Visa gift cards - please explain something

[Snoozan]

I bought my DS a Visa gift card for Christmas so he'd have to spend it on himself(he usually deposits my checks into the general household account) and then realized I'm not even sure how he uses it. Does it have a # on it that looks like a credit card #? With a pin code like a credit card?

 

[LJSquishy]

Nowadays a lot of the Visa gift cards can be registered so he can create a pin number and use it like a debit card. He has to keep track of exactly how much money is left on it though. If there is $3.85 left on the card, and he tries to make a purchase for $4.50, it will not go through. He will have to tell the cashier to run the card for $3.85 and pay the remaining balance with another card or cash.

When using it online, he enters it in just like a credit card. The downside to using it online is that his purchase cannot exceed the value of the card. So, he can't make an online purchase for $100 if he only has a $50 gift card. He can't enter in a secondary form of payment.

 

[scard192]

Nowadays a lot of the Visa gift cards can be registered so he can create a pin number and use it like a debit card. He has to keep track of exactly how much money is left on it though. If there is $3.85 left on the card, and he tries to make a purchase for $4.50, it will not go through. He will have to tell the cashier to run the card for $3.85 and pay the remaining balance with another card or cash.

When using it online, he enters it in just like a credit card. The downside to using it online is that his purchase cannot exceed the value of the card. So, he can't make an online purchase for $100 if he only has a $50 gift card. He can't enter in a secondary form of payment.

my company gives Visa gift cards for the holidays. Like pp the said the first year I had trouble using the last of the $ until I figured out that the cashier needs to know exactly how much to run it for. For some reason I had trouble trying to use it at Walmart. And they don't work at restaurants because of the way they run the card.

 

[Green Tea]

Some online stores will let you say charge this card X amount and the other card X amount (Apple.com) but otherwise it works like the PP noted

 

[nyrebecca]

You want to read the cards package to see if there are terms. We had bought a few $200 gift cards to use with Disney for paying off our room reservation. I called and gave her the first card # and it kept declining for $200. Turns out the card puts a % hold , meaning she was only allowed to charge $180 for me off each card that day. I then had to wait 3 days for it to clear and call back and use the remaining $20 off of each card.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I once tried to use a Visa Gift Card for more than one purchase and got to be a hassle because I didn't know exactly how much was left on it. Now when I get one, I use it all on one purchase. If one of my boys gets one, I will buy it from them for cash and then use it to buy groceries. It's a lot easier to just burn it all at once and let the boys spend the cash at their leisure.