Asklemmy

43945 readers

603 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

184

Why on gods green earth do people buy gift cards? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

117 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Utterly stupid little things, its money that is less useful in EVERY situation and expires! Even at the store where you can use it, what do you do with the money that's leftover but too little to spend? Especially at expensive places, you could very well end up with 10-20$ OF YOUR OWN MONEY, that you can't even use!

I was given a dunkin giftcard for volunteering at a repair cafe. First of all I'm on a diet but secondly I stuffed it in my wallet so quickly I completely forgot about it. The day I remember and go through the trouble of attending such a wretched establishment I was told it expired after I finished giving my order! After such bother to try to use this cursed thing I refuse to return fruitless from my endeavors so I paid with my own cash.

It is now, sulking into my hashbrowns and Boston cream do I realize I am now poorer, fatter and fucking miserable. FUCK gift cards.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The only reason I buy them is cash back / rewards credit cards. Say I know I want to spend $225 on something on amazon? I whip out my visa dividends, MC world elite or Amex Cobalt at the grocery store for 3-5% cash back or rewards card while purchasing groceries, and add a custom amount $200 gift card to the tally. So now I got $10 back on it in rewards that I can spend elsewhere. The CC issuer, Amazon and the grocery store are none the wiser.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Just an FYI, the grocery store doesn't know (or care).

But both Amazon and the CC company absolutely know, they just don't care, it's factored into their profit margins.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

...why not just use the CC on Amazon?

[–] Dempf 2 points 1 month ago

Could be they want to hit a certain category (groceries) on the card. Maybe they are also trying to meet minimum spend on a new card.

For those who shop a lot on Amazon, the Chase Amazon Visa is probably worth it since it always gets 5-6%, but if you don't have that card, using gift cards to hit a grocery category seems reasonable. Slightly more hassle, but at least you can split purchases on Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

As the other commenter mentioned, only cards I have give grocery cash back / rewards at 5% rate and that doesn't apply to Amazon purchases (which is 1%). AMEX Cobalt for example is a paid card, C$12/mo, but with grocery and amazon gift card purchases the rewards pay for the monthly fee.