Is it just me, or does anyone else hate gift cards? Gift cards are like money, but not as good. The only difference between a gift of money and a gift card is that you can only spend a gift card in one place. Seems like a corporate scheme to me. They fool people into thinking that giving a gift card is somehow more personal than money. The basic process of buying a gift card is just turning your money that you can spend anywhere into money you can only spend at one store. When someone gives me a gift card, they are also giving a gift to whatever store they got it from; a sure sale! I do not understand why people would rather give someone money they can only spend in one place than money they can spend anywhere. Gift cards are not gifts, they are customer recruitment tools.
see i like either gift cards or money, better then gifts
because most of the time i am trying to save up for something more expensive, i’d rather just get money as a gift then a normal gift.
Now, on that note, when i am saving up for something at one time or another i would have probably mentioned it, and so if i DO get a gift card it’s usually to whatever place has the item i want
also, i like gift cards for convenience sake
i have a gift card in my wallet to someplace and i was really hungry at one point, but didn’t have any money because i got paid a day later then i thought, but oh ho ho, lucky me, i have this gift card that i have had for months and forgot about
so no, i don’t hate gift cards, but money is better, far better.
The problem is that people tend to see money as an insincere gift and by giving a gift card at least they show they have some idea of the interests of the receiver.
And yeah, it’s totally a corporate scheme. They wouldn’t do it unless it helped them make a profit, that just makes sense.
But if you are going to give ME a gift, make it money 
I must agree. My last two birthdays I got a gift voucher for the same store from the same person. It’s annoying to be tied down to using it in the one place even when you would prefer to shop elsewhere and in addition you often need to top it up by a pound or two to actually buy the item! 
I think it’s more fun to recieve gift cards, mostly because then the person atleast gave some thought in what you might want and not just tossed you some money.
money is definetly better because you can buy watever with it werevery and who cares if its insincere, most of the time the money comes in a birthday card or somthing anyway so it still has the sincerity.
Money is better than gift cards, for the reasons said above. You also have gift cards you can use in several stores, like a book voucher. I think they’re at least a bit better…
But gifts are the best in my opinion. I think it’s more personal. Also it’s nice to get something for someone even though it sometimes takes a long time for me to actually find something. Sometimes when someone wants money I even give a gift, because I like that better. When I buy a gift I tend to spend more money on the gift than if it was money (or giftcard)
If I would give someone a gift card I know for who and what, because she said that if she had the money she would buy everything in that particilar shop 
(but I would rather actually buy something in that shop, since she would like almost everything)
One of the best gifts I ever has gotten was actually something as “unpersonal” as a CD.
My mate and I had tried to fnid a CD, that we had heard, but we never could find it. We wrote wishlists (mainly for family really), and when he saw that CD on mine he was like, “hehe, if I find it first, I’ll keep it ”.
2 Months later it was under the tree 
On topic: I haven’t seen that way on the vouchers before, but youre right! I won’t buy em anymore !
<-Useful-----Less useful->
Money—Gift Cards—Gift
<-Impersonal—Personal->
See? They made it like that for balancing issues.
Personally, I don’t care that much. If it isn’t personal, it’s useful. And if it is personal, it’s not always less useful than money.
Gift Cards can be useful if you, for example are buying a birthday gift to someone, and this someone has been talking about buying a RC Airplane but you are not really good at this (What planes are good and what specifications it should have etc), then you can buy a gift card to a specific shop that sells RC Airplanes and maybe write a little something with it like “I know you’ve wanted to buy a radio controlled airplane - pick one” or something like that, it makes the whole thing just SOOOO much more personal.
People who give away money often (also) gives the impression of “Here you go, now may I leave?!”, add a greetings card and you’ve leveled up to “I didn’t really have time to buy something, so you do it” 
But a gift is the best, I think.
Well, for myself, I think they’re great. Gift cards are really good, because I am ridiculously frugal with my money. And so, when I receive a gift card, I can’t save the money on it, so I am forced to go out and buy something with it. That is why I love gift cards.
