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Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 6:59:02 PM

Termyn8or

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Joined: 11/12/2005
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I saw them mentioned in another thread, so I will mention this.

They are a ripoff. Most have a monthly non-use charge which amounts to an expiration date. Others have an outright expiration date.

Did your money expire ?

Others have who knows what kind of limitations, not good in this department or not valid for the purchese of......... Or saleprices do not apply, or fuel perks or something. Or coupons will not be accepted with it. Things like that.

Did your money have similar limitations ?

Just a caveat for those who view the Christmas deadline with dismay or fear. Personally I have the problem solved. We simply do not exchange gifts. This can be difficult to achieve without the cooperation of everyone involved.

And then we have those people who are hard to buy for who seemingly have everything. My Mother is one such person. Electronically she has everything from a very good HDTV down to a pair of speakers that would almost fit in your pockets which will shake the floor with bass. Decoration wise she has exactly what she wants in her house and to buy her a knicknack might upset the whole balance of things. Seems like a perfect candidate for a gift card right ? Wrong.

My gift to her is that she can think of me and keep her money. And it works both ways. And the money she keeps is good anywhere, not at just one store or chain. So is the money I keep.

We'll probably get together and I will eat some of her food, and we will chew the fat so to speak for a few hours. That is worth more than anything that can be bought in a store. And we are not religious at all.

T

Post #: 1

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 7:23:21 PM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
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...my family has been doing this for the most part- per the adults for a few years now.
it works out fine.

a giftcard is the last thing to spend money on.   one presumes the store will be in business long enough to operate it.

but you know- people are so caught up in the fog of TV, etc., that most have very little clue on what hard times are. What they really are. Jenny just had a couple with a baby show up at her house the other night.   ...homeless....   she casually tried to get them into the shelter... but the call was not returned.
I guess being we know who it is, that it is predictable.   (in and out of jail types)

Then a new person I talked to tonight, depressed. I guess he did not want to hear, to use his horticulture degree to grow food, a way to stop the millions that are scheduled to starve..... the days are shorter, get sunlight.

But aside from that- one doesnt have to look far to find someone who has a reason to be depressed, sad, out of the loop.

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 2

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 8:18:12 PM

YourhandMyAss

Posts: 5516
Joined: 6/25/2006
From: Sacramento
Status: offline

Even if gift cards don't have that problem, I'd rather just have the trip to the store with the person presenting the gift card. And I've really never seen gift cards not applicable to certain items, I think you're maybe thinking of store coupons?

One year for my birthday my dad* not my age play one* took me to Michaels and I had a set amount of money and he helped me pick out coloring pencils and other art supplies, then payed for them. The time spent with him and my mom was more precious than the gifts, all though the gifts were greatly appreciated too.

Then one year for Christmas, I wrote my dad a nice note explaining that my gift to him was a trip to the bookstore, with me, and I'd pay for his books.

There was no remembering to bring the card, or nothing, but we did enjoy a trip to the bookstore. I'm quite hermity, if it wasn't for having to come out of my room to pee and eat , or you coming to knock at my door you'd never see me, So trips out together as a family are certaintly treasured.
Plus, also I do kind of think of the environment on the issue of gift cards, it's a plastic that will only ever be used once, and it's wasteful on the environment I feel.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

I saw them mentioned in another thread, so I will mention this.

They are a ripoff. Most have a monthly non-use charge which amounts to an expiration date. Others have an outright expiration date.

Did your money expire ?

Others have who knows what kind of limitations, not good in this department or not valid for the purchese of......... Or saleprices do not apply, or fuel perks or something. Or coupons will not be accepted with it. Things like that.

Did your money have similar limitations ?

Just a caveat for those who view the Christmas deadline with dismay or fear. Personally I have the problem solved. We simply do not exchange gifts. This can be difficult to achieve without the cooperation of everyone involved.

And then we have those people who are hard to buy for who seemingly have everything. My Mother is one such person. Electronically she has everything from a very good HDTV down to a pair of speakers that would almost fit in your pockets which will shake the floor with bass. Decoration wise she has exactly what she wants in her house and to buy her a knicknack might upset the whole balance of things. Seems like a perfect candidate for a gift card right ? Wrong.

