Purchasing gift certificates in the Covid era?

[spikerS]

I am trying to gauge other's thoughts on this topic in the world we are living in right now.

With Covid hitting many industries really hard, stores closing up shop overnight with no notice, and even bigger companies like the Bay going to court to fight to remain open when landlords are trying to shutter them for not paying rent, are you still comfortable buying gift certificates or gift cards?

Personally, I am on the side of no. I am not buying any gift cards or certificates right now, no matter what company it is. If I am buying something, I am leaving the store with something, end of story. Things are so volatile right now that I don't trust that the store or company will be around in 2 weeks or 2 months to be able to redeem it, and I don't really wanna kiss that money good-bye. I don't think there are a whole lot of consumer protections that are applicable to situations like this, so, .... yeah. I will still support a business, but, I am going to the store and getting the product. I am not even buying online and shipping with the exception of Amazon.

Just curious what everyone else is doing, and their thoughts on the matter?

[ExtraSlow]

Gift certificates have an absurdly high rate of not being used already, but yes, this year there's a MUCH higher risk of the company going out of business before you use them as well.

Unless it's a small local business and you are buying it specifically to help them survive this mess, and understand the risk that they still may not. Then yeah, don't buy any GC's this year.

[pheoxs]

It's less fun but I'd buy a generic prepaid card that can be used anywhere. Or at least one of the restaurant cards that can be used at 20 different restaurants.

If you want to make it more meaningful you could research a suggestion of where to use it. Like hey I want to treat you do a spa day at XYZ business so here got you this 100$ prepaid debit card. That way they can either use it there or use it on more essential things if they are in a financial pinch. So either way it still helps them.

[Thaco]

i have recently bought some mall cards, and discounted cards for bigger stores, gap, sport chek, ubereats, no problem buying from a big place, they arent going anywhere, and if they do, they'll give plenty of opportunity to use up gift cards.

[spikerS]

It's less fun but I'd buy a generic prepaid card that can be used anywhere. Or at least one of the restaurant cards that can be used at 20 different restaurants.

If you want to make it more meaningful you could research a suggestion of where to use it. Like hey I want to treat you do a spa day at XYZ business so here got you this 100$ prepaid debit card. That way they can either use it there or use it on more essential things if they are in a financial pinch. So either way it still helps them.

That's a pretty good idea, the big prepaid companies like visa or mastercard isn't going to be going anywhere, and it accomplishes the same thing in the end.

[killramos]

Can’t go wrong with Amazon.

[Team_Mclaren]

Can’t go wrong with Amazon.

werd, I'd say utilization for Amazon GC is much higher since it's auto deposit.