Anyone want to do a gift card challenge?

[dr.girlfriend]

My son is 13, and for pretty much the past six years when he got a gift card for his birthday we just shoved it in his piggy bank.  I went through it the other day and there are like six Target gift cards that say "never expire" but I don't think they even use that numbering system anymore.  I'm going to try to go exchange them for a current, valid gift card and use it for his back to school clothes.  Anyone else want to try to use up their old gift cards and report back?

The oldest gift card is I own a paper gift certificate from The Gap from like 1994 when I drove my friend to his med school interview!  I went a good 10 years without using it and then was embarrassed to try to use it after that.  :-)

[jewel]

My husband has a paper gift certificate for 2 rounds of golf at a local course that he won at his high school sober grad night, in 1999. The course is still around, but I’m pretty sure he’d be too embarrassed to try.

He also has paper bonds that are over 40 years old and doing nothing now. He needs to turn them in!!

[trissie18]

We just forfeited ~$30 on two rebate gift cards that expired 7/31/22. DH was supposed to spend them over the weekend and forgot.  

[jinkies]

trissie18 thank you for the reminder-- we have hundreds in rebate money that can only be used at Verizon. But (unsurprisingly?) Verizon makes it extremely difficult to use them to pay bills, which is the only thing we would need them for. I try to use them when I remember, but there is still a LOT of money on them. If they expire after a year or something, then we only have a month or two left to use them.

I just used my stash of Homegoods gift cards last night to buy a desk chair. They were only a few years old though. Holding on to things from 1999 is impressive!

I've started to give cash for kids bdays rather than GCs because I find GCs to be kind of a hassle.

[spindle92]

I found paper gift cards from Mcdonald's in my drawer last week.
No clue how old they are but I bet if I try to use them, the employee will have no clue what to do with them.

[simpsongal]

This is why I give cash for birthdays. I HATE the number of random $20-50 gift cards we have. It's a chore to use and you always end up spending more.

I need to do this challenge....I have a few random ones rolling around.

[plutosmoon]

Good idea! I'm usually pretty good about spending these, but I found a small stash of old gift cards when I moved last year. I think the one of the oldest was a crate and barrel gift card from 2006, from my wedding. It has around $40 left on it. It was originally around $400, the balance lasted longer than my marriage. I'm sure if ex has known he would have had his lawyer ask for half. I successfully checked the balance online last year, so I'm guessing it will still work. The problem is finding an item I need at crate and barrel for $40 or less.

I still have a card for a free breakfast at Bickfords, I won said card in 1994 and never used it. It has no expiration date, I hang onto in hopes that someday I will be near what I believe is the only remaining bickfords at breakfast time.

[chpmnk1015]

My daughter and I just found 2 partial for local ice cream places... I think once expired ugg

[dcn]

H’s aunt always sends visa gift cards for the kids, and while it’s very nice of her they are so annoying to use! I usually just buy Amazon gift cards and load those to my account when I’m ordering things for them.

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 3, 2022 13:37:35 GMT -5 dcn said:

H’s aunt always sends visa gift cards for the kids, and while it’s very nice of her they are so annoying to use! I usually just buy Amazon gift cards and load those to my account when I’m ordering things for them.

Oh, that's a great idea!  I never thought of that.

I've also heard to use these for "free" services that require a credit card number to sign up for.  My son really wants to learn to write sheet music and all of the reviews for the most popular program say "they say it's a one-time fee but then they continue to charge your credit card yearly..."  I have one of these that I'm going to try to use for that purpose.

[waverly]

We are pretty current. I added Amazon ones to my account and just spending it down. MIL gave me $200 to a restaurant near her house but we are only in the area maybe 4 times a year (5 hour drive from us). She happened to book that place for DH’s birthday so we got to use that up.

I used up Summer Reading free ice cream coupons.

We do have a 25% off an activity coupon but not sure if that really qualifies because I still have to pay the other 75%.

So other than that, I just have a $30 restaurant card left.

DH got $100 from Comcast and used that one up.

The good thing about the kid ones is they nag me to go to Target so they’ve used those up.