My gift to her is that she can think of me and keep her money. And it works both ways. And the money she keeps is good anywhere, not at just one store or chain. So is the money I keep.

We'll probably get together and I will eat some of her food, and we will chew the fat so to speak for a few hours. That is worth more than anything that can be bought in a store. And we are not religious at all.

T

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 3

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 8:18:43 PM

CalifChick

Posts: 10717
Joined: 10/28/2007
From: California
Status: offline

Some states (namely, California) have laws that say gift cards do not expire and do not have monthly fees, with a very few exceptions. Here is a summary of the law: http://www.saclaw.lib.ca.us/pages/gift-cards.aspx .

This site has a list of many popular stores throughout the US, and when/if their gift cards expire: http://froomb.com/pages/giftcard.html

Cali

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(in reply to pahunkboy)

Post #: 4

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 9:04:39 PM

Termyn8or

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Joined: 11/12/2005
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Cali, apparently you live in some civilised part of the world, that is not so in Ohio.

YH, I kinda know what you mean. The last gift I bought was for my Dad, and it was a book. He has plenty of books, but this one was a compilation of front page news in the US dating back to 1900. Being the history buff he is, it was perfect. I had never seen such a thing and he wasn't likely to. The difference is that if I saw it on say April twentieth (which means nothing to us) I would have bought it for him just the same. For a time it was quite the curiosity, guests could look up their birthdate and see what was going on in the world back then.

Most enjoyable, in fact the best gift I can recall, either given or recieved. It was better than giving him a car or a boat, he could afford his own. So my sister and I were in a mall (EEK ! ) and wound up in a bookstore. So we are not normal. And damn glad.

T

(in reply to CalifChick)

Post #: 5

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 9:09:51 PM

YourhandMyAss

Posts: 5516
Joined: 6/25/2006
From: Sacramento
Status: offline

Termy, I will buy family and friends gifts for any old reason too. It's just that with the holiday season families, if you like your family tend to for some reason, attempt to come together more than they normally would. And Since your comment was about gift cards, My take on it, is that going to the store together to hunt for the gift, is much better than a card.

Unless you're just buying it cause ya have to or they're not close enough to go out with for real.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

Cali, apparently you live in some civilised part of the world, that is not so in Ohio.

YH, I kinda know what you mean. The last gift I bought was for my Dad, and it was a book. He has plenty of books, but this one was a compilation of front page news in the US dating back to 1900. Being the history buff he is, it was perfect. I had never seen such a thing and he wasn't likely to. The difference is that if I saw it on say April twentieth (which means nothing to us) I would have bought it for him just the same. For a time it was quite the curiosity, guests could look up their birthdate and see what was going on in the world back then.

Most enjoyable, in fact the best gift I can recall, either given or recieved. It was better than giving him a car or a boat, he could afford his own. So my sister and I were in a mall (EEK ! ) and wound up in a bookstore. So we are not normal. And damn glad.

T

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 6

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/15/2008 9:34:01 PM

Termyn8or

Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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"ya have to"

Take those words totally out of context and have a good look.

That is what I am talking about, you don't have to.

T

(in reply to YourhandMyAss)

Post #: 7

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 4:05:05 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

I can think of 2 historical event per 4-20. I can tell you it in only 5 letters.    DE. OKC

One year, I regifted EVERY item!   It got to the point that I would just donate the odd clothing, that no one in memory has ever seen me wear. To return it with no receipt feels like a crime!

If I wear doing gifts, silver eagles would be my choice. They cost about $20.   but in the next so many years, will be worth a whole lot more then a piece of junk.

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 8

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 4:10:37 AM

sirsholly

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Joined: 9/7/2007
From: Quietville
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i do give gift cards to teenagers. They are generally used before New Years.

