To think gift cards are a scam

[TheRebel]

House of Fraser are not accepting gift cards or vouchers even though they’re not going into administration.

Retailers must love gift cards, they have your cash and don’t have to honour them and people must forget about them and lose them all the time.

I like getting them.

If I receive cash I just end up using it I my day to day spends. At least with a gift card I actually make a conscious decision to buy something with it.

Have to say Joe Browns have always been fantastic about honouring gift vouchers ( even expired ones) and also virgin experience days have been great at replacing a lost voucher. Does remind me I need the kids to start spending their amazon vouchers

Amazon and Book token ones are great. The rest not so much

You have to watch the paper vouchers because some shops don’t give you change. So say shopping comes to £14 and you have a £20 voucher , you lose the £6.

Tip re: marks and Spencer gift cards - if you take them into the shop before they expire and ask a shop assistant to check the balance for you, this counts as a transaction, and "resets" the expiry date, giving you longer to use them. Don't know of this is the case for other shops!

I blitz them every year. The kids usually get £10 WHSmith vouchers for Christmas and then the same for birthdays from one relative. I spend them ASAP because you never know when the shop will go into administration in the current climate. They're not quite a scam but you do need to read the small print carefully, which is a pain in the ar*e. They can have a reasonably long expiry when unused but as soon as you use them, you can sometimes find you need to spend the balance quite quickly.

I don't mind Amazon ones because it's easy to see the balance and I shop there a lot, but £10 for a random shop is annoying.

I hate gift vouchers. Cash is a universal gift voucher that you can spend anywhere with no expiry date. I don’t see why you’d restrict the recipient to a shop of your choosing and risk them losing the money if the card expires.

I’m often a bit puzzled by the shops I’m given gift vouchers for, as the giver obviously thinks I’m the sort of person who shops there! I can understand giving John Lewis vouchers for example, because they sell loads of stuff, but do I really look like someone who shops in Lakeland?

I hate gift vouchers as well. We’ve all had them expire and the store pocket the money. These days, if any of us get a gift voucher, we spend it immediately. Even if we don’t want anything, we use them to buy birthday presents for school friends.

I also think that they encourage mindless spending in some cases. If I’m given an Amazon one, I’ll just load it onto the account and pretty shortly someone will need something from amazon and it’ll be spent. However, a random store that I don’t immediately need anything from, I just hate going and buying something for the sake of buying. I’ve also sold them online when I really don’t want them.

I absolutely agree with the general consensus that they're a piss take in terms of expiry dates and the fact you can only spend in a certain store

However I personally love them (if bought for somewhere I like to shop) because it means I have a licence to treat myself cash would be eaten up by boring stuff in our house, I do buy them for people if I don't know what gift to buy but I tend to get them for places like selfridges where you can buy various things, they also come in a box so it makes it feel slightly more personal than sticking money in a card

I always write the balance on the card with a Sharpie, as it was so annoying not knowing how much was on there. Hate the expiry dates too, although I think Amazon is 10 years..?

I had one shop tell me there was nothing on a card once, when I absolutely knew I hadn't spent it. Wrote to them but they didn't budge.

Having said that, I do like receiving some vouchers (Amazon mainly) as I know I'll spend it on myself rather than the money being used for general household stuff.

They’ve gone into administration. It’s on the news

Much prefer the universal gift vouchers of cash. I feel quite nervous about vouchers and spend them immediately so not ncessarily on stuff id want also normally end up adding money to for something i didnt actually want originally

Also people who dont know theres a number on the back of the gift card dial it and you can find your balance

All-in-one are a huge con. They apparently have a five year expiry period but if you don't use them within 18 months then you are charged c. £1 a month 'admin fee'. So if someone has bought you a voucher for £20 your card is worthless after 3 years. Read Trustpilot reviews! All-in-one's reply to me was, it was made clear on the card about the monthly fees. Thieving bastards.