We always get these wine club things from Hello Fresh and never use them. I kind of assumed it was kind of a scam but maybe I should actually look into them.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2022 13:37:35 GMT -5 dcn said:

H’s aunt always sends visa gift cards for the kids, and while it’s very nice of her they are so annoying to use! I usually just buy Amazon gift cards and load those to my account when I’m ordering things for them.

It’s also great when you have a small amount left over on a Visa or MC gift card…like $1.87 that you can’t spend on anything. I just get $1.87 Amazon gift card using the Visa GC ad payment.

[puppylove64]

Mine isn’t old, but heartbreaking. Dh and I won free round trip airfare to Europe in 2019. Well we tried to use them in summer 2020 and ended up canceling. I thought they extended the date on them like they were every other ecredits, but I just realized that no….. they are gone 😭

[gt7301b]

I'm up for this.   We have tons of random gift cards that we get from races and my DH's school.  I have one for a local running store that I am positive we didn't use, but is actually a store credit and can't check the history, so they suggested I email the store and figure out what happened.

[noodleoo]

puppylove64, ughhh... that sucks...

We got a $200 restaurant gift card for our wedding. It was downtown and it took a little while before we had a chance to use it. When I looked it up to make a reservation, found out it had closed. I was very bummed about that.

I'm pretty sure I have a $60 GC for Victoria's Secret in my wallet that's at least 5 years old. I don't know what to buy from there!

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 4, 2022 9:47:18 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

puppylove64 , ughhh... that sucks...

I'm pretty sure I have a $60 GC for Victoria's Secret in my wallet that's at least 5 years old. I don't know what to buy from there!

They have cute hoodies in the $50 range!  Never actually gotten one from there, but I'm a fan of cute hoodies.  :-)

[ellipses84]

I have quite a few that are 6+ years old but they are all very random. I feel like if I try to spend them I’ll spend gas money and end up buying more than they are worth, so not MM. There’s probably some older visa gift cards for rebates that are a PITA to use. I think there’s an HEB card I need to mail to someone on another state because we don’t have HEB where we live now.

[madringal]

Anyone else hate using Target gift cards bc you can't get the 5% cash back like you do with your Red card. I feel like I am overpaying!

[dr.girlfriend]

Update:

I went through all my gift cards to get a sense of what I have. A few of them expired ... um, in 2008, so I threw those out. I have a few recent restaurant ones, a BUNCH for movies (AMC and Regal and one Fandango, is that even still a thing?) that I am going to make a concerted effort to try to use up or give away as we potentially go back to seeing movies in the theater, and one for the LEGO store that I am going to try to give away. Then I went to Target today and used up the four gift cards I had from there! Turns out they were all active, I was just probably entering the wrong number online.

[dr.girlfriend]

Second update: I just chatted with a Crate and Barrel rep who confirmed I have $36.10 left on a gift card last used in 2008. :-)

ETA:  And, I just spent that one.  Probably overpriced, and I'm mad I have to pay shipping, but I got a pretty fake flower arrangement for a $15 net cost to me.  plutosmoon There are a bunch of items that ship free, including glassware, kitchenware, bedding, and pillows, but nothing I really wanted.  If you need a few wine glasses or something that might be a good deal though!



If I was at all a wine person I would have bought this ... $40 and ships free.

[dr.girlfriend]

I also have an "American Express Gift Cheque" that looks like a paper check. Anyone know what you do with these?

ETA:  Apparently I can switch it out for cash at the local branch of my bank.  Adding something else to my to-do list!

[simpsongal]

Aug 4, 2022 5:46:22 GMT -5 puppylove64 said:

Mine isn’t old, but heartbreaking. Dh and I won free round trip airfare to Europe in 2019. Well we tried to use them in summer 2020 and ended up canceling. I thought they extended the date on them like they were every other ecredits, but I just realized that no….. they are gone 😭

that’s terrible. Not as bad but we had a $250 restaurant gc given Christmas 2019. Of course we didn’t get to use it and I felt bad trying to after everything restaurants went through w Covid.

[icedcoffee]

Aug 4, 2022 14:28:13 GMT -5 madringal said:

Anyone else hate using Target gift cards bc you can't get the 5% cash back like you do with your Red card. I feel like I am overpaying!

