Most people think of "holidays" when there is a word about "Gift Cards," but little do we know the difference these can make in our daily shopping or purchases. No doubt, these are one of the best gifts for your close ones, but are they best only during the holidays? In our opinion, not really. Gift cards come with a lot of benefits and advantages. If you are still unaware of them, here are the "8" reasons you should buy or use a gift card and their advantages.
8 Advantages of Using Gift Card - This Not Only For the Holiday Season
If you are a shopaholic, it is natural that you are spending money in cash or relying on your credit card to do the work for you. But gift vouchers or cards have been in the shopping industry for more than 20 years, and not many people know how these can make shopping and budgeting easier for themselves.
Shopping addicts think, let the credit card do the job, but in reality, it only takes a lot from you. It is where you can use gift cards, to help you budget your monthly expense for shopping and are a lot safer than credit cards.
But why spend money on gift cards when you can swipe the plastic credit cards to experience shopping? Well, here are your "8" reasons.
1. One of the Best Gifts for Close Ones
Choosing gifts is tedious, especially when choosing one for young teens or friends or family. Of course, during holidays but also on other occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, St. Patrick's day, or any other joyful event. It is when gift cards come in handy.
Gift cards give freedom to the receiver to buy gifts of their choice. So, you don't have to hurdle and hunt several gift stores around your block to buy that one perfect gift; instead, you can let the receiver choose a gift of their own choice and bring a smile to their face.
Moreover, popular gift cards do not have an expiry date, so if the receiver does not want to spend it soon, they can always save it and redeem it later. This makes presenting gift cards one of the most desirable choices for your dearest people.
Most people misunderstand that gift cards are limited to a product or store (both offline and online); however, it is not the case. Most popular gift cards, such as the Amazon gift cards, allow you to purchase among millions of products on its website and thousands of other partner websites. So, your dear kin can buy something of their choice.
If you do not want to gift a single-store gift card, you can always get a credit-type gift card. If you are unaware of credit-type gift cards, these are the ones on which you can load money and can be used on any platform that allows credit-based gift card options. MasterCard and Visa are popular credit-type gift cards where the money is preloaded and needs activation; once the card is activated, the receiver can spend them on different platforms to buy something of their own choice.
Indeed, gift cards are one of the best presents.
2. Discounted Benefits
Gift cards are one of the great options for getting discounts and offers on your favorite products. Usually, you might have noticed sellers giving up to 5-10% discounts on products when using credit cards. Likewise, sellers also give similar discounts for the selected types of gift cards.
You can find such gift cards during holiday seasons when brands and companies want you to avail their newest and trending products. However, a few such gift cards are available for the entire year, making them among exceptional choices for discounted shopping.
Unlike the regular gift cards, most of the discounted ones usually come with an expiry date or validity. You might also find a few terms and conditions employed by the gift card companies, but when these are followed, gift cards become one of the best options for shopping at discounts.
3. Controlled Spending
Managing monthly budgets and wisely spending money is now more crucial than ever. If you want financial independence, it is essential to cut off the unnecessary items from your shopping cart that marketers intelligently make you buy. The most wicked culprit in this situation is the plastic money or credit card, which never makes you realize how much you are spending, but you can always cut down and control spending with gift cards.
With gift cards? Strange right? Let's see how you can do that.
If you wish to control unnecessary expenditures, the first thing to do is add a credit network-based gift card to your bag. Gift cards that are credit network-based allow you to preload money which can be used to create a budget spending for a particular use, say, buying groceries at the nearest departmental stores. Once you have it, replace your credit card with a specific gift card to spend only a particular amount of money.
As there is a limited amount of money for every use, you cannot make more expenses and ultimately cut down on unnecessary purchases. Moreover, these gift cards can be reloaded for the next shopping when you have utilized all your money under budget and have enough for the next time.
Moreover, specific stores such as clothing, departmental stores, home depot, and many more have their own gift cards. So, you can buy those and replace the money in your bag with these to have controlled spending each time you visit such stores. These also give you discounts as an additional benefit which is a super saving on your budget.
4. When you Want to Ditch Cash
Spending money on cash or credit card purchases often leads to guilt, but it is not wrong to treat yourself. When you have done all the hard work and deserve a treat for yourself, you can buy a gift card to appreciate it by spending them on your favorite coffee or food or buying products that make you feel good.
Unlikely, most people find themselves guilty while spending cash but gift cards turn out to be the best gift for yourself.
Ditching cash is also one of the best things to do when you have planned your day at your favorite store where products are tempting, but you have a limited budget. Replacing your cash with gift cards to such stores helps you manage your temptations to get better financials for the rest of the month.
