I got a gift card for Christmas that is basically cash, but on something that works like a credit card.
It is all activated and works like a credit card…easy enough. But what happens when you only have a few dollars left on it? Just keep buying things that are ever less expensive and get as close to zero as possible? Or, can you zero out that gift card and then use another card (or cash) to cover whatever extra cost that needs to be paid?
Or, do they hope you will toss the card when it has a little value left and they keep the money?
Exactly this. If you buy something for $25.00, and there is only a balance of $4.50 left on the gift card, you then pay the remaining $20.50 with some other method.
I’ve done this a number of times, and this is always how it has worked.
Do you buy on Amazon? Then you can use Reload Your Balance to add the exact amount left on the card (assuming it is a prepaid Visa or Mastercard debit card, etc
Reload Your Balance: You can add funds directly to your account using Amazon Reload.
My gift card has a Mastercard logo on it but it is not in any way associated with Amazon (not that I can see). That will reload this card? Kinda cool if it can do that.
@PastTense is saying you can use the remaining funds on your gift card (the one with the Mastercard logo) to be applied to an Amazon gift card allowance.
Amazon is one site that still accepts these, last I checked, so, once I’m down to a little bit, I would put the extra on there, which can be saved as credit for future purchases.
It’s been a while since I had a Mastercard gift card. It was a bit of a pain to use when it got low. With pretty much any store-specific gift card if you try use the card at checkout for more than the card balance, the gift card balance is subtracted from the total and you pay the rest some other way. With the Mastercard gift card you had to know the exact balance, if the vendor just tries to run it for more than the balance it gets rejected. So you have to look up the exact balance and tell the vendor exactly how much to charge.
The cards from casinos work tha way. People bring in lots of them and just keep swiping. 2 dollars here 50 cents there. I couldn’t tell you the logos, but they all work at my store. I can also sometimes look up the balance on a gift catd.
There should also be some website listed on the card where you can look up its balance, so you can charge exactly that amount the next time you use it. As others said, you’d pay the rest with some other form of payment.
Early this year I got a court settlement for something under $10 in the form of a debit card. I couldn’t figure out what I was going to be able to use it for, until a little research showed that I could apply it to my Amazon gift card balance.
It appears you have to have an Amazon gift card to which you can add these small balances from other cards. And when I tried this just now, I couldn’t make it work. Also there is a $5 minimum.
Here is what I did:
Under Accounts and Lists, I clicked on Gift Cards. It says “Your gift card balance: $0. Then there are two choices, Reload your balance and Redeem your gift card.
I clicked on Reload your balance, then clicked on One Time Reload. I filled in the amount left on one of my gift cards, which was $8.15, and clicked on Buy Now.
Then it went to another screen for the payment method. Your default method (e.g. a credit card) will come up, I clicked on the link under that, which says “Use a gift card, voucher, or promo code.”
The next screen has two relevant areas: Your Credit and Debit Cards, and under that Your Available Balance, where it says Enter a Gift Card, Voucher, or Promotional Code. This is where it failed for me, it said my code was invalid, with no further explanation.
If I am doing this wrong, I hope someone will enlighten me.
What you can do, I think (apparently I have done it before) is to use one or more gift cards with small balances to begin to pay for a purchase, then finish the purchase with a regular credit card or debit card.
As far as I know, either you have to register it for online use (there would be a URL somewhere in the fine print on the card) or else it will accept a charge with any name and billing address.
I’ve done this at the supermarket (I forget if it was a Mastercard gift card or Visa) and never had any problems. The software used by Safeway seems to be able to figure it out. I always did it with a real person, not self checkout.
Is there any way to find out the balance of my gift card if I threw away my gift card? I have two Mastercard debit cards listed on my account. I don’t know the remaining balance.