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RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 4:15:51 AM

Aileen1968

Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
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Gift cards are perfect for those people in your life that hate you and everything you've ever bought for them in the past, but you still have to buy a gift for.
I just drove almost an hour and a half to a mall to get a mall gift card for this particular person. Unbelievably I get parking close to the entrance. Even more unbelievably, the customere service is right fucking there when I walk in with no line. So I go up and tell them that I need two gift cards and they ask if it will be credit or debit. I say neither as I only brought in cash. They then proceed to tell me that they don't accept cash. WTF is up with that???? It was unbelievable. I then had to go walk down stairs and down another wing to the one card shop in the mall that sells gift cards...thinking it will be a mall one. I get there to find out that they only sell Amex ones which I wound up buying with the lovely added surcharge that Amex adds on. So my $150 purchase cost me $160 (bastards) and I wound up getting something that I could have gotten at Shoprite, ten minutes from my house. Go figure. All for someone who hates me. Then the hour and a half drive home durning rush hour.
Yeah...gift cards are great....

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(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 10

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 4:28:22 AM

marie2

Posts: 1690
Joined: 11/4/2008
From: Jersey
Status: offline

I buy the generic cards ie--American express or Visa for my kid to carry, so she has money on her when she's out. I don't think they charge a monthly non-use fee, but what pisses me off is that damn activation fee...I think it's around 5 or 6 bucks, but whatever.

I also find that ITunes cards, and cards for Claire's or the Gap make for very easy birthday gifts for teenagers.

Other than that, I don't use them much.

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 11

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 5:02:32 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aileen1968

Gift cards are perfect for those people in your life that hate you and everything you've ever bought for them in the past, but you still have to buy a gift for.
I just drove almost an hour and a half to a mall to get a mall gift card for this particular person. Unbelievably I get parking close to the entrance. Even more unbelievably, the customere service is right fucking there when I walk in with no line. So I go up and tell them that I need two gift cards and they ask if it will be credit or debit. I say neither as I only brought in cash. They then proceed to tell me that they don't accept cash. WTF is up with that???? It was unbelievable. I then had to go walk down stairs and down another wing to the one card shop in the mall that sells gift cards...thinking it will be a mall one. I get there to find out that they only sell Amex ones which I wound up buying with the lovely added surcharge that Amex adds on. So my $150 purchase cost me $160 (bastards) and I wound up getting something that I could have gotten at Shoprite, ten minutes from my house. Go figure. All for someone who hates me. Then the hour and a half drive home durning rush hour.
Yeah...gift cards are great....

so you drove 3 hours for something a few clicks online could have solved????

I love cash. :-)

next year, get them a pony! it will be easier. ;-D

(in reply to Aileen1968)

Post #: 12

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 5:11:41 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

Hey Term,

when we become a cashless society, then the money will sort of expire. ever use a debit card that is blocked? expired?

Giftcards for groceries here locally can not be bought with credit cards...nor can money orders.

postage stamps could have a tracking number on them, what are they waiting for???

ever try to reclaim a lost bank account? it is close to impossible. I can see it now. a 9.95 a month charge for debit, and .48 per use, 2.99 if you dont use it in a weeks time, and 39.00 if you over use it in the month...in addition of course to any overdraft fees. don't get me started on NSF fees. I should send a notice to all the banks that currently have NSF...we all should.

(in reply to pahunkboy)

Post #: 13

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 5:14:53 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: marie2

I buy the generic cards ie--American express or Visa for my kid to carry, so she has money on her when she's out. I don't think they charge a monthly non-use fee, but what pisses me off is that damn activation fee...I think it's around 5 or 6 bucks, but whatever.

I also find that ITunes cards, and cards for Claire's or the Gap make for very easy birthday gifts for teenagers.

Other than that, I don't use them much.

maybe traveller checks would be cheaper. I got a amer ex gift card. it was pretty...but poof, it was not good for much. the fees ...whatever I did online that held a fee but did not release it.

(in reply to marie2)

Post #: 14

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 5:39:36 AM

DesFIP

Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline

Depends on the store. A Barnes & Noble gift card has no expiration date. Since I don't know what book someone might be wanting, I do give these out to the readers. I give out Gamestop or Best Buy gift cards to the gamers in the family. I don't know if they want the new Guitar Hero or not.

But giving to adults is different than to youngins.

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Post #: 15

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 5:55:55 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

"ya have to"

Take those words totally out of context and have a good look.

That is what I am talking about, you don't have to.

T

...this is where I am such a loose cannon. I don't have to do ANYTHING. Thank god that (age 45) when I was in early school the teachers told us that one should question the system, question everything around us. Ask questions..."look it up".

