Using Your Gift Card Wisely
Receiving gift cards or certificates(whether in physical or electronic form) are great. It’s like getting free money whether someone gave it to you or you won it in a contest.It’s also a plus when the card design has pictures which reflect the occasion and the personality of the recipient. Using it is another aspect altogether.
One must be able to use it as promptly as possible before its expiration date. One never knows when the gift or store policy would change or worse, close up business for good before that card ever gets used at all.
In the past, they’re usually good only for 6 months. In other cases, using it so close to that date would entail paying a “penalty’fee and would even reduce the amount of the money paid into that card.
Later on, the expiration date got extended to 5 years. Nowadays, there’s no more expiration dates. (Yey!). You can plan your shopping trip around it and get more out of it especially when the store that issued that card is having a great sale. With today’s economic times, we really got to think it through very well!
Some stores even offer the service of electronically uploading your gift card with more money that you pay into so as to save them from issuing you another card. Sounds to be environmentally practical(recycling,that is).
I have read reports time and time again that after Christmas,many people who receive gift cards never get to use them and they all pile them up in their drawers. And to think that gift cards are becoming the number 1 gift item received every Christmas for practical reasons.
What a waste of money which could be of help to your overall budget in some cases.Also, it will help the store since every recorded gift card redemption is considered as a sales statistic. Buying a store gift card doesn’t count as a sale,just remember that.
Happy Shopping!
Josie
josiesvoice 