Gift cards are terrible gifts and I wish people would stop giving them. Just give them straight cash money to spend on whatever they want, an item they actually could use, or even better, nothing at all if they don't actually need it.
this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
216 points (97.4% liked)
News
22612 readers
3740 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I disagree, but only to the extent that you know the person well enough to know they'll use it or they explicitly ask you for it. To me, gift cards are a way to alleviate the paralysis of choice and guilt for spending money in certain ways. It's like "I know you couldn't mentally justify spending a $100 bill on a high quality set of sheets, so I'm giving you money specifically earmarked for that purpose."
It's also sometimes handy if you want to give someone money for everyday needs and know they'd feel guilty or embarrassed about receiving money directly. A gift card for a store you know they go to a lot can be a fairly tasteful gift. Again, though, it's only worth it if you know they'll actually use it.
And don't get those prepaid general purpose gift cards, those things are straight up scams.
and know they’d feel guilty or embarrassed about receiving money directly
That's what I never understood about the taboo of cash as gifts. Whats weirder to me is it's pretty common to get straight cash money as a gift for graduating from highschool, but not for christmas or birthdays?
I personally dislike feeling the obligation to buy something from a specific store because of the gift cards. Getting cash (or not spending money on gifts) gives me more flexibility. And if I ever need the cash I don't feel obligated to lose money in a transaction having to sell some item off. Whether it be the item I bought with the gift card, or some other item I bought so I can keep that other item.
I second this. A 100 dollar bill just gets saved in my safe. However, if I'm given something like an Amazon gift card, I have zero reason to not spend it.
Granted, the things I would want are very particular and normally on the expensive side, so I would rather have people give me a bit of money to go towards said things.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I explicitly ask for gift cards, because the last thing I need cluttering up my house are random gifts that people got me. I've gotten to the point where I don't really care for surprise gifts, and I feel like a jerk telling people exactly what to get me. So I just ask for gift cards, and I use the money to buy my own gifts.
My wife and I don't really buy each other gifts anymore. We just buy ourselves something we want and say, "This is my Christmas gift from you!" Repeat for birthdays, etc. Not having any expectations of buying/exchanging gifts is liberating for us.
Same, I'd rather have people help me subsidize big purchases with gift cards than buy me stuff I don't need or want. The in-laws especially hate giving gift cards so for years the wife and I tell them we just don't want anything for the holidays. This year they finally caved and sent us some gift cards. I'd rather have to pay $50 less for an expensive tool/toy than have $50 worth of even more junk cluttering up my house
My wife and I don’t really buy each other gifts anymore. We just buy ourselves something we want and say, “This is my Christmas gift from you!” Repeat for birthdays, etc.
This is what I prefer. Instead of getting a gift card and feeling obliged to buy something from X retailer. Sometimes I just don't want to buy something from them. Whether it's cheaper elsewhere, or I just don't trust them for that item so I either have to pay more just to use the gift card, or risk getting a knockoff.
With straight cash money I can spend it whenever I want, on whatever I want, wherever I want.
That's why I'd rather cash or nothing.
MY COKE DEALER DOESN’T ACCEPT MACY’S GIFT CARDS, MOM
I agree. I always try to give cash over gift cards. Much more flexible and does not expire.
Gift cards are a hassle because you have to keep careful track of them and be sure you have them when going to that exact business. Cash just goes with your cash.
I’ll give them if someone asks but never on my own choice
When you buy a gift card, a retailer can use that money right away. But it also becomes a liability; the retailer has to plan for the possibility that the gift card will be redeemed.
Oh those poor poor capitalists.
If corporations are people then accounting rules are persecution!
Holy shit the US has some consumer protection we don't have over here (at least in the UK)
A legally enforceable 5y minimum expiration for a gift card is a fucking great idea.
In Canada they never expire unless the store goes out of business. There’s a few exceptions for things that are services rather than freely spent balance but yeah, to me it seems unfair that they would be able to just absorb that money.
Realistically they get really fucking annoying to keep on your books longer than that anyways.
You’ve got this weird accumulating liability account just sitting there until they expire or you can write them off.
For sure, but I had an "expires in 6 months" gift card for a restaurant over here a year ago. Could have done with not feeling forced to squeeze it in-between existing plans
That’s short.
Starbucks stars have actually got me to stop buying their product. I get an email saying my stars expire, but not how many, after 12 months and gave up on it
Six months seems downright criminal, especially if it's to a small restaurant. Two years should be the absolute minimum.
