So over the last couple years I’ve gotten 2 or 3 “Credit card” gift cards for Christmas. The two that spring to mind one was a Chase I believe and the other most recent one is an American Express.
In both cases it has been a ROYAL pain in the ass to use them. First you pretty much can’t use them at restaurants. For some reason in order to use them your meal has to be less than the amount of the card, and if it isn’t you have to figure out a “Gratuity” and add that. In both cases we called the company and in both cases we wee told to multiple the amount by some figure and the restaurant had to charge “X” amount of the meal and “X”*the number as the gratuity…even though it was not a gratuity. To say the least this was a pain in the ass and for the second card we just said screw it and paid with other means.
Also there are a number of places that did not take the American express card, and both cards started charging a “Fee” after some number of months. 10 months in one case and 12 months in another.
My questions are has anyone else run into this? Have you had better luck with other cards? If so which ones?
I had 3 Amex gift cards that I carried around for a year before I could use them. On top of everything you mentioned, they had to be used in the US and I kept forgetting when I was down there. They are a royal pain in the ass. I would never give these as a gift. Give someone an Amazon gift card instead since you can buy practically anything on there.
Most debit-style gift cards can’t be charged for more than the amount on them and get declined if you try. For example, if the card has $10 on it and I try to buy something that costs $11, then it won’t work. But if I tell the merchant to only put $10 on the card, then then it works just fine. It’s kind of annoying.
“Kind of” is major understatement. Especially in the case of restuarants and the whole “Gratuity” nightmare.
Doesn’t seem to me to be such a technological leap to just be able to use what ever is on the card without me calling in and finding out exactly how much is on it.
Like others have said, I’ll not be getting another one of these and will suggest that no one else does either.
I got one from an employer once and if I used it for an online purchase it went smoothly. I never tried it at a restaurant. I bought a lot of books on Amazon with that card.
Local (but well known) consumer advocate Clark Howard goes through his anti-gift card speel periodically. He warns against them because of the terms of use, expiration, loss of choice in relation to shopping locations, and dangers of businesses going under and making the cards worthless. He says give cash instead.