When it comes to gift giving it can be quite difficult to find the perfect gift. Most people enjoy giving gifts almost as much as they do receiving them, and tend to put a lot of thought into the purchasing of gifts. Sometimes though it is almost impossible to find a gift that would be suitable. This could be for a number of reasons, perhaps you don't know the person well enough to choose a gift that they would truly enjoy, or perhaps the person has all the latest gizmos and gadgets, or has quite discerning tastes.
For whatever the reason sometimes it is better to give a gift card and let the receiver choose a gift that they really want or need. This is where gift cards come in handy. You purchase a gift card and load it with a pre-determined amount and the receiver of the gift can go and buy whatever they want to the value of the gift card.
You would think that this would make the perfect gift, but does it? Did you know that gift cards can expire? They normally do not have dates on them so this can be unexpected if you do not use your gift card right away. They are also pretty useless if the company goes into administration and most companies will not honour gift cards in the case of administration. This was highlighted in the closure of Comet. Comet gift cards were not honoured. Sometimes if a company goes into administration and a buyer is found the new owners may be willing to honour these gift cards, but I would think that this would be totally up to the new owner.
Normally you cannot cash in a gift card if you wanted to buy something from a different store, so remember that the recipient of your gift card may not be able to purchase an item that they wanted with the gift card that you gave them. I would therefore suggest giving a gift card from a retailer that offers a wide arrange of goods, if you were to go down the route of giving a gift card.
Also remember that retailers make huge profits from gift cards. Mainly because it is very rare that the entire amount of the gift card will be used for a purchase and as you cannot cash them in, generally they are forgotten about and the difference is a very easy profit for the retailer. Over the years I have received quite a few gift cards and for whatever reason have only used one of them. Not that I don't appreciate the gift, I do, however with all good intentions of going to the store and purchasing products that I want, I invariably forget and end up never using the gift card at all. Retailers really had an easy profit with gift cards that I received. My own fault I know, I should have used them, but the likelihood of me using the full amount was slim anyway, and the retailers would have still had easy profits.
Personally I would not give gift cards as gifts. Yes they are probably more classy than putting a few banknotes in a card, but my theory is that the receiver of my gift (if cash in card) can go to any store they choose, buy something they want and still have change if the item was less than the amount gifted. They certainly would not have change if it was a gift card. OK, theoretically they would, but it would not be cash in hand it would be on the gift card that they will inevitably forget about.
So do gift cards really make the best gifts when weighing up the pros and cons. I am sure that many would say they were, but I am a miser and believe retailers make enough money without raking off the leftovers from gift cards, or not even honouring them at all. This is my humble opinion though and I would love to hear everyone's opinions on gift cards - Both good and bad.
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