Uh, what? Are you defending companies stealing gift card money from people because it's a "weird account on the books"?
No, but also yes.
5 years is an annoyingly long time to track gift cards because you can't spend that money until it's no longer a liability on your books. 1 year is way too short, there needs to be a compromise somewhere, 5 years is probably fair.
Oh noo, my business has thousands of dollars bearing interest for half a decade whatever will I do
Starbucks makes nearly as much off interest from their gift card accounts as they do actually selling products. It accounts for 155m of revenue annually.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's like the plot of Office Space, but in reverse. Corporations steal pennies from consumers. The only difference is that it's legal when they steal from you.
This sounds like the plot to that superman movie
gift cards and virtual app balances allow companies to operate as unregulated banks, and take out massive loans using their unspent balance as collateral. It's a clever way to avoid the typical regulations in holding client money
Never thought about it that way and didn't know they could do that.
I assume it's not literal. Just kind of functions that way in practice.
For Starbucks I believe it is literal that they operate more as a bank than a coffee chain
I'm so glad I live in California where they do not expire and you can just exchange them for cash if they are over $5 or $10 (it's one or the other).
Where can you exchange one? I'm in California too and I just received one and haven't had one in years.
load more comments
(1 replies)
They should automatically refund to money if not spent in 5 years or so.
Gift cards would cease to exist overnight if that was a requirement.
They hope you forget, it's free money.
But if every dollar had to be worth a dollar, there would be no space to squeez in operating costs - issuance, accounting, all that jazz.
Sure, they'll bring in a couple more customers maybe, sure, you can make some money on the interest in the meantime, but it just wouldn't be worth it IMO.
"Gift cards would cease to exist overnight if that was a requirement."
Okay 👍
load more comments
(1 replies)
There's always going to be free money involved.
For every $50 gift card there's still that $1.87 you have remaining from your not exactly $50 purchase that's too much of a hassle to ever use again.
Some places like Costco, Dunkin, etc let you merge balances so you can actually use them. Ones that don't support it via the website/app usually will do it for you in store or via support channels.
It's apparently not known that we have made some improvements to the way companies deal with gift cards and store balances. This is thanks to that little appreciated consumer protection bureau. It used to be that they could take monthly fees starting immediately and could have balances expire after a year or any arbitrary block of time.
I'm in Texas. I've been cashier in multiple roles, between my entry-level stuff and sometimes having to fill in. I don't know about the laws elsewhere. Every payment system I've ever used had a way that you could split payment, and usually if it was a debit card of any sort, it would just take whatever was left in the account and you'd have a remaining balance, payable any other way. That said, if anyone is ever thinking about getting me a gift card, I just tell them to give me the cash equivalent, it's more useful than cards.
I wasn't even going to worry about covering that angle. These days Costco, sheetz, etc all track your balance on your account so for most businesses people would use most often this old time issue with having a few pennies left isn't actually a problem anymore.
As for the laws, the cfpb is a federal agency. I remember when that was created and I remember what shady shit businesses would play with gift cards to pad their bottom line.
Refund automatically to who? Most gift card sales are fairly anonymous, and I much prefer that than having to give details out.
I think it depends on where the card is from. I love an Amazon gift card because I can always find something there, but my aunt had someone buy her an Aritzia gift card, which is a store for very young women mostly and almost all the sizes are extra small, and she's 85. She calls it "the store for girls who like to show off their.behinds".
She ended up taking me shopping with the card, but I'm 49 so all I found were leggings, and that's useful but it's really dumb to buy someone something that's so age focused.
Why buy gift card ? just gift cash.
I'm with you... but, sometimes you can get gift cards cheaper than what they are worth. Like, pay $40 for a $50 gift card to Lowes. If you know a person likes a place it's a way to get more bang for your buck.
Reward points if using a credit card to purchase.
Also, some stores in the states at least, like Kroger, give their own points for fuel.
Also cash feels much less personal when giving a gift.
"I know you like X, so here's a gift card to experience more of X" feels more thoughtful than "here's some green cotton, do whatever".
Except most people give gift cards to places I don't actually shop at.
This is the one.
Grandma sends you a $150 gift card to Brookshires but you live on the West Coast, a few thousand miles from the nearest.
I'd much rather just get the green cotton
I've gotten 3 Starbucks gift cards. I get that it's really popular but I wish it wasn't people's go-to gift card.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›