Savvy shoppers save money with gift card offers

With each holiday, I see an increasing number of bonus gift card offers. They go something like this: Buy a gift card for a specified dollar amount and get a lesser gift card for free. Savvy shoppers can take advantage of these incentives to save a few pennies.

For Example:

For example, my local Safeway is offering a $10 coupon on my next shopping trip if I buy $100 or more in Visa Gift Cards. Now, Visa gift cards typically have an activation fee. But if the activation fee is less than ten dollars, then I could earn a few bucks just by buying the gift card. But do I need a Visa gift card? Sure. Here is how you pocket a few dollars without buying unnecessarily.

Take Advantage:

• Buy a Visa gift card for your personal shopping–an upcoming vacation or just daily expenses. You’re spending the money anyway. Putting your money on the gift card first simply allows you to get the bonus groceries.
• Buy a Visa gift card to put kids on a budget. Got kids going off to college, in need of spending money, or wanting to do a little back to school shopping?  With a Visa gift card, they can shop anywhere they want, but have to stay within the limit of the funds on the gift card.
• Plan ahead and buy gifts early. Think about upcoming birthdays, weddings, or even holiday shopping. If you’re going to spend the money in the near future, might as well save on groceries while you’re at it.

Expiration Dates?

One word of caution is to check the expiration dates. Thanks to gift card laws changing in August, the gift card you buy will be good for at least five years so you don’t have to worry about shopping too early. But the bonus gift card (in this case coupon), is likely only to be good for a specified period of time. So check restrictions before you buy.

Think Ahead

If you’re buying more than one gift card, you might need to do it in separate transactions so you can get the bonus for each gift card purchased–rather than one bonus for the total number of gift cards you buy. Check with the cashier to see if there is limit so you don’t over strategize.

Wish my iPhone had a flash!

I took my kids to see Toy Story 3 this morning. I don’t normally like the animated flicks, but I chuckled even more than the little ones this time. Toys I hadn’t thought about in years showed up on screen like old friends. (Including a few toys I coveted but never got to make friends with, like that three story Barbie Apartment!) But the best part of the day was using the gift card I found last week to offset the cost of admission.

Saving Money

This little Disney-Pixar flashback would have cost me $45 without the gift card. That’s a lot of money for a matinee, especially when I’m trying to stretch the family budget across a summer’s worth of activities.

While a movie gift card may no longer be the most original gift to give, it’s still a great gift for a kid, teen, family, or anybody who likes to go to the theater. The recipient might not use it right away, but is certain to appreciate it when they do.

Make the Movie Gift Card More Personal

Partner a movie gift card with some movie snacks, popcorn, or something relevant to the movie you think they’re most likely to see. For Toy Story 3, for example, get a slinky akin to the one in the movie. For the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, get a gift card to the movies with some fake blood and vampire teeth. Or, if you’re like me, a movie gift card would go perfect with a purse size salt shaker for the tub of popcorn I’d buy once I got there.

Gift card packaging used to be non-existent–just a stack of gift cards at the checkout counter. But with sneaky people doing stupid things, gift card manufacturers have had to get increasingly clever in packaging gift cards in ways that deter theft. I watched the above story on gift card fraud and wanted to share a few more words of caution. The news piece accurately says to inspect any gift card before purchase, but doesn’t really say what to look for. Here is my advice:

What to look for:

• On paper packaging such as what is shown in the American Express example above, check for the paper to be ripped, torn, glued, or otherwise disturbed in some way. Are any corners lifted or bent? Does the gift card holder feel thicker than the one next to it?
• On plastic packaging, like the two-part plastic gift card that the cashier has to break in the middle in order to swipe the magnetic stripe, check that the plastic is unbroken and the stripe hasn’t been tampered with in any way.
• Check the PIN scratch-off area. One way to steal the value of your gift card is for the thief to use the gift card online without actually taking the plastic. But it can’t be done without the PIN number. So be sure all scratch-off areas on the back of the gift card are in tact.
• Watch the cashier’s handling of the gift card the entire time and ask to have the card as soon as it is activated–just to be sure there’s no swapping. Sometimes gift card errors occur accidentally. For example, if two gift cards are stuck together, the cashier might activate one and hand you the other.
• Keep the activation receipt. If anything does happen, this record will help you prove your side of the story. Give the receipt to the recipient as well so he or she can offer proof of the card’s value in case there is a question.
• Pick from the middle of the stack. Gift card fraud has to be premeditated. The thief has to get the card data, lie in wait for you to activate the card, then use the card’s value before you do. Cards on the front of the stack are more likely to be the ones criminals are waiting for you to activate.

