Gift Cards
motorhead
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
Here's a question I've never seen asked before.
All the employees in my group received a $300 gift card from my employer for exceeding performance goals. I try to never use credit cards in the club, but I figured this is basically free money, so why not spend it. The card acts like a Pre-paid credit (not debit) card. I wanted to use it to buy time in a VIP room. The manager - whom I know - woukd not even try the card. She said it didn't have my name on it. I told her to just try and run the card. But she wouldn't even try.
I ended up using it Wal-Mart. They were quite happy to take it.
All the employees in my group received a $300 gift card from my employer for exceeding performance goals. I try to never use credit cards in the club, but I figured this is basically free money, so why not spend it. The card acts like a Pre-paid credit (not debit) card. I wanted to use it to buy time in a VIP room. The manager - whom I know - woukd not even try the card. She said it didn't have my name on it. I told her to just try and run the card. But she wouldn't even try.
I ended up using it Wal-Mart. They were quite happy to take it.
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18 comments
If you ever charge something on a credit card, and the charge doesn't show up, even as "pending", for a few days, it's because that party doesn't put such a hold on your card, and is depending on your ID and signature to guarantee payment.
I used a visa gift card at a strip club to buy food/drinks. Waitress also wrote my drivers license down on the receipt. I do know some clubs pre authorize a certain amount like $50 so if you try to buy a $5 drink with a $25 visa gift card it might get rejected.
Also those prepaid Visa cards get rejected by some porn sites but others accept them and you can fill it whatever for the name/address.
I know one kind also requires you to register the card on their website before letting you use it at the gas pump or online. Maybe if you had the card registered you could have told her to call visa to verify it belongs to you.
No gift cards. No end-of-year bonuses. No Christmas parties. No summer picnics.
Occasionally, when I sell a part of my company I may share part of the profit with those employees most helpful in generating the profit.
I never understood the concept really. Cash is the only way to go.
The cards will only work for "retail" purchases at "qualified" merchants. Mostly, that is a cost control measure. Merchants pay a fee for every card transaction, plus a % of the transaction, so your employers bank can sell the "single use, merchant only" card at face value and the card company (and the bank) still make a little money. But it is also a federally required security measure. This kind of card (not reloadable, restricted to purchases) is more difficult to use in the drug trade or laundering illegal profits. (Banks charge extra for cards that work better for drug lords!)
Don't you just hate it when you get free money and have to spend it for things you need instead of stuff you want? Makes me feel like a kid getting instructions about what I cannot buy with the $20 grandma sent me for Christmas! (that was years ago, $20 went a loooong way!)
Why do you think everybody and their brother sells gift cards now? Hell they'll often sell them to you at a discount because they know X percentage is never going to get used.
Shoot it used to be that after a certain period of inactivity the amount on the cards started to decrease on a per month basis. I think they've gone away from that but it's still shocking.
No gift cards. No end-of-year bonuses. No Christmas parties. No summer picnics."
I always smile when a new BMW shows up in the car lot. We pay the same way!