This holiday season there will again be many millions of Americans who will again buy, give and use gift cards. It is a very convenient and easy way to resolve shopping dilemmas. It is also important to mention here that outsourcing the real shopping decision will work well for the gift recipient who can buy something he or she likes. Even the merchants are fond of gift cards. One can also get gift cards in bulk. This is because a substantial portion of the funds never gets used up by the cardholders.
There are some essential tips that one needs to follow while buying gift cards and these are:
One needs to buy them from trustworthy sources
Avoid buying gift cards from the sellers like online auction sites. This is because there are chances that they might sell counterfeit or fraudulently obtained cards.
One should read the terms and conditions thoroughly
First one has to find out if there is a fee to buy the card or if one can buy the card by phone or online, for shipping and handling. If one does not like what he sees, he can buy from elsewhere.
One needs to check if any fees will be deducted from the card after one buys it.
There is the least possibility of this happening. It will be good to buy gift cards in bulk.
One should ensure that the card is valid
Another very important thing is to ensure that none of the protective stickers is removed. Another important thing to do is to verify that the codes on the back of the card have not been scratched off to expose the PIN. In case, one finds a tampered card, he should report it to the merchant immediately.
It is important to give the original receipt to the recipient
If the card is a gift, it is important to ensure that it is accompanied by the sales receipt, so that the recipient can prove that the card was purchased in case it is lost or stolen.
Consider the financial situation of the retailer.
If one buys a card from a retailer that is going out of business or is on the verge of bankruptcy, there are chances that he might be getting less value than he might have originally expected. Yet, a company might be accepting the gift cards while the procedures of bankruptcy are still ongoing or might even start doing so at a later date. If the retailer is closing the nearest store, there might also be another location nearby.
Conclusion
There are two types of gift cards available – one is the retail gift card and the other is the bank gift card. The former can only be used by the merchants that sell them while the latter will bear the logo of a bank card network and are accepted everywhere. Since all the other things are the same, it would be much better to buy a bank gift card, because of the flexibility that it offers. If one purchases gift cards in bulk will benefit.
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