and add a custom amount $200 gift card to the tally. So now I got $10 back on it in rewards that I can spend elsewhere. The CC issuer, Amazon and the grocery store are none the wiser.
…why not just use the CC on Amazon?
Could be they want to hit a certain category (groceries) on the card. Maybe they are also trying to meet minimum spend on a new card.
For those who shop a lot on Amazon, the Chase Amazon Visa is probably worth it since it always gets 5-6%, but if you don’t have that card, using gift cards to hit a grocery category seems reasonable. Slightly more hassle, but at least you can split purchases on Amazon.
As the other commenter mentioned, only cards I have give grocery cash back / rewards at 5% rate and that doesn’t apply to Amazon purchases (which is 1%). AMEX Cobalt for example is a paid card, C$12/mo, but with grocery and amazon gift card purchases the rewards pay for the monthly fee.
Just an FYI, the grocery store doesn’t know (or care).
But both Amazon and the CC company absolutely know, they just don’t care, it’s factored into their profit margins.
Where I live it’s illegal to have them expire. They can:
- Provide a spending limit for a vice
- frees the user of the need to spend it responsibly
- a safer way to spend money online and an alternative to a credit card.
I don’t mind getting a steam gift card or an lcbo (liquor store) card, I know what liquor and games I like more than the people gifting. An Amazon gift card is much more annoying because it’s an everything store, it’s money that has to be used unethically. A costco giftcard is a nice hack to allow you to shop at the store without a membership, I used them like that until I reached a point where the membership paid for itself. I think they have a place, I also think they are often abused and should be regulated more than they currently are where I live. If they have an expiry they are a scam.
The state I live in, they are also illegal to expire. The problem is that companies blatantly break the law with zero consequences.
If you try to use an expired card, it will automatically decline, and an employee physically cannot override it. To use your money you have to go online and submit a complaint/ticket to customer support. Good fucking luck getting a response.
The only way after that is to threaten to sue, or sue. Sueing can cost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars, which is completely ridiculous and why nobody does it. Thats why even though many states outlaw expiring giftcards, most of them still have expiration dates in blatant violation.
Got it. You need a gift card to a lawyer.
Personally, I’m terrible about actually spending money on myself. Mostly because right now money is pretty tight as a single income household. A giftcard forces me to spend money in a more careless manner than I otherwise would. A giftcard encourages me to splurge and order a thing on Amazon or buy a super sugary treat or something else that can bring me joy. If I’m given cash I just use that to smooth over the daily grind, so giftcards absolutely hit different
Gift cards are great for the company they’re tied to because they basically just made a sale of that amount and now it’s up to the receiver to take the initiative to actually get anything from the company. Plus with inflation the value of the card always decreases. Plus you’ll usually end up buying a little more than the amount on the gift card just to use it all up.
I think cash is usually a better gift, with one exception: a gift card can be a way to give someone permission to get something from a store that they would really like but usually not actually spend their own money there.
For me, I buy gift cards at a discount when I know I’m going to buy at a given store anyways. Might as well get $20 off of whatever.
It’s not just a sale. Gift card money is invested and the company makes returns off of it, and all they have to do is provide you the base value of the gift card in coffee or whatever at some later date. Plus, if your purchases don’t add to a whole number, millions of gift cards with like 30 cents left over in each of them is a ton of free money for the company. Gift cards are a huge scam
Gift card money is invested same as sales, it rings up the same. This stuff gets sloshed together in the overall balance sheet. It amounts to probabilistic overpaying, where one person might spend their whole card immediately (no overpaying), another takes their time using it (overpaid at the rate of inflation), and another forgets about it, loses it, or just never spends all of it (overpayment by the amount left on the card).
You could also think of it as zero-interest debt issued by the purchaser to the store, payable in future purchase credits with the onus on the lender of the debt to collect later. As you note, the store can invest the money immediately so it is guaranteed profit.
Big disagree.
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It is unlawful for a gift card to expire in the US. (Ask Simon Malls how badly they got fucked for this.)
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There are tons of expensive restaurants my partner and I are simply not going to go to unless we’re able to knock $100 of the bill.
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Retired people are on a budget. Gift cards help them with that.
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Often times people have niche hobbies wherein buying a present might have good intentions. but it’ll be in vain. I’m a beer snob. Do not get me beer as a gift, ever. Gladly take a gift card to a good brewery. I’m a musician – don’t buy me gear. I work and tinker with networking. Don’t buy me hardware. Give me gift cards.
They are low effort and high reward. They are excellent gifts, both to give and receive.
- Cash doesn’t expire either
- You can knock $100 off a bill with cash
- Cash can help retired people
- You can buy stuff for niche hobbys with cash
Gift cards are intentionally earmarked for a specific purpose. If you give me a gift card for a restaurant, I’ll go to that restaurant, and not feel guilty about “this is too expensive”. You’ve given me an experience I won’t choose for myself, but may enjoy. It’s memorable, and the experience is inherently connected to you even if you don’t go with me. I won’t buy myself a massage. But if you encourage me to do so with a gift card to a massage place you enjoy, I will enjoy the experience.
That’s the intent of gift giving. It’s a way to strengthen a relationship by sharing items or experiences you think someone will enjoy. Cash can theoretically do that, but rarely does.
This is exactly it for me. If you give me cash, I will appreciate it but just end up saving it. If you give me a gift card I will use it to buy something I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Plus, you can be more intentional with gift cards. Was your dad talking about how much he’d like a new fishing pole? Getting him a gift card to an outdoors store shows you were paying attention. Maybe your wife really likes manicures but never gets them for herself. A gift card to a spa shows thought.
