Gift Cards Does

Gift Cards Does The perfect Gift Need Perfecting?

You have a list of folks you want to send gifts to. Many are out of state. Then there are your immediate siblings. Some you know well. Others? You just don't have a clue as to what half of them like? So you consider giving them a gift certificate. After all money doesn't grow on trees. The fact is with the cost of gas doubling over the past few years, inflation on our heels and the growth in family reunion attendance, offsetting the cost of gift giving by finding low priced items that every body loves has become an even greater challenge then it ever has been. Thus the growing popularity of gift cards.vanilla gift card balance 

The National Retail Federation anticipated $17. 24 billion worth of holiday sales last year in gift cards. The reasons gift cards are so frequently bought in place of other items are numerous. No one wants to give a gift that is not appreciated. In addition, who wants to burden down an aging relative with having to drive several miles to a store she nevers shops in order to exchange the gift.

Mark Askew, founder of http: //prepaid-gift-card. fimark. net says, "Folks once thought that with a gift card you couldn't go wrong trying to please. And this seemed logical at the time. Thus as gift cards gained popularity many merchants jumped on the bandwagon. But until recently gift card weren't all they were thought to be. "

All too true. For instance, what if you give a gift card from a sporting goods store to someone who's not into sports? Or a gift to shop a jewelry store to someone who lives too great a distance from the store to even bother to shop there.

But has the gift card changed all that much over the past three or more years? Perhaps. Prepaid gift cards issued by VISA and Mastercard offer a way to use a gift card anywhere credit cards are accepted. Prepaid debit card issuers and 60 percent of store gift card issuers offer the potential to obtain a replacement card with the remaining balance if the original is lost or stolen. But getting a replacement may require the purchase receipt and the card number. Some companies may accept other proof of purchase. The gift card recipient would have to have all these papers to obtain a replacement. No wonder a significant percentage of gift cards have gone unredeemed. That said, when buying a gift card, look carefully at the pre-purchase disclosures of terms and conditions on the web site and the packaging in the store. If terms are not given or appear too cryptic to be complete don't buy.