When you think of some of the presents that you have received over the years and how pleased you have had to look when opening something that you would not have bought yourself, it explains perfectly why gift cards are enduringly popular.
Giving gift cards to someone covers a lot of angles and allows the recipient to spend the money on something they really want, and it is also one of the perfect gifts to give because you can choose a specific store you know they like to shop in or offer them the chance to use the gift card in a variety of places. If you purchase from gift card resellers you can even get those gift cards a bit cheaper.
Making the right choice
Gift cards are enormously popular and roughly half of all American shoppers will likely buy one for someone over the next twelve months.
There are numerous reasons why we choose to give gift cards and while they can solve the problem of what to buy for someone who is difficult to buy for or if you don’t necessarily know what they would like, they can also show great thoughtfulness when you buy a gift card that reflects the recipient’s tastes or passion.
There are two distinct type of gift card. You can buy what is referred to as a merchant-specific card, which is a gift card that is just for use in a certain restaurant or at a specific store. You can also buy bank cards which works in the same way as a standard bank card in how and where you can spend the money, but it only has the value that you have pre-loaded onto the card.
Don’t waste any part of the balance
Encourage the recipient to make the most of their gift card and use the balance in full if they can and watch out for any expiry date, as nothing is more frustrating than finding out your gift card has expired when you get to the checkout.
If it is a $20 gift card for example, it simply doesn’t make any sense to not exhaust the balance as any balance left over on the card could soon get forgotten and you will not have had the value out of it.
If there is something they want for $25, it would still be great to only have to find an extra $5 to make the purchase, and this is generally the best way to get the most out of a gift card.
Sell your unwanted or unused gift card
Although it seems hard to imagine that a gift card could go unused, it does sometimes happen for whatever reason.
You can actually sell your unwanted balance through one of the apps around that auctions your unused card to the highest bidder. You can’t expect someone to bid the full value but you should be able to get about $40 for every $50 gift card, or somewhere close to that.
Gift cards are very versatile and can be described as a shopper’s delight, which is the reason why we all buy so many of them.
Jake Hobbs is keeping his family on a tight budget yet still managing to leave room for fun and treats. He enjoys blogging about saving money, gift giving and the best bargain buys around!
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