To think a £10 gift card is pointless

[AcornConker]

I’ve been given a £10 gift card for my birthday by my sibling. It’s a bit upsetting as I took her on a day out to York for her birthday and spent quite a bit treating her but she’s not got much money so I can’t expect much.

But I’m finding it impossible to use. It’s a One4All gift card and none of the online retailers that accept it interest me. I live rurally and to go into a city or town centre where I could use it would cost me a lot in public transport costs. If it was £20+ it may have been worth it but £10 seems a comical amount and I almost wish she hadn’t bothered. It’s become a chore and a bit of an eyesore sat on my coffee table.

I’ve also recently come into financial difficulty myself and the pressure to use the gift card before it expires is putting pressure on me as to buy anything these days for £10 is impossible and I’ll have to put in my own money as well which I can’t do. I can’t even buy a bloody book with it.

AIBU to think that voucher gifts for an adult should be £20 minimum. If giving less then just give cash! Also for the value of £10 I’d have much rather have had a nice bath bomb or something like that, I feel I’ve been given a chore instead

If your sibling is struggling for money and you have still received a gift from them i'd just be grateful.

I bet they would rather it be in their pocket if they knew you were just moaning about it!

Vouchers like this usually have a year or so on them so YABU.

I would be fine with £10 - I would buy myself a little treat that I normally wouldn’t pay for (nice chocolates, nice tea bags, a nice notebook). When you give presents, it’s not with the expectation that you will get one of a similar value back.

Sell it on FB marketplace (or similar) for £9.50 if you really can't use it.
Or give it to someone else.

Perhaps tell your sibling not to worry about gifts next time?

Just don't spend it, then.

YABU to be moaning about someone with very little money 'only' giving you a gift card for a tenner. And it's not your sister's fault that not a single one of the online retailers available are to your liking.

I'm sure you could find a pair of socks or a nice smelly candle for £10, but if you want to spend more money, you could always put some money towards something yourself.
Perhaps your sister would give you the £10 in cash instead if you give her the voucher to spend on herself. Explain that the outlets it's available for aren't your kind of thing (but don't tell her you think £10 is a miserly present!)

Let it go. Your job, as the receiver of the gift, is to accept the spirit that went into the gift. She thought it through: she only had £10 to spend on you, and thought that a voucher was the way to go because that way you could buy something you wanted.

The fact that it doesn't work for you is not the point. Accept the gift.

Then, don't work yourself up about the unspent £10. If it will cost you more to get to the city and then not find yourself something that is £10 to buy for yourself and it is vexing you, just put it in the bin.

Done.

for fucks sake have you heard yourself

Or buy something for someone else with it, and use that £10 you would have spent on that on yourself.

If someone gave me a £10 voucher I'd go to Waterstones and get myself a nice book.

There's a few books about learning gratitude and resilience if you're lacking ideas

You have quite a few shops to choose from. I usually buy something nice to eat from M&S with that type of gift card.

Of course you can get a book don’t be ridiculous.

I've just had a look at the list of places you can spend it online, and there are loads of retailers where you could get something useful for under £10, even if it's just something practical like toiletries or a pack of knickers. I haven't scrolled through the full list but I can see at least two places (Fopp and HMV) that sell books. You could also get something from Boots online, even if it's just ordinary toiletries that you use every day, or something like socks or knickers from Asos.

Whilst you are deciding whether to use it or not, I'd spend time on giving your head a wobble. Your sister may be struggling financially and hasn't raised it as she might be embarrassed but gave you her last £10.

Use your own money to top up to something you want or give it to the food bank. I'm sure someone will be grateful for it.

How entitled are you? Gift giving isn't transactional for goodness sake. £10 can buy you a best selling paperback and some good quality chocolate. You are so ungrateful!

Jesus how ungrateful?!

You're being ridiculous, you can spend them in about a hundred places

If you honestly never go to M& S, Boots, IKEA, John Lewis, B&Q, Argos, Clarks, toy shops, book shops, clothes shops, most chain restaurants...
Well, in that case I congratulate you on not being consumer and presumably knitting your own yogurt.

Yes, tenner is more convenient, but this is not the imposition you think it is.

I’d just get something from Argos - a little treat, something you need for the home anyway or even a small gift to put away for Christmas or a birthday which will save you £10 further down the line. They have toys under £10 if you have any children to buy for this year?

YABVVVVVU

You can use those cards in hundreds of places. John Lewis, Boots, M&S, Argos, B&Q, Ikea... surely there must be somewhere you would be doing a food/beauty/home shop that it would knock £10 off?

Please tell her how much of a chore receiving a gift was for you so she knows to never give you one again.

Bloody hell, buy some of your groceries with it if it's that hard!

Those gift cards can be really difficult to use. I think they're only popular with buyers because they are often sold at a discount through employee perk schemes etc. Please folks, consider giving cash. It's like gift cards but you can spend it in any shop and it doesn't have an expiry date.

A relative kept buying them for my young child. We would give the child the equivalent money and found the card difficult to spend, even in the shops that supposedly accepted them. We eventually asked them to stop buying them. Randomly the gift card's website/app won't let you log in or reports a random error. Supermarket staff seem to groan when customers try to use them. The Internet if full of stories of people complaining about them.

Depending on your relationship with your sister I'd thank her for it and explain that you haven't been about to use it, and ask if she is able to.

It’s become a chore and a bit of an eyesore sat on my coffee table.

Then put it in a drawer, or in the bin. Or give it to someone who might appreciate it.

I can see the difficulty because you can't spend more than £10 with the card online.

However, you can add to it in shops and it is accepted at M&S so spend it on food or buy a book next time you go out to somewhere with shops. You have 18 months before it starts to reduce in balance so however rurally you live, surely you must go to a town or city every once in a while?

But perhaps you should talk to your sister and agree to stop engaging in the futility that is effectively exchanging £10 notes on birthdays, but making it a lot more difficult due to the vouchers. She may not realise a lot of people hate One for all vouchers.

Oh my lord I missed that quote. An eyesore!! Jeez........

I just don't understand this type of voucher. Instead of giving a £10 note which can be spent anywhere, they give you a £10 voucher which can be spent at a bunch of random places.

So you either have to top it up, or you're left with a random couple of quid left that goes to waste. They are just madness.

This is why I dread gift-giving. YABU and rude, actually. Eyesore!