By that logic, giving someone a physical thing is the most controlling. @Hanke made the example of getting a gift card for a lamp or furniture store instead of picking a lamp. Isn't the card less controlling in that vein?

People wrote around what it is. It's a gift. I can get you a new lamp after hearing you need one that you won't like or I can find a close, fancy shop with lamps, get gift card and give it to you.

Cash always has more important things to get spent on. Gift card are just this - gifts. Shitty ones, like for whole mall, are sad. Specific ones are great, they give you choice while clearly showing thought and care.

Hell. Both cash and non-specific gift cards aren't even gifts imo, there's no care nor thought behind them.

If it's a gift (rather than helping me out because I'm struggling to pay my bills), I'd rather have a gift card. Give me cash and it'll just merge with the rest of my money and go towards bills. Give me a gift card and I'll spend it on actual treats.

A previous employer gave me over £100 in Love2Shop gift cards (generic high street gift card) and I used them to buy a ton of art supplies that I wouldn't have bought if I'd just been given cash (which probably would have just gone straight into my savings).

That reminds me, my last employer gave me £150 in cash when he had to make me redundant and it's still gathering dust as an emergency cash fund. So yeah, if he gave me a gift card, I'd have had to use it to buy myself something.