Gift vouchers/cards as presents for children is generally a shit idea

[Fatasbuggery]

Am I the only parent who ends up swapping gift cards for cash and then ends up with a load of cards that are pointless and more difficult to spend than is necessary?
I have a few and every time I remember they are in my purse and I try and spend them it either takes ages because the cashier has no idea how ro process them or I have to know exactly how much money is on them for them to even be looked at. These tend to be the ones you can use in various shops so not even a card for a place they know my children love.
You know what else you can use in various shops ? Actual cash !!

I know I am the luckiest human to have people in my life who want to give my children a present but it is a pain if it just causes me a load of admin.

It's ridiculous with small kids, just costs time and money and effort for the parent. I don't want to drag my kids out to buy another present, tell them no loads to anything overpriced, spend my money to cover the difference.

My mum used to regift the gift cards, which isn't great I know.

It's like buying clothes in the wrong size. I tell relatives the size if I know they gift clothes. But they always think they know better so I have to return everything.

when I was a child I used to love going out with my WHSmith vouchers and spending ages picking a book/books.

So did I.

Parents are now much more time poor. Gift cards are a total pain. If you spend them online, they usually can’t be used for delivery. So you have to shell out money to use them. Often they will be for somewhere where there’s nothing you need/want. When you try to spend them in store they often cause issues with self checkout or hold up the queue for some nonsensical reason.

they are a great racket for businesses - they get lost, forgotten about, can’t be spent due to exclusions. Basically free revenue for a shop and a pain in the ass for most busy people.

My children love them. Especially book vouchers.

The all4one cards are awful, almost impossible to actually spend.

I would love gift cards rather than the endless amount of tat and duplicate presents

I loved them.
My daughter loves them.
Guess we need to learn to be less grateful.

I loved them when I was younger but sadly don't get them anymore. My sister and I used to excitedly add them up when we got them at Christmas and then nag mum to take us to town so we could spend them.

Maybe these days with high streets dying gift cards aren't as good? I don't know as, like I said, I haven't had one for years.

I agree the all4one cards are awful. Anything like amazon/whsmith/waterstones my kids love as it’s rare they get to go to an actual shop and choose what they want!

I hate gift cards! At Christmas I had to buy all my teenagers gift cards off them as MIL bought dd15 moonsoon voucher for £20, nothing in there for £20, couldn't be used online, nearest store miles away, and not exactly a teeangers taste!

Ds14 got argos vouchers. Fuck all he wanted in there, plus everything is always out of stock!

Dd7 got £10 smyths just created loads of stress trying to pick something she could afford picking expensive things and me saying no darling you haven't got enough for that...

I could live with the teenagers getting Subway vouchers that would come in handy but otherwise cash is king!

You know what you mean actually as I do this a lot with my teen but it’s better than the stuff my younger ones get that they never touch.
I mostly end up using the all for one cards in primark

There’s also the worry in case the shop closes or goes bust - had to use some Virgin store and HMV vouchers quickly a few years ago. I always preferred it when my sons received ‘universal shopping vouchers’.

I always give gift cards for school birthday parties? I assumed it would be much better for the birthday child to choose their own present rather than run the risk of getting something they already have?

I appreciate people are busy etc but surely just be grateful? I think the older generation often see gift cards as a more personal alternative to cash (even if completely inappropriate see pp getting a monsoon vouchers, although can be used in accessorize!).

When we have got them it’s been quite nice in the past to go out a couple of weeks after the birthday and go shopping for a few bits of their choice. My DD ‘gets’ the whole ‘it’s £15 so you can only have something that price or below’ but I appreciate if they don’t it would be harder. But I would just be grateful (or regift!)

Gift cards are just the remagined book token. I used to love a book token. I don't know why you are changing it for cash, the whole idea is its for the kids to go to the shop and find something they'll like.

My kids absolutely LOVE a gift card. To them it is one of the most exciting gifts they can get as they get to choose what they want, work out the costs etc. Amazon, Argos or Waterstones are the favourites here

Yes, hate them. When people ask what my kids want, i just say a card and bar of chocolate will be fine. When they start enquiring about shops they use, I feel annoyed because I know a mixture of gift cards are coming. I currently have 2 expired gift cards. I prefer to give them the cash. However recently I did suggest an amazon gift card, and I ended up spending that on house hold stuff, and giving my child £20 cash.

Gift cards are great presents and I have never once had any "admin" spending them. This way the child can actually get something they want rather than something they will never use.

I don't mind them because they are always for John Lewis, and it's always possible to find something in John Lewis. We do end up part converting into cash though so that he can use the final £ elsewhere. I would prefer cash to take him to the Lego store, but I understand why people don't feel it's quite right to give cash.

I am ambivalent about it for teacher gifts. Debate about "thoughtful" items, I argue for John Lewis gift vouchers. But actually I don't see why we can't just give them cash.

I've sent my nieces and nephew gift cards before as I wasn't going to see them, they live 3 hours away and it isn't recommended to send money in the post. Hope their parents didn't find it a pain, thought I was doing a nice thing for the children!

Nope, it’s the gift of choice here.
especially book tokens or Amazon vouchers.

i don’t use cash anymore, everything done electronically. The only folk I know who use cash are my pals elderly parents.

My daughter got a Next voucher for her birthday. Opened the card at 7am, spent online by 7.30 😂
For my birthday I got an Argos one - also used online and a Waterstones one which I did use in store but could have used online.
Haven't spent the M+S one yet.... wasn't overly impressed with that one cos M+S is very boring. Might spend it on some overpriced ready meals.
I agree those All4One cards are a pain.

@MRex I struggled to spend a John Lewis voucher. I wasn't very impressed with what they sold. I think most of it went on food and nice bubble bath in Waitrose and the rest on Lego.

We live in the sticks. Used to get gift cards for shops that were 90 minutes away and couldn't use them online. So to use them we had to give up a day and pay for fuel and parking and do a 3 hour round trip. And then top up whatever it was they wanted as the card was never quite enough.

Would actually prefer nothing tbh