When Sarah and I were in Washington last month for a reception that my parents arranged for us. At the reception, some people gave us some wonderful gifts and we are extremely grateful. Now, we received 2 VISA Gift Cards and 1 American Express Gift Card. The people who gave us these are wonderful people and we like them a lot. We really do.
But please…if you are going to give gifts to people – DO NOT GIVE THESE Gift Cards – let me repeat, DO NOT give All-Access Visa Gift Cards as gifts. They are an incredible pain in the ass. Now, the American Express card was actually not bad. But the problem with these cards is that you cannot use them unless you are purchasing something UNDER the limit of the card. For example, I have a $25 gift card. I go to Kroger and my groceries come to $50. I can’t use the card. I tried swiping it numerous times and the cashiers won’t accept it. The American Express card actually worked just fine so it’s okay. But the VISA Cards are a pain in the ass. It doesn’t sound like much of a pain – but try using the cards and you’ll see. Also, I called and asked the customer service agent, “So with my $25 gift card, if I buy something for like $21, that means I just lose the $4 unless I can use the card to buy something for $3.99?” She replied, “Yah, you’ll most likely just lose it.”
Lame.