I feel like at that point you just invite them to dinner/massage/etc. Much better way to bond anyway. Plus if someone is rare to prioritize fun, a bunch of gift cards to random ass places like rpg quests is stressful for those on an already tight schedule.
Having a bunch of gift cards you know you HAVE to use is stressful!
No one gives someone “a bunch” of gift cards - it seems like you’re racing to validate your dislike of them. And I’m going to feel weird if my sister invites me to get a massage with her, though I appreciated it when she gave me a prepaid one years ago.
Here’s another example. My brother barely makes ends meet, but he loves Starbucks. Of I give him $100 cash, is not going to move the needle for his cost of living, but it’s going to go to bills. Of I give him $100 on a Starbucks card, he’s going to treat himself a bunch of times to something he loves but can’t really afford.
The other thing about it is that cash usually gets interpreted as “I put no thought into what to get you,” while a gift card at least says you had something in mind.
You don’t “have to” use them.
Most people consider a gift card as a substantially better gift than equivalent cash for a reason. It’s a shared experience whether they’re there or not.
Gift cards are intentionally earmarked for a specific purpose.
For a specific purpose at a specific vendor. And that’s why I hate gift cards. What if I want to go out to eat at a nice restaurant, but not the one they gave me the gift card for? Now you can’t go to the place you wanted to go to.
Or what if I want to buy something online, and it’s 50% off at vendor A but full price at vendor B and the gift card is for vendor B? Now your stick between paying for the item like normal, or wasting money getting it from the place that takes your gift card.
That’s kinda the point, isn’t it? Do you get mad if someone plans a fancy dinner, but you happen to be craving a burger that day?
Mad? No. Unhappy? Yes. If I don’t want the food I’m not going to eat the food. I don’t want people to waste their money on something I don’t want.
Even if it’s not my money I don’t like unnecessary spending.
Going to the restaurant they recommended is the point of the gift. That’s not a bug.
Cash is sterile and impersonal. It shows minimal effort and interest.
Lol bc gift cards arent…
giving somebody a gift card for a product or service you think they specifically will enjoy is objectively more personal than giving them cash, yes
Just tell them what you think they might want
It’s not the same.
“Here, kid. Here’s 50 bucks to get this toy I think you’d like”
“Why not just get me the toy?”I feel this is a false equivalency. Toys are easy, and you often know if the other person would like it or not, in which case you get them the toy, and not a gift card. The statment being made here is money vs gift cards, not money vs actual items.
The comparison is off. A better comparison would be:
“Here, kid. Here’s 50 buck to go to this restaurant I think you’d like” “Why not get me a gift card? / Thanks, but I dont like that restaurant. Thankfully I can spent it in others, whereas I wouldn’t be able to with a gift card”.
Why did you give me this toy, with you had just given me $50
There’s a certain something to giving people cash versus a gift card.
For one, cash today is almost an inconvenience, a lot of places don’t accept cash.
The other element to it is that gift cards need to be used for specific things, while cash is often seen as something to just toss in a bank account and use for necessities or forget about. If the goal of the gift-giver is for the recipient to treat themselves to something, a gift card helps set some limits. Or if the goal is to get something related to someone’s hobby but you don’t know enough about what to get them, the gift card is an option.
I don’t hate getting cash as a gift, but I am going to be honest that it is not going to get spent on anything nice. It’s going to rent and groceries and whatever is left gets tossed into savings.
I’m not much of a gift card giver, but there have been a few times where I gave Steam gift cards as a gift for friends who are into games but I don’t know exactly what they want.
I have rarely encountered places that don’t accept cash. The only places I’ve seen signs that state no cash are smaller businesses and/or street merchants/vendors.
Regardless, I agree with the spirit of your comment. I rarely use cash anymore simply because carrying it around is inconvenient. You have to know ahead of time exactly how much something is going to cost and then when you get coins back, that’s doubly more inconvenient/annoying.
Ultimately, OP’s post is a little melodramatic. Gift cards are meant to be more personal, although in the specific context they wrote, it does feel a bit half-hearted (“Thanks for helping, here’s a random gift card I found in my wallet that I never used!”).
I wouldn’t say cash is sterile given how many hands etc that have handled it before you
If you give me cash, I’m probably just going to be boring and invest it.
Some people rarely prioritize fun things. Gift cards force them to.
Exactly the point here. Let’s force people to allocate money in a way they don’t want AS A GIFT BECAUSE WE’RE NICE!
Cash is superior in every way
On the expiration thing, that is only for certain types of gift cards. It’s kind of a confusing mess. I know this because I tried to look into it, and I do not recall the answers I found, because they were confusing. My company uses a vendor called Tango for our gift cards, and some of those definitely do expire. The only ones I can think of that I’m almost certain about are the VISA gift cards. I’m not defending it, I think it’s utter tripe, but somehow they do it.
It may be unlawful but I have over $100 in useless gift cards because the companies went out of business before I could use them. Cash is inherently superior. Although both cash and gift cards have the problem of being potentially tacky or offensive to give as a gift, depending on the context.
Bankruptcy is the only legitimate loophole.
These are all good points but the biggest reason I HATE gift cards is because they offer ZERO protection.
Buy something with a credit card and you often get double warranty protection included. That something gets damaged or stolen? Also protected.
Gift cards offer none of that. Neither does cash but at least I can use cash to pay off the credit card.
I get that a gift card is more personable and it earmarks the funds for a particular store. If you like gift cards, then cheers and go about your merry way.
I’ve emphatically told my loved ones that I never want a gift card. You want me to use the money somewhere specific? Just say so and I’ll do it.
But don’t give me a script that I can only use in one place and might lose.
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