It’s a shame we even have to have this conversation. Gift card fraud is nothing compared to credit card fraud in which thousands of dollars can be spent before you even notice it, but I can’t afford to lose even 20 dollars, nor do I want to give someone a gift only to discover the balance is zero. 

So my advice is not to be paranoid, but to simply be cautious.

Is it worth the effort? Let me know.

Though giving a gift card is sometimes viewed as too easy and showing a lack of effort, giving this gift card may be the exception.

I just read Eric Taub’s article on Home Depot’s new video gift card and I’m a little skeptical. Apparently this gift card enables the giver to upload a video or record one on the Home Depot website via web cam. Upon receipt of the gift card, the recipient enters a code online to watch the video. There are other tricks you can perform via web cam as well. Seems like a decent way to personalize a gift card.

But the reason I’m anxious about the idea is that technology, when not working as promised, can be frustrating. I imagine toiling over a video only to discover the file size is too big. (Been there.) Or sending someone the video gift card only to find that he or she doesn’t have the right browser, plug-in, or web cam to see the video. (Hello Aunt Vera.) My efforts to be creative could result in a phone call to tech support instead. Am I wrong?

If you have experience with the Home Depot Video Gift Card, give me the details. Who did you give it to…and how old or tech savvy is that person? Is the effort worth it?

Maybe we could all learn a lesson from these two boys

My 8-year-old son has been stockpiling gift cards all year. From time to time, he’d ask me to buy something non-essential and I’d respond, “You can buy that with your own money.” He never wanted said item badly enough to part with the plastic.

But this morning, he and his little brother burst into my bedroom with a plan–they wanted to pool their money to buy Madden NFL and a new nun-chuck for the Wii. Your money? Yes. Something you really want? Yes. A non-couch activity for the summer? Let me get my keys.

This is just another example of why I love gift cards for kids. Matthew had received enough loot for Christmas and for his birthday that he didn’t want for anything else. So rather than redeem the gift cards frivolously, he saved them for a future purchase. In this world of instant gratification, I’m happy to see that his patience paid off.

Want to help your kids redeem gift cards? Click here.

Sorry happy girl, Visa gift card not accepted.

One of the reasons I love gift cards is because they’re convenient. But twice this week, a Visa gift card experience was anything but convenient. And that’s not okay. We need to talk.

First, my girlfriend went to Lucky Supermarket to do her regular shopping and to buy a $100 Visa gift card. But when she got to the register, the cashier told her she had to pay for the Visa gift card with cash. Drats! Though the policy is designed to prevent fraud, it turned my friend’s convenient errand into a big hassle. She had to get back in the car and drag her kids to the bank. When she stopped at Walgreen’s on the way back to Lucky, however, she discovered that she could buy a Visa gift card there without cash. So she did. That’s lost business for Lucky and lost time for Suzanne.

Second, my daughter tried to use a Visa gift card yesterday at Costco. She’d been saving and saving for an iPod Touch and finally hit her mark when we saw the coveted item on sale. But her “money” included a Visa gift card. When we got to the register, however, the Costco cashier told us that only AMEX gift cards are good at Costco. Drats! I’d been the tough guy for months making her earn this extravagance. I didn’t have the heart to pull the ripcord on her big moment. So I bought the Visa gift card from her so she could complete the purchase using my debit card.

So Visa, I get that it’s not really you. Store policies made life for two busy moms a little difficult. But the situation involves you. I’ll be hesitant to give or use a Visa gift card if the experience can’t be made more predictable. So help me help you. Where and how can Visa gift cards be purchased? And where can they be redeemed predictably?

Let’s talk…