Gift Cards should be banned

neilmcl

FaceHead said:

1. There is no significant benefit to consumers of gift cards existing.
2. There is clear consumer harm caused by gift cards existing (consider shops going bankrupt, losing them, unable to use in certain places, expiry, inactivity charges)
3. The harm occurs to the recipient, not the purchaser, so a regulator should intervene as there is no opportunity for the harmed to choose differently. 

Gift cards seem to exist to give companies free borrowing, without any benefit to consumers. Basically they exploit a social awkwardness in gifting cash for corporate gain. Rarely are they sold below face value. 

It may be outside of the remit of the FCA to regulate this area, in which case I'd propose to directly petition parliament. 

Thoughts? 

Yes, as you're not asking about a particular consumer rights issue you should get this moved to somewhere more appropriate, ie, Praise, Vents & Warnings.

MattMattMattUK

I would not buy them, I do not think it makes sense to buy them, however I would not ban them and remove other people's choice. There are lots of other things which have a far more negative impact on people and society, we can not ban everything just because we personally do not like or agree with it.

mattyprice4004

I’d rather ban people too stupid to understand gift card expiry dates - that’d solve a lot of the problem  

JamoLew

Spank said:

JamoLew said:

Cash is almost useless nowadays and I bet a good % of cash given to under 16s is immediately transformed into some sort of gift card associated to some electronic device/service

I think it likely that they will in fact become more common rather than less

Please provide your extensive list of shops that don't take cash anymore.

There any many ways to digitally transfer money to people some of those can be used in-store as well as online and don't restrict people to spending it in one shop.

Lots of shops currently prefer not to take cash and request card payments only

Also its a bit difficult to buy anything online with a fistful of cash

JamoLew

unholyangel said:

JamoLew said:

Cash is almost useless nowadays and I bet a good % of cash given to under 16s is immediately transformed into some sort of gift card associated to some electronic device/service

I think it likely that they will in fact become more common rather than less

How can cash both be useless and, in the same sentence, be used to buy gift cards?

Plus the "some sort of gift card" you refer to...the card is an option for people who don't want to/can't use online payment options. 

In the case of the ones I know of, the "store credit" offered by those cards doesn't expire. Which, I believe, is the OPs complaint about traditional gift cards. 

I would guess that more people are using electronic payment rather than cash payment now and the gap is growing wider

Maybe useless wasn't the correct term, but I think you are being pedantic and know exactly my point

The OP hasn't specified a particular type of card

SuperHan

Spank said:

Please provide your extensive list of shops that don't take cash anymore.

Right now, every single none essential retailer doesn't take cash. Because the only option is to shop online or click and collect, making cash payment very difficult. 

I've got cash in the house that is essentially useless at the moment, and I'm not willing a trip to the bank to pay it in when it's not strictly necessary.

I personally prefer gift cards as a gift, cash get subsumed into daily life expenditure, if I get a gift card I'm usually forced into spending it on more of a treat for myself. I make sure I spend them quickly after receiving them though to reduce risk of them becoming valueless.

George_Michael

SuperHan said:

Spank said:

Please provide your extensive list of shops that don't take cash anymore.

Right now, every single none essential retailer doesn't take cash. Because the only option is to shop online or click and collect, making cash payment very difficult. 

I've got cash in the house that is essentially useless at the moment, and I'm not willing a trip to the bank to pay it in when it's not strictly necessary.

Well, I've got a wallet full of cash and have had no problem spending it over the past few weeks and despite the rules on non essential retailers opening, there seems to be an awful lot of places that are actually open as normal.
The only two places I've been that wouldn't accept it were B&Q and the vet I had to take my do to.

unholyangel

JamoLew said:

unholyangel said:

JamoLew said:

Cash is almost useless nowadays and I bet a good % of cash given to under 16s is immediately transformed into some sort of gift card associated to some electronic device/service

I think it likely that they will in fact become more common rather than less

How can cash both be useless and, in the same sentence, be used to buy gift cards?

Plus the "some sort of gift card" you refer to...the card is an option for people who don't want to/can't use online payment options. 

In the case of the ones I know of, the "store credit" offered by those cards doesn't expire. Which, I believe, is the OPs complaint about traditional gift cards. 

I would guess that more people are using electronic payment rather than cash payment now and the gap is growing wider

Maybe useless wasn't the correct term, but I think you are being pedantic and know exactly my point

The OP hasn't specified a particular type of card

But the OP didn't specify physical notes/coins. My reading of their post was that gift cards versus money (whether digital or physical) is for the benefit of the retailer and at the detriment of the consumer. 

You can use money to buy any gift card you want, but you can't use a gift card to buy money. Money can be used at any retailer, gift cards can't. Pay by gift card and you may find your statutory rights lessened and being resigned to accepting a replacement gift card, while had you paid money then you'd be able to go to another retailer.

Money has no expiry date although it does lose value due to inflation, but that would be the same for gift card balances, if they were not "expired" after 12 months. The reason for the expiry is purely in the interest of the retailer and their investors - so they can write those liabilities off/escape them. 

I'm not saying gift cards never have any use, just that their existence is (as the OP said) for the benefit of the retailer, not their customer. Their customer would be better off with money. 

Geodark

davidmcn said:

FaceHead said:

Rarely are they sold below face value. 

Think you're wrong there, they're a large part of the employee benefit sites and so on (selling at say 5-10% below the face value), or come with other freebies attached. You can probably find current examples elsewhere on this site. 

Exactly this - I get them through work - on redoing my kitchen and have saved an absolute fortune using gift cards - 8% discounted rate through work.

Torry_Quine

I'm not a fan of getting gift cards. I never know what to buy and often get something at the last minute.