AIBU to question whether gift cards are worth buying now?

[Netcurtainnelly]

To ask if you still buy gift cards?

There are websites where you can sell your gift cards on if you don't want them.

What's the point buying them if you know people might sell them on.
Just give the money in the first place or buy a love to shop voucher where they can be used in many places.
I don't really get it?

I have always hated them.
Risk of forgetting them meaning they expire, being bought cards for places I never even shop, forgetting to take them when you DO go to these shops etc.

Worst one was just the other day.
Card had been (invisibly) tampered with or substituted and the money unknowingly disappeared the moment it was put on at the place of purchase. Obviously it was no good when we tried to spend it so queue long call with customer service. This resulted in the person who originally bought the card (which was a present) having to return it to get a refund (seller immediately removed all similar cards from sale).

Bring back cash or do a bank transfer.☹️

People have been selling gift cards forever- you could buy them 20 years ago on eBay!

yes I buy them all the time- and use them all the time. I’m actually just about to buy some gift vouchers for my Xmas food fund and decorating my living room fund

How would you feel if the person you were buying for sold them on less for cash.

Dont buy them then?

I doubt they would tell me.

I think they are still popular when the gift giver wants to ensure the gift isn’t just used to pay the gas bill or on the weekly shop. If I get given cash it just goes in my purse and gets forgotten about. A voucher I will definitely treat myself.

We haven’t really bought a giftcard for anyone in years, we just either put money in a card if it’s for a child or send some money bank transfer for adults- the only exception being for one of our nephews who asks for Xbox giftcard voucher things.

We are no contact with PIL now but before that they always used to give us a £20 Primark gift card for our daughter birthday/Christmas which always felt more hassle than it was worth because then it’s a case of having to go to the shop, can’t order online, see what we could get for her, we don’t really shop at Primark because of the hassle of going in store & our local one is always a mess with not a great range of sizes available so not a gift card I would choose!

If you know that the receiver will definitely be shopping at a specific retailer then a gift voucher is fine.
For example (as my user name shows) I like Lego.
Lego release a bunch of new sets on January 1st. Usually that's what I would want for Christmas - if it was available 7 days earlier.
So being given a voucher specifically to go to Lego Store and buy my new goodies is an excellent present for me.
Buying a random voucher that you hope the receiver might spend....waste of time.

I don't.

Couldn’t care less tbh

I buy them sometimes... in the hope that people remember to spend their Christmas gift card on themselves, rather than putting their Christmas money towards general household shopping or expenses (e.g. so that my niece will end up with nice new clothes from her current favourite shop/art things, instead of spending it on junk food and alcohol now that she's at college!).

They are worth it for me. I love getting a gift card for John Lewis, Fenwick or the White Company. I buy things I can’t afford to buy myself and it’s a massive treat being able to do that.

I love a book token or M&S token. Always treat myself to a treat that I wouldn’t normally buy.

My stepdad used to buy those Love 2 Shop vouchers for my kids
Absolute pita and I used to buy them off the kids so that they could spend money on something they wanted (usually on Steam).

For my 60th birthday one set of colleagues bought me a Garden Centre voucher because they know what I like. Had they bought Love 2 Shop it would probably be at the back of a drawer somewhere