That’s one thing, but then we have the cards for entire shopping marts,.,.
well that’s true
because lets face it even if money is more practical it’s always fun to have something to open, or if you are the giver, to have the person open something.
and since it’s a gift and you get it technically for free 
it’s cool to be surprised even if you didn’t totally want it
off topic story: 
my parents were smart last christmas. I’m getting to the point where i really don’t care about getting gifts anymore, i actually think it’s more fun to GIVE gifts, but last year i said i just wanted one thing: Twilight Princess. Anyway about a week before christmas they were talking about it and that they couldn’t find it anywhere, so i was like “meh, oh well”
but thenwhen christmas came i actually got it, they had it all along, those sneaky lovable people. Yeah that’s my amusing off topic story 
Ahh, parents. 
It’s not even the issue of what is a more personal gift and whatnot, I was compelled to start this thread because I find it amazing how corporations have tricked us into thinking that it would be a good idea to turn our hard earned money into money we can only spend at their store.
What’s nice about some gift cards nowadays is that they are good at a handful of different stores. That gives you more variety. Still, I do think they are silly (I’d rather have money) and impersonal (actual gifts mean more and show you put some effort into it).
It’s an interesting spin you put on it, DayLight, and I can see your point. Sometimes, companies charge people who don’t use their gift cards in time, as well, so essentially, they’re taking even more of your money. That, and a gift card isn’t exactly redeemable, so technically, they already have made their sale. They just need to wait for the customer to purchase something. Or not, in which case they make free money with no purchase.
That being said, I prefer gift cards because they’re more personal. True, money can be spent elsewhere, but money can be pulled out of the wallet at any time and stuffed into an envelope. At least for the gift card, it requires some thought and movement, even if it is just picked up at the grocery store.
(That, and it’s funny to give/get gift cards to/from your friends saying, “For Grandpa”.)
Gift cards are a guarantee that you spend your money in one specific area, at a specific time. I think it’s a fine gift, because it gives you reasonable choices of gifts, and doesn’t allow your money to be wasted. Just money might be shoved in a bank account, or just accumulated and never used. Gifts are meant to be used.
When you give money you can just put it in an envelope but you can also actually do something with it. You can make a nice card and such. You can make it more personal, or at least as personal as a gift card. You can make a “gift card”. But since you do it yourself it is more personal than a gift card would be. Yet you can still spend the money in another shop. Or you could go with the person who is getting it to a shop to buy it together
Also what I don’t like about gift card is that you don’t get any change. So if the thing is 5 euro and you have a gift card from 10 euro, you “lost” 5 euro. (Therefore you will often buy something more…)
I know it’s been a while since something has been posted in here, but I felt the need to bring this back up. Because I want to point out a huge difference. Being in the United States for a couple of months now, I see why you have started this topic. I see how you can hate them Daylight because they are everywhere. I mean you can find them in the Netherlands, but not in every store. You can get it for about every shop here. You can get it for other shops in the grocery store. You can even get it for a restaurant. Now that’s the kind of gift certificate that I think is one of the better. I mean you can hardly give them the food itself, that is completely different. However, you could also make a card and write something on it that you will pay for it and the “let’s go together”. Sometimes this doesn’t work though, and a gift certificate could be nice for this occasions.
I even saw a commercial for one for McDonalds! Maaaan, come on, who would want a gift card for McDonalds?
There are also some gift cards that if you have a $50,- one, you spend $5,- and then you still have $45,- left with the same card. At least there is no money lost this way.
Owh and I don’t agree with this
Gifts can be useful and personal. If you buy a good gift it it is useful because that person would have bought about the same with the gift card.
I do tend to like gift cards more than before because I see some advantages over money. But still I would rather see the attitude of “Come let’s get something together and I’ll pay for it” with a nice card so that the other doesn’t think you didn’t have the time/forgot it/something along that.
As a teenager, I felt money was impersonal. But growing up and needing it, well…lol.
However, when I often visited the comic book store near me, they’d give me a 2 dollar gift voucher everytime I shopped. If I gave it back to them, they said, ah it’s ok, took the 2 dollars off and let me keep it for next time I was an avid customer though so lol…
I hate giftcards so much, Daylight, you pretty much covered everything i hate about them! I get them from my grandparents every christmas & birthday, either that or clothes 