The whole thing has annoyed me for years, ever since I was on the other end of the transaction when I worked in retail in college. I’m not saying this is what Big Credit Card wants to happen, but I do think these little amounts of cash left on thousands of gift cards add up for them in a way that they…do not hate. It’s highly likely that at some point, there’s going to be such a weird/small amount left on the card that you’re going to be too embarrassed to ask a retail worker to “just put $4.36 on this card,” so instead you’re just going to deprive yourself of the full value of the gift card. This isn’t ideal, but it’s fine for a nice, solid number like $25.īut! It becomes a much bigger hassle when your $100 Visa gift card now has, say, $14.77 on it. The only way to keep this from happening is to tell the person ringing you up, “I want to put $25 on this card” before you swipe the Visa gift card, so they can split the tender accordingly. But if you try to use a $25 Visa gift card on a $50 Macy’s purchase, the card will get declined - because you’re essentially asking it to go over its limit. However, if you’ve ever received one, you may have discovered that they don't work like store gift cards in one major, critical way: if you swipe, say, a $25 Macy's gift card when making a $50 Macy's purchase, it'll take the $25 off your purchase and then you can pay the remaining balance with cash or your debit card. Like gift cards, they release you from the psychological horror of handing your loved ones cold, hard cash, but you can use them anywhere you can use credit cards, so they offer the receiver more flexibility than a store gift card. Prepaid gift cards from brands like American Express and Visa make a lot of sense in theory.
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