Marriott Rewards - Redeeming Gift Cards in Foreign Countries - Residual Balance

This is a heads up for anyone using a gift card in a foreign country which necessitates a currency exchange. I used several US$ GCs on a recent trip to Europe. They were supposedly totally used. I asked to keep some of them and had photocopies of others...and decided to call the 800 number on the back and make sure they had been completely used. Guess what....NOT!!! 3 cards still had a credit of $2.50 each and 3 others had $3.71, $3.71, and $2.48. I will have to call Marriott to see how I can get the credit from the cards the hotel kept....but $17 is 17 bucks! I can use it. So....beware.

Update- Marriott Gift Cards will not do anything for cards that I do not have....said that would have to be handled with the hotel directly. So....beware....KEEP YOUR "USED" GIFT CARDS!!! Don't get ripped off like I did!

This sounds like good advice. I've never trusted them to "use up" the card, so I just tell them how much I want to charge the GC in the foreign currency (allowing for margin of error in the choice of the exchange rate). Then when I get home I use up the rest in U.S. dollars, where you can be sure of the exact amount.

Exactly.

Remember, the charge has to be converted to dollars, and that won't be done until the charge is processed, and then that dollar amount is deducted from the balance on your card. This means there is no way the hotel could tell you they used up the exact amount of your card, because they wouldn't know the exchange rate that applied at the moment the charge hit the processing point.

Here's (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12001935-post371.html) the process I use in such situations to ensure I can use the whole value of the card.

I remember being skeptical of this my first time using gift cards, I used them in Mexico and had the front desk clerk check the balance online, we kept taking more pesos off the cards until they had a zero balance. Nothing worse than having a bunch of gift cards with very small denominations on them. Good advice for those who didn't know. ^

Nothing worse than having a bunch of gift cards with very small denominations on them.

Actually, I was back in the States in mid-November, and had a handful (about seven or eight) of the "small remaining balance" cards I had accumulated over the last year, most with under $5 on them, that I tendered in partial payment for my stay. I also gave her a "spread sheet" showing the remaining balance on each. I apologized for the extra work, but the cashier just smiled and said that was quite all right. And I think she meant it.

Oh, I gave her the cards to apply to my bill the day before I checked out, so she could work them when she got around to it. They were all listed on the invoice when it was slid under my door the next day, and I have since checked the "gifts.com" site and all are now at zero balance.