5. They Never Expire
Most commonly, something like discount coupons and vouchers is only valid for a certain period, after which they no longer account. But this is not the case with gift cards making them more dependable and desirable to gift others or have a few for personal use.
There are a few advantages of having gift cards that never expire; firstly, these are the best choices when you don't want to spend one for a certain occasion and save it for later use. So, if you are gifting it to a close one, they don't have to buy anything soon even when they don't want to. Instead, they can save it and redeem it when needed.
Secondly, gift cards that don't come with an expiry date are best to save and use when there is an emergency fund request. Having money on your credit card can quickly wave off, and there is no controlled spending, but when you pay upfront money on gift cards and save them, you can later redeem them to pay for your daily needs from departmental stores or something from the home depot. Gift cards that don't come with an expiry date are the best to pull such financial tricks.
6. Too Many to Choose Among
One of the best things about gift cards is there are too many options to choose from, making them more desirable. There are different types of gift cards for different kinds of occasions.
Here are popular types of gift cards,
- Single-store gift cards
- Family-store gift cards
- Multi-store gift cards
- Credit network-based gift cards
Single-store gift cards are not as flexible as credit network-based or multi-store gift cards but are a good option for buying items from a specific merchant and not spending it on anything else. These gift cards do not require any activation money and can only be used with a single merchant. For example, the iTunes gift card can only be used with iTunes and not any other merchants.
Family-store gift cards are helpful when you wish to buy from several merchants of the same parent company. So, if you have this gift card or present it to someone, it can be redeemed either at the merchant or their related businesses. For example, a Gap gift card can be used to buy at several related companies such as Banana Republic, Athleta, and Gap.
Multi-store gift cards are the best among gift cards as these are not limited to a merchant or related companies like single-store and family-store gift cards. Here, you can buy among thousands of other brands and companies that accept the gift card and choose where you wish to spend your money. For example, if you buy an Amazon gift card, you can buy among millions of products from the Amazon website. But you can also purchase products from thousands of other partners such as Apple, Starbucks, and many more. It makes choosing to spend gift cards more convenient and full of freedom.
The last type of gift card is a credit network-based gift card; these gift cards come with preloaded money and charge you anywhere from $3 to $7 for activating the card. The best thing about these gift cards is that you can use them in those stores that accept credit cards, such as Visa or MasterCard. So, there is no limitation or bound to rely on specific companies to choose or buy anything you like with your gift card. For example, MasterCard gift cards can be found on any departmental or home depot and can be easily activated and used to buy from any other store that accepts credit or debit cards.
7. Safer than the Credit/Debit Cards
Gift cards are much safer than credit or debit cards in the view of users but not retailers. The catch here is that a gift card helps you save money on the card and the money that is unavailable or does not exist on the card.
When we use credit or debit cards and lose them, it becomes easier for crooks to drain out all the money from our bank accounts. If it is a debit card, only the limited "savings" money is lost, but with credit cards, crooks can shop till the limit is reached. Now, that's a lot of money.
On the contrary, gift cards store a limited amount of money, and most of them are confined to a certain merchant or used with family-store merchants. So, it is pretty safe to have them without the fear of losing debt money like credit cards.
8. Ease in Both Online and Offline Shopping
As the world has gone digital, using gift cards has become more comfortable and convenient. You don't have to carry them anymore in your bags as they fit well on your smartphones in their digital form. You can still prefer the physical form of the gift cards and use them to shop both online and offline. But e-gift cards have solved certain problems with physical gift cards.
Unlike physical gift cards, you don't lose these as they are always on your email or the merchant app. Moreover, physical gift cards with no expiry date are often torn, lost, or forgotten where you have kept them. This is not the case with e-gift cards, these are always safe on your smartphones, and you don't have to search your entire house when you need them.
Both physical and digital gift cards can be used to shop online and offline, making them more comfortable over discount vouchers that can only be redeemed at the merchant stores.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are multi-store gift cards better than family-store gift cards?
Multi-store gift cards are one of the best choices for the receiver to have complete freedom on what products they wish to buy. However, family-store gift cards are limited only to the parent company and related businesses.
Are gift cards better than cash?
Gift cards, unlike cash, help you treat yourself without any guilt for all the hard work, and these are easier and more convenient to carry.
Do gift cards expire?
No, most gift cards do not come with an expiry date, so you can always save them for the good times.
Wrapping up: Advantages of Gift Cards
Gift cards do have many advantages over cash or plastic money, such as credit or debit cards. You can always find offers along with them and multiple options when choosing one, making them desirable gifts for others and, of course, for yourself. One thing is sure, gift cards are definitely not holiday specific and come with great deals to manage finances in day-to-day life while enjoying it.
How have gift cards helped you? Let us know all your stories and tips in the comment section.
