# How do I spend my giftcard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825 "2009-12-19T03:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/1 "2009-12-19T03:14:17Z")
A couple of months ago, I was given a Visa giftcard in the amount of 25 dollars. Never got around to using it. So today, I used it to buy an Amazon gift certificate for my brother. An hour or so later I got an email from Amazon saying “e’re writing to let you know that we are having difficulty processing your payment for the above order.” and going on to say the bank wouldn’t say why it was declined. Oooookay. Maybe because my billing address bears no resemblance to the card’s issuer. So I tried linking it to my Paypal account - which was all well and good until I tried to use it to send some money (to my Lending Tree account, for what that’s worth). Decline-o-rama. I’ve checked the online site for the card ([giftcardmall.com](http://giftcardmall.com) - do NOT do what I did at first and spell that last as “mail” as it leads to cybersquatters) and yep, there’s 25 bucks on that account. So how on earth do I use the damn thing? Anyone else ever run into this situation? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/2 "2009-12-19T03:25:45Z")
Hmmmm - asked the question, then saw on the giftcardmall site that I have to register it first. This seems to have worked. So if a mod stumbles across this, it’d be fine to close or disappear the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/3 "2009-12-19T23:52:01Z")
I did my Christmas shopping today, and almost bought some of those. Read the instructions on the package, and decided they were too much of a pain in the ass to use. Also noted that they sell for face value + an activation charge. I went with gift cards from particular stores instead. The recipient has less choice, but the card is easier to use. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/4 "2009-12-20T00:53:45Z")
Yeah, for almost all of the debit card type gift cards, in order to use them online, you have to register the card with them so you can use the billing address. I don’t think you have to do that if you use it in-store though. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/5 "2009-12-20T03:37:23Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I did my Christmas shopping today, and almost bought some of those. Read the instructions on the package, and decided they were too much of a pain in the ass to use. Also noted that they sell for face value + an activation charge. I went with gift cards from particular stores instead. The recipient has less choice, but the card is easier to use. Yeah - this is one of the reasons we won’t give them as gifts. Plus, they’re inconvenient to use. We tried using one to pay for a restaurant meal which cost roughly what the card’s value - planning to pay the tip in cash - but it was declined because of the way the authorization grosses up the fee. I wound up using it to buy groceries, where you can use multiple cards to pay for a single transaction. And of course my experience yesterday. There was nothing on the card that said I had to register it before using it for an online purchase. Sheesh. I’d MUCH rather give cash or store-specific gift cards. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-spend-my-giftcard/521825/6 "2009-12-20T06:59:09Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Hmmmm - asked the question, then saw on the giftcardmall site that I have to register it first. This seems to have worked. > > So if a mod stumbles across this, it’d be fine to close or disappear the thread. Closing thread.