Gift cards often have hidden fees, including activation, shipping, service, and maintenance fees. Users may also be charged for checking their balance or replacing a lost card. To avoid fees, read the fine print and ask the seller questions.
Gift cards can be a great idea for the person who has everything, but they often come with hidden gift card fees that many people are unaware of. These cards are usually issued by a retail store, bank, or credit card company. When the buyer is purchasing a gift card, they should look for activation fees, shipping and handling fees, and user fees.
An activation fee is usually a small amount of money that is charged along with the monetary value of the card. This fee allows you to use the card. Sometimes the buyer will have to pay other gift card fees, such as shipping and handling or a service fee. A shipping and handling fee is extra money the buyer must pay in order for the company to ship the gift card to their home.
A service fee is similar to an activation fee. It’s another fee that the gift card company adds to activate the card. Some companies charge a service fee to activate the gift card over the phone or online.
Once the buyer gives the gift card to the person who will use it, that person may also have gift card fees. The card user may find that the value on the card must be spent within 30 days or may be charged a monthly maintenance fee for not using the value within the specified period of time. If the user needs to check the balance, there is often a phone number on the back of the card. Some companies will charge gift card fees for speaking with a customer service agent about the card balance.
If you ever lose the gift card, there may be a hidden fee to send the user a new replacement card. There are also gift card fees if the card expires before the full value is used. The company can reactivate or send a new card, but will charge a fee for doing so. Bank gift cards often allow cardholders to use the card at an ATM, but charge a hidden fee for this service.
It can be hard to avoid gift card fees. The best way to steer clear of these hidden fees is to carefully read the fine print and ask the seller questions about additional charges. Retail stores are less likely to have additional fees on their gift cards.
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