Originally Posted by
alanisrox69
1. these gift cards are loss leader in a way for the store. Come in to buy fee free $200 gc and you may walk out with a $8.99 ream of paper that is 90% profit.
2. gift cards, the way we use them, is not the way 98% of regular people use them. They may use them once or twice spending most, but not all, of the gift card value. After some point in time (such as when the card expires) Blackhawk can "cash" in that money. If and when an end user comes to claim that money back, they're going to need receipts, the card, proof etc etc which they probably will never follow thru on. Blarkhawk just netted leftover unused balance. Gift cards in general are a huge money maker for the companies that put them out, solely based on un-used and/or lost cards. The company pockets that money. There was a study done that millions of dollars of purchased gift cards go unused. Some debit gift cards even have a service/dormant fee after 6 months of purchase. So, again, money in company pocket.
Im guilty of throwing away cards with money still left on it, I guess comes 2025 - 2027 Meta or whomever will simply add it to their profits, till then I guess they have to keep the card active on their computers taking up space
In some cases when the fee for a MO is <$1 I try to avoid using up the full amount and thusly money is left on the card 1 cent that is, when the fee is exactly $1 no money is left over. When its < $1 I do 1 MO where 1 cent is left the other MO usually leaves over 10 cents on a card and that I use at my local supermkt where it gets drained w/o a problem. From this past weds run I have just under $2 left and will be used on Sun