Some of you who are about to receive (or give ) a gift card for a christmas present might be interested in reading this article .
http//shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/64/avoid-gift-card-pitfalls
Barnes & Noble ones stand pretty good. There are no fees, they never expire and there is no problem with pennies left as you get cash back once the value drops below $1.
You cannot, however, exchange it for cash. But then neither can you do so with a book; you can only get store credit which is the same as a gift card just not as pretty.
Most of those problems relate to Visa-type gift cards. Regular store gifts cards these days rarely expire or are subject to maintenance fees. I know because these are what I sell as a school fundraiser. I deal with hundreds of different cards.
It's true, very few can be exchanged for cash. but you know what, if the giver wanted to give you cash, they could have done so. And just like some of these cards, cash is not replaceable when lost either. If you want the $$ to be recoverable, you need to register the card to a specific person, with adequate data that they can prove they are that person. Who would want to/feel it appropriate to go through that rigmarole for a gift?
The thing about the last few pennies on a card can be true, but these days most stores will give change for the last dollar. But it would be a cool idea to set up a charity scheme to collect cards with a few pennies left on them that can be combined to buy gifts/needed items for those in need.
The way the stores make most of their money, though, is that an unbelievably huge percentage of the cards are never used.
By the way, if you are planning to buy gift cards for holiday presents, you might like to check with your local schools and churches to see if they have a Scrip program. If they do and you buy through them, they will get a percentage. Some of these can be very high -for example LLBean is 17% at the moment. Bookstores are around 10%. etc. Or buy cards from them and then use them to buy your gifts. Two birds with one stone and all that. )
I beg to differ with you on one point Monster. That is the way stores benefit most from gift cards For any gift card sold, that will, in most cases, bring at least one person into the store. That person may be out with friends or family so they too will enter the store. The person with the gift card will likely choose something that costs more than the value of the card.....then, chances are the other people have been browsing around and found something they want to buy too. In the case of B&N, there is also a good chance they have a drink from the cafe.....now there's a huge profit margin.
beg and differ away mrgreen