Prepaid Mastercard/ Visa Gift Cards

[securespark]

Hello!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

I have got a few of these for Christmas and they are a complete pain because no retailers seem to accept them and when you put Mastercard or Visa in as the option to pay online, it always asks for a name, which of course these cards do not have.

These cards do not have a chip but they do have a magnetic strip.
How do you spend these bloody things??!

 

[Doggit]

You go in the shop I'm afraid.

 

[Buck_68]

Use them for your food shop (I’ve done this) then “transfer” the money you would have spent on food to buy a gift for yourself.

 

[^woody^]

Send them to me, I'll deal with them for you.

 

[tony1851]

Never fails to puzzle me as to why people don't just give money as presents rather than pre-paid cards or gift/store cards.
Bank notes can be spent anywhere,on anything, I understand.

 

[Brigadier]

Never fails to puzzle me as to why people don't just give money as presents rather than pre-paid cards or gift/store cards.
Bank notes can be spent anywhere,on anything, I understand.

Because the women buy the gifts, and cash appears thoughtless.

 

[Keithmac]

Better cash than a load of pointless/ useless sh1te you didn't want in the 1st place..

 

[securespark]

OK. Trial and error has brought me partial success.

I have discovered that you can add these cards to a PayPal account. Then you have to make that card the one to be drawn from when you buy using PP.

Finally, you have to be careful not to buy something worth more than the value of the balance on the card. This is a bit of a pain. First you have to find something for sale for less, then you are stuck with a small balance on the card.

I have not yet discovered how to spend these small balances yet. Ideally, it would be great if you could set up the cards so that when the balance of one is reduced to zero by a purchase, the remainder is taken from the next and so on.

 

[noseall]

Sounds shoite to me.

 

[noseall]

it would be great if you could set up the cards so that when the balance of one is reduced to zero by a purchase, the remainder is taken from the next and so on.

Some clever folks gather up unspent cards, add them together and give them away as gifts knowing the full amount is unlikely to be spent.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Some gift cards have a time limit. Talking to a customer before Christmas ,she works at M&S, she said their cards have a 2 year limit, but if you use it , the time limit reverts to 2 years from the date you use it.

 

[Doggit]

Some only last 6 months.

 

[JohnD]

Are you able to top up the cards?

I'm thinking, say you had £7.65 left on it and wanted to buy something for £20, you could top it up by £12.35

Or maybe you could put the £12.35 as a credit on your Paypal account.

 

[securespark]

Or maybe you could put the £12.35 as a credit on your Paypal account.

Tell me more!

 

[securespark]

Just had a look on my PP a/c, seems you van only top-up using a bank account.