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In a way, a gift card is kind of the opposite of a credit card (lemmy.ca)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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A credit card is a card to say "these people will pay you and I'll owe them money"

With a gift card, you're choosing items that have already been paid for, the company already got the money and you're just picking out what you want to buy with it

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[–] 61 points 10 months ago (1 child)

A gift card is an interest-free loan to the vendor.

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    • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Gift cards say, “I could have just given you cash, but I wasn’t considerate enough to also give the freedom to buy what you want. I have therefore restricted you to store of my choosing, for if I cared at all about you, I’d actually have been able to buy a suitable gift myself.”

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Gift cards are great for family members who have addiction issues 🤷‍♀️

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    They're also great for the people in your life who you know are too practical to buy themselves something nice with gifted cash

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    can confirm. every time i get a gift card I'm as annoyed that I can't use it for rent as I am excited to be "forced" to get myself a goddamn fancy coffee or whatever

    that being said when I was truly desperate in college I did used to sell them online using various exchanges. i usually got $0.70 on the dollar which wasn't terrible

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    • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Money first, stuff later = gift card
    Stuff first, money later + extra money = credit card

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    If you can pay your statement balance on time, then there is no “+ extra money”.

    That is often much easier said than done.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    It's easy, my bank automatically pays off my cc monthly from my current account. Isn't it standard?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I guess it depends on what you call it. I’ve seen creditors that have autopay features that can draft it from your bank accounts each month. Usually those are for your minimum payment, which usually stretch out your balance for up to 30 years (to maximize interest charges).

    I personally don’t like autopay. It’s an old habit from back when I would overdraft my checking on the regular because I always spent more than I made. Nowadays, I think it’s because I like the responsibility/control of paying my bills manually, and on my terms.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    You mean less money right? Most credit cards give you 1-2% back.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    If you pay your bills on time, you can take advantage of that. You can think of it as a tiny discount, but the credit card company thinks of you as dead weight.

    However, those companies also have clever mathematicians who have figured out how much to give you back and how much interest to demand from the people who don’t pay their bills on time. The house always wins.

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    • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I guess it's easier to write off if you're employer as you can get an invoice for giftcard. Also sometimes shops will offer you a gift card uf you're returning something outside of the customary time period of 30 days, but it's better than not being able to return.

    What's vile is gift cards with expiry date which I cant believe is legal, even in the EU!

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