<p>I’m having a hard time with this. Why should I pay a “handling charge” for a gift card or gift certificate? Isn’t the cost to mail one 46 cents? Lately, every card I’ve tried to purchase tacks on a $2-5 charge. When I call to ask about it, I’ve usually gotten the fee waived or am able to get it sent through e-mail. Are you paying these fees?</p>
<p>Not sure if this is what you are talking about but I bought one of the Visa cards - $25 and had to pay close to $5 in fees - made me so mad - how long did it take the WalMart cashier to ring it up? 30 seconds??! Not sure but you might be able to get the Visa cards from AAA but I didn’t want to make an extra trip.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I’m talking about, abasket. Plus it’s the mall, a comedy club, an online running sports store, Panera, etc.</p>
<p>I went to my local mall, a westfields. I wanted to purchase some gift cards for a few people in Mr. Ellebud’s office. There was a $3 fee for each card. That money was for AmericanExpress. I was not happy. </p>
<p>And the time it took to purchase? Four minutes…15 seconds to get the gift cards. The rest of the time? It was for me to politely vent.</p>
<p>One of the perks of having a checking, saving and CD, and credit cards thru Chase is that we can get Visa gift cards without paying the $4.95 fee. Since they are stingy of interest rates, it’s better than nothing…</p>
<p>^^
good to know Chase offers this.</p>
<p>I recommend Banana Republic. Not only do they not charge for gift cards, during the holiday season they give you a $20 coupon good through the end of January for every $100 you spend on gift certificates, plus coupons for 40% off one full price item every Wednesday during January, including January 1. </p>
<p>I hope management isn’t reading this, but when I bought two $50 gift cards, I asked if they could give me two bonus coupons for $10 each, rather than one $20, explaining that I don’t use the coupon myself; I give it with the gift. They don’t have $10 coupons, so the cashier took mercy and gave me two $20 coupons. </p>
<p>I give the gift cards with the extra coupon. So I pay $50 and my kid has $70 to spend on after Christmas sales. If they go on a Wednesday and want to buy a full price item, a $500 item is $300. My gift and coupon brings the price down to $230. </p>
<p>I think it’s smart marketing because I suspect my D will make it a point to go to Banana Republic for its after Christmas sales rather than some other store. She’ll undoubtedly end up spending more than the $70 from mommy.</p>
<p>Of course, you can only use it at Banana Republic, but its clothes are popular with young adults.</p>
<p>I just bought 2 Mastercard $50 gift cards at Publix. $10 off if you bought $25 groceries. Each card had a $4.95 fee, but with the $10 off I got $100 worth of cards for $90.</p>
<p>Personally, I have always hated gift cards. After organizing the over $3000 in my folks gift cards and certs, hate them more. Will be giving cash with a photo or as for something they might like instead or just cash. There are cool new $100 bills I got from bank. I know they will be appreciated and carefully spent. ;)</p>
<p>Yup, I hate the initial charge too. We no longer give them either. Then I hate when I (or children) are given one of these cards and buy something leaving a small balance on the card. I usually end carrying the card around for months before I remmeber to write the balance in sharpy on the card so I can use the remaining funds next time I buy something.</p>
<p>I refuse to pay any additional charge for a gift card, so if there is a charge, that company does not get my money. So far I’ve only seen additional charges on VISA/MC type gift card. They are already charging the vendor where the card is used a percentage, so if I pay that $4.95 charge, the credit card companies are double dipping. Like HImom, I give “personalized” cash instead!</p>
<p>
Ooh, I want one of those! LOL</p>
<p>D likes to use the cards the generic ones for restaurants because she doesn’t want hassles if she buys merchandise and decides to return it and will only get store credit.</p>
<p>She often carries the cards around for a long time before I just offer to buy them from her and give her cash.</p>
<p>One good thing about the cards is to use them for online shopping if you don’t want vendor to be able to use your CC info and you don’t want to use paypal.</p>
<p>Found this today on my American Express account:</p>
<p>Pay $0 purchase charge with a purchase of an American Express (R) Gift Card online at Business & Personal Gift Cards | American Express Gift Cards by using the promo code SYNCGIFT. Offer valid from 12/20/13 through 3/31/2014.</p>
<p>I give gift cards with no fees, depending on the recipient - iTunes, Amazon, Disney, particular stores. </p>
<p>If someone charges a fee, I pass on the card and give cash or a check.</p>
<p>Could it be that if you buy a gift card directly from the company offering the product or service there is no fee but if you buy from another company (e.g. a grocery store selling gift cards for starbux) that you pay the fee?</p>
<p>Not in the Panera case, razorsharp. The cards purchased at the grocery store had no fee, but the cards purchased on the web site had a fee.</p>
<p>I honestly had really good luck with a variety of options of gift cards at our local grocery store… many, many vendors were available. Went with iTunes, Target and Fandango. Got them for Ds, and know they will use them, so no need to worry that there will be any small balance left! No service charges, but like others listed above, if there were going to be a service charge, I would not purchase them.</p>
<p>There is a difference between a merchant’s gift cards, like Target or Disney or Chili’s and a ‘bank’ card like Visa/MC/Amex that can be used at any merchant that takes those credit cards. A merchant processes its own card, so if you give a Target card, when the person redeems it at Target it is a final transaction. If it is a bank card like Visa, it is (almost) the same as using a Visa card. Target has to process it and then it has to go to the bank that issued the Visa card. Just like my Visa cards were issued by a particular bank, so are the prepaid Visa/Amex cards. </p>
<p>Target eats the cost of processing its own gift cards because it brings you into the store to buy more stuff. The bank is not going to eat the cost of the prepaid Visa card because it doesn’t bring you into its bank to do more business. They make their money off the $4.95 set up fee, just like your bank makes money off the fees you (or others) pay in late fees, interest, annual fees, none of which are on prepaid Visa/MC/Amex, or the other accounts you have at that bank.</p>
<p>The prepaid cards are a very expensive way to bank, but very convenient too. Many people can’t qualify for a credit card so use the prepaid cards for paying bills online, ordering online, or not having to carry a lot of cash around. There are a lot of ‘un-banked’ in the US, people without checking accounts or even banks. They cash their paychecks at check cashing businesses, and then use prepaid Visa cards rather than carrying $$$ in cash.</p>
<p>Einstein Bagels is giving out free $5 gift cards if you purchase a $20 one. Pretty good if you buy them for yourself or for someone else.</p>