You have a list of folks you want to send gifts to. Many are out of state. Then there are your immediate littermates. Some you know well. Others? You just don’t have a clue about what half of them like? So you consider giving them a gift certificate. After all money doesn’t grow on bushes. The fact is with the cost خرید گیفت کارت آیتونز of gas doubling over the past few years, inflation on our heels and the growth in family reunion attendance, offsetting the cost of gift giving by finding cheap things that every body loves has become a much greater challenge then it ever has been. Thus the growing popularity of gift cards.
The National Retail Federation anticipated $17. 24 thousand worth of holiday sales last year in gift cards. The reasons gift cards are so frequently bought close to other items are numerous. No one wants to give a gift that’s not appreciated. In addition, who wants to burden down an aging relative with having to drive several miles to a store she nevers shops in order to exchange the gift.
Mark Askew, founder of http: //prepaid-gift-card. fimark. net says, “Folks once thought that with a gift card you couldn’t go wrong trying to please. And this seemed logical at the time. Thus as gift cards gained popularity many merchants jumped on the bandwagon. But until recently gift card weren’t all these folks were considered to be. “
All too true. For instance, what if you give a gift card from a sporting goods store to someone who’s not into sports? Or a gift to shop a jewelry store to someone who lives too great a distance from the store to even bother to shop there.
But has the gift card changed all that much over the past three or more years? Perhaps. Pre paid gift cards issued by VISA and Mastercard offer a way to use a gift card anywhere credit cards are accepted. Pre paid debit credit card companies and 60 percent of store gift credit card companies offer the potential to get a replacement card with the remaining balance if the original is lost or stolen. But getting a replacement may necessitate the purchase receipt and the card number. Some companies may accept other proof of purchase. The gift card phone will have to have all these papers to get a replacement. No wonder a significant percentage of gift cards have gone unredeemed. That said, when buying a gift card, look carefully at the pre-purchase disclosures of terms and conditions on the web site and the packaging in the store. If terms are not given or appear too cryptic to be complete don’t buy.
So when a phone receives a store issued gift card from a store they don’t like obviously the card just sits in a dresser drawer until it’s long at night expiration date? Are merchants pocketing the amount of money while the gift card purchasers just throw away money? That was once the case. But companies like Sears announced it is eliminating expiration dates from all gift cards issued beginning December 17, 2003. Other credit card companies have been quickly following suit.
In addition to less expiration date worries proven a handful of companies dedicated to redeeming major retail gift cards for recipients of unwanted, unredeemed gift cards. One site, thegiftassistant. com, offers gift card ordering, redemption programs as well as gift card exchanges. Many of these companies offer services for such credit card companies as Best Buy Starbucks and Outback SteakHouse. Still with all the recent changes in favor of the phone losing the impersonal commercial stigma associated with gift cards has been a challenge.
Some gift card websites have gone to great programs to overcome this barrier. Now you can publish your own images and add your own text to create a custom card. Embossed text increases the card that laser engraved look, a very personal touch.
Still with all the work to modify a gift card they still apparently need help to stand out in the crowd of homemade cards and gift bags. After all a gift card is four times smaller that a simple greeting card and weighs about only a few ounces. Does this mean that gifts card don’t have the required steps to stand out among large presents? Some enterprises compensate for this by upping the monetary value of gifts cards. Some cards values far outweigh any large taking over boxed gift. From $200 to $300 or more. With the advent of pre paid debit gift cards from VISA, Mastercard, American Express and DiscoverCard folks can give a gift card valued at $500 to as much as $3000 dollars depending on the provider. Perhaps big things do come in small packages.
Important gift card tips:
Retain a copy of all the purchase invoices and the card numbers. Mail original invoices to phone. Papers including instructions and card use should also be deliver to the client as some cards do not have expiration dates printed on the card itself.
With all the attention gift cards have been given these past few years it would seem they are here to stay. Just make sure you can find them when you have put them away. And above all exchange or get the non-debit kind.