Yes—even though I bought them for 10% off plus a 5% cash back from Discover. LOL

[mommin]

Interestingly, I'm sitting at my computer checking gift card balances for my son right now. So far I've found three empty ones that he just felt like holding on to, I guess. His birthday was Sunday and he got a bunch of fast food gift cards to add to his collection. !6th birthday and fast food gift cards go hand in hand. I don't have many gift cards but I will gladly make him join a challenge so he stops needing my money.

[dr.girlfriend]

Antithetical to the nature of the challenge but it was a planned purchase...I just bought a new $2k laptop and credited the Apple gift card in my stash towards it. A whopping $8.66 was on it! :-D

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 4, 2022 5:46:22 GMT -5 puppylove64 said:

Mine isn’t old, but heartbreaking. Dh and I won free round trip airfare to Europe in 2019. Well we tried to use them in summer 2020 and ended up canceling. I thought they extended the date on them like they were every other ecredits, but I just realized that no….. they are gone 😭

Oh no!  Any chance you can call if you haven't already and see if they'll extend it?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Somewhat related...a few weeks ago I went into a Dunkin Donuts to buy donuts for a swim meet snack bar donation and tried to pay with a few old gift cards I had in my wallet. They weren't super old, I'd say within the past 3 years or so, and one had a receipt taped to it that said it had $5 left on it. The cashier tried all of them, and said none of them worked and they were all empty. I had her try them again because I was pretty sure they weren't empty. I could see maybe keeping one empty one by accident, but not multiples, especially not one with a receipt taped to it saying it had $5 left on it, so she tried again, and again was like, yeah, these are empty. So I paid for my donuts, but she was like, do you want me to throw these out for you? And I said no and put them back in my wallet. The next week I was getting donuts again, but I purposefully drove to the Dunkin Donuts a little further away and went in and was like, can you check if there is anything on these cards for me? before I even ordered, and lo and behold, all 3 cards had money on them, and the one with the receipt did in fact have $5 on it. So that 1st cashier just didn't know how to use gift cards.

I try to keep gift cards to somewhere I know I'm going to go and spend money at soon in my wallet in front of my most used card until I use it (so like when I get the $5/$10 Target promo cards, those go there so I use them next time, although with any fast food cards my kids get), and then other cards go in a special change purse I keep in my purse. When we don't know where to order from for dinner, I always check the change purse first to see if we have any gift cards to inspire us, so luckily we don't usually keep any for too long.

But I do have a $5 gift card I got as part of a gift basket I won many years ago to some random store called Today's Tiffany at this upscale mall near us. I laughed so hard when I got it. I don't think you can buy anything from that store for less than $100, and the stuff in there was not my style, so I could not imagine wanting to drop the extra $ just to use the $5 gift card.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Aug 4, 2022 14:28:13 GMT -5 madringal said:

Anyone else hate using Target gift cards bc you can't get the 5% cash back like you do with your Red card. I feel like I am overpaying!

I don't mind using the $5 or $10 promo gift cards that I get when shopping because then I still use my red card for the rest of my order (I grocery shop at Target so it's always a big order).  But whenever they have the deal to buy gift cards for 10% off or whatever it is, I only buy them as gifts for others because I know I would be annoyed to use a large amount Target gc!

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 7, 2022 17:01:21 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

But I do have a $5 gift card I got as part of a gift basket I won many years ago to some random store called Today's Tiffany at this upscale mall near us. I laughed so hard when I got it. I don't think you can buy anything from that store for less than $100, and the stuff in there was not my style, so I could not imagine wanting to drop the extra $ just to use the $5 gift card.

If you're ever in the area you should try to sneak it on a shelf with "free to a good home" on it!  :-D

[ssmjlm]

I have one of those "happy restaurants" card that isn't a gift card in reality because the restaurants have to charge it like a credit card. So it's a complete pain to use, but I finally called and wrote the balance on there, so next time I go into Panera I'm going to have them split the purchase and finally use up this dang card.

I have a less than $5 left on a gift cert to a local restaurant by our beach house. I bought it during Covid because I felt bad. But we went once and unfortunately didn't use the whole amount. And we all really dislike the restaurant, it has the weirdest hours, only does pre-order take-out, etc. So I don't know if I'll ever use up the last little bit.