We are right in the middle of the holiday season, and for many of you out there who are like me and tend to leave gift shopping until the very last minute, it’s getting down to crunch time. Many of our friends and family members can be very difficult to find a perfect gift for, which is why many of us end up buying gift cards. The problem with gift cards, though, is that many of them are have secret hidden fees, expire on a certain date if they go unused, or are country specific, which makes them terrible gifts for any of our family or friends living abroad. When gift card recipients don’t use their cards, companies never return the money and rake in an enormous amount of money each year, such as Best Buy’s estimated $43 million dollars in 2006 alone.
To avoid the issue of companies unfairly benefitting from unused gift cards, we have instilled a policy that guarantees that if the recipient of a gift does not redeem the gift within 10 days, we will return the money to the person who purchased the gift. This way, no gift goes unused, and it encourages gift recipients to get to our site and start using our unbeatable service as soon as they can.
Some of the most popular gift cards, including Amazon and iTunes, can only be used in the country that they were purchased, even though they are both web-based services. This means, of course, that both of these cards are not an option for a gift to friends or family abroad. Popular bank gift cards through companies like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express can be used abroad, but users will almost always be charged with hidden “foreign currency conversion fees,” and are subject to exchange rates that the card company decides upon. For example, if you use your Visa gift card to purchase something while abroad, Visa gets to choose the currency exchange rates from a range of rates that the country is currently reporting, so chances are they will chose the highest rate, making you spend more than what the item is worth just because you are abroad. These bank cards are not free either, as purchasers generally have to pay about $3-$9 on top of the amount they put on the card.
Even Skype, a successful company with tons of resources, doesn’t compare to Stanacard when it comes to gifting. Skype’s gift cards are nearly impossible to find on the site, and when you do find them, you find that they come along with an expiration date of just 90 days, and can only be purchased in four different currencies.
Is there any way to avoid all these negative sides of gift cards? Yes. With Stanacard gift, you’ll have absolutely no hidden fees, expiration dates, or country restrictions.
Have you had any bad experiences with certain gift cards that you want to warn people about? If so, please share them in our comments section, or let us know what you think about our gifting program.
By @StanaMark
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