A buddy named Jeff thinks the Universities will save us. No. They wont. The Amish will save us. The Amish actually toil to create a food item, which a human can eat. Where as many degree graduates only know how to perpetuate the failing grid. No other paradigm. All knowledge is that which is already decided to be, worthy of being...knowledge. What this does it is stifles new actual advances in the excelling of the human condition. So kids pay dearly by agreeing to a lifetime of student loan debt for a job that has been shipped to the lowest runt in tim buc too.

It may sound laughable... but bankers don't make things happen. Farmers do. With no adequate food supply, nothing else is relevant.

Jeff has a degree, (coughs) in horticulture. He plants nothing. He criticizing his cousin for being a bill board poster(with a college degree), the cousin tho does a service others will pay for. (ie food on the table), on even tho Jeff is a writer, I still am waiting for anything worth a read that he has wrote.

The folly is to assume man knows everything that can ever be known. (it isnt rocket science) (tho I think those guys eat food a farmer growed...)

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 16

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 9:43:45 AM

came4U

Posts: 3572
Joined: 1/23/2007
From: London, Ontario
Status: offline

quote:

i do give gift cards to ********. They are generally used before New Years.

lol true, lucky they last till Boxing Day. I've never had any with expiration dates on them though.

(in reply to pahunkboy)

Post #: 17

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 12:39:56 PM

YourhandMyAss

Posts: 5516
Joined: 6/25/2006
From: Sacramento
Status: offline

Well see like my mom, even though her brothers and sisters never call and never come over unless it's for the food being offered, she'll still go out and buy them gifts, And I agree you don't have to, but she thinks just because they're family* pretty much in name only and never in action* that she should buy for them.

Me, I only buy for my parents and my bf, I don't spend money on gifts for people who're basically using you for what you offer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

"ya have to"

Take those words totally out of context and have a good look.

That is what I am talking about, you don't have to.

T

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 18

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 12:42:29 PM

YourhandMyAss

Posts: 5516
Joined: 6/25/2006
From: Sacramento
Status: offline

If someone hated me and everything I had ever given them, I certainly would not "have to" shop for them. Nor would I. Unless of course maybe it'd jeopardize my life or something, I see no point in spending money on people who hate me.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aileen1968

Gift cards are perfect for those people in your life that hate you and everything you've ever bought for them in the past, but you still have to buy a gift for.
I just drove almost an hour and a half to a mall to get a mall gift card for this particular person. Unbelievably I get parking close to the entrance. Even more unbelievably, the customere service is right fucking there when I walk in with no line. So I go up and tell them that I need two gift cards and they ask if it will be credit or debit. I say neither as I only brought in cash. They then proceed to tell me that they don't accept cash. WTF is up with that???? It was unbelievable. I then had to go walk down stairs and down another wing to the one card shop in the mall that sells gift cards...thinking it will be a mall one. I get there to find out that they only sell Amex ones which I wound up buying with the lovely added surcharge that Amex adds on. So my $150 purchase cost me $160 (bastards) and I wound up getting something that I could have gotten at Shoprite, ten minutes from my house. Go figure. All for someone who hates me. Then the hour and a half drive home durning rush hour.
Yeah...gift cards are great....

(in reply to Aileen1968)

Post #: 19

RE: Gift cards/certificates - 12/16/2008 1:11:01 PM

sub4hire

Posts: 6775
Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline

We buy a lot of gift cards since moving to the middle of nowhere. Not being around all 16 kids on a daily basis anymore. Well, kids change.
You've got birthdays, graduations and Christmas to contend to. When you ask what they want...you generally don't get an answer.
While I will make a point of getting nothing with the kids on my side of the family I cannot do that on Doug's. So essentially we never get any answers.
Gift cards work.
Money does not expire in many states. Though you do have the issue of the store going out of business anymore.

I find gift cards impersonal though. I don't like them. I still have some in my wallet that were given to me in excess of ten years ago.
If you can't be bothered to care anything about what I want. I don't want you to bother at all.

As you can see I see both sides of the argument for and against gift cards. In some instances they are good. Buy the Visa gift cards. You usually have to pay a small fee up front. Though you can use it anywhere. While a store usually does not charge any fee for the card itself.

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Post #: 20

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