Anyone notice that USPS first class mail ($1.99) is no longer an available shipping option for a single $500 Visa card as it was yesterday? The minimum charge for shipping and handling is now $7.45 (Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation).

I called giftcards.com to inquire about the matter. The CSR was not aware of any change in this regard. She initially suggested that it could be a problem with my browser, but I told her that I had tried Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. She then indicated that it must be a problem on their end and said that she would open a technical support ticket.

I don't expect anyone to get back to me, as I believe that giftcards.com has decided to eliminate their $1.99 shipping option for a single $500 Visa card.

Together with the recent increase in fees from $4.95 per card to $6.95 per card and the absence of free shipping codes, this makes giftcards.com much less attractive than it previously was. I expect sales to MSers to plummet significantly as a result of these changes.

By the way, the shipping calculator on giftcards.com still shows a $1.99 option for first class mail. However, that option is no longer available at checkout.

If they are going so far to kick us away, do they still expect any legit normal customer would pay 7.45+6.95=14.50 fee for a gift card?

I asked the CSR if giftcards.com had instituted a new policy that limits the shipping options based on the denomination of the gift card. She indicated that wasn't the case, but it appears that it is. I just did a mock order a $100 VGC and found that the $1.99 shipping option is available. It looks like the threshold is $250. Cards with a denomination of $249.99 or less can be shipped fo $1.99. Cards with a denomination of $250-$500 cost $7.45 to ship.

Anyone having problems using these cards at Kate?

I loaded 1 $500 gc.com card to kate earlier this week with no problems.

I tried to load twice with two different gift cards Kate kept asking for pin and again and again and again and it did not let me load

Loaded some this afternoon to Kate, no problems.

It is not per card apparently. Yesterday I bought 4 (x $500) and shipping was $7.45. Wasn't it $1.99 per card before? If so, this is cheaper.

its $1.99 for 1st class for one card, if you buy multiple they can ship together if you want and the shipping for priority is 7.45, i buy 5 at a time so its 1.49 each, they also have a limit $2,500 per transaction so one of the cards has to be less than $500, to make the total with the shipping less than $2,500.

The 1.99 fee is no longer available for $500 vgcs.

I went to a different walmart today, was able to load at the Costumer Service desk.

Will wait for special offers / discounts once they realize that their biz slows down b/c of recent hike in card & s&h fees

yes, $7.45 is a shipping charge PER order. So, if you order 4-5 cards (and assume that there is no free shipping coupons anymore), use G-points, then your total charge is the ~ same as in grocery/drug stores.

oh, that's a bit better... thought s&h were $7.45/card

It comes to around $3.45 per $500 accounting for fees, USPS priority, GPoints and the fact that your last card is the highest it can be to stay under the $2500 cap.