Give them an envelope full of cash with a note that says the utility is greatest when the receiver rather than The Giver decides where the money is spent
Gift cards are just the dumb version of gifting someone money though.
Giftcards trade a shit ton of convenience and usability for the appearance (only in the mind of the gifter) of having put any amount of thought into it.
Skip the middle men fees and inconveniences and just gift people wads of cash or electronically.
gift cards suck. don’t decide for me where to spend the money, don’t give me something that will eventually become invalid if i forget to use it (i probably will). they’re such a scam.
i pledged years ago to never buy those again. always cash instead, or wire transfer money.
Fine. Pack of socks instead.
Nice socks are an underrated gift.
Emphasis on nice. I would much rather receive a single pair of nice merino wool socks or something with a neat design than a 10 pack of Walmart white crew socks.
I got 60 pairs of dickies socks for a birthday years ago. Still rocking them and I never have to worry about mismatched socks.
Did wonders for my mild “ocd”
Depends, are they thigh highs :3
Of course. I would never get someone clothes unless I know it’s in their style.
I would accept a gift of thigh highs and some skirts >w<
I… what? This is so incredibly far from where I stand on the matter that I can’t relate at all. Give me the gift card, please. I’ve never received a gift card that I didn’t use within a week.
Are you spending them on things you were already going to buy, or are you buying frivolous stuff?
Would you rather receive $100 worth of laundry detergent or a $100 gift card at the Lego Store (or whatever your favorite frivolous store is)?
Unironically the laundry detergent. Legos are cool for the 30 seconds you’re building them, then they just take up space. Plus they’re just the perfect item for me to feel absolutely terrible about giving away/throwing away.
I actually think gift cards can be just fine.
Someone just moved and need to get furniture? I don’t want to decide what lamp you get yourself. Giftcard!
Or by using my self as an example; I never buy my self fancy chocolates, incense, scented candles or such, but I like having them. If I got a gift card for a store of that kind I would be forced to spend it there and thereby forced to make my self happy.
Of course a gift card at Amazon or whatever would not be very fun. There is zero thought behind that.
why limit what someone can buy. Just give them cash.
Because this is part of gift? “Don’t give me present, cash will do. No, I don’t want any proof you care, just money, please.”
Damn ya all soulless
giftcards are a more controlling form of cash. It is not more thoughtful. Genuinely a shittier gift where you lock down where someone can spend their money.
When you can give a real gift to someone, do that. When the choice is between cash or a gift card, then never choose a gift card.
By that logic, giving someone a physical thing is the most controlling. @Hanke made the example of getting a gift card for a lamp or furniture store instead of picking a lamp. Isn’t the card less controlling in that vein?
People wrote around what it is. It’s a gift. I can get you a new lamp after hearing you need one that you won’t like or I can find a close, fancy shop with lamps, get gift card and give it to you.
Cash always has more important things to get spent on. Gift card are just this - gifts. Shitty ones, like for whole mall, are sad. Specific ones are great, they give you choice while clearly showing thought and care.
Hell. Both cash and non-specific gift cards aren’t even gifts imo, there’s no care nor thought behind them.
If it’s a gift (rather than helping me out because I’m struggling to pay my bills), I’d rather have a gift card. Give me cash and it’ll just merge with the rest of my money and go towards bills. Give me a gift card and I’ll spend it on actual treats.
A previous employer gave me over £100 in Love2Shop gift cards (generic high street gift card) and I used them to buy a ton of art supplies that I wouldn’t have bought if I’d just been given cash (which probably would have just gone straight into my savings).
That reminds me, my last employer gave me £150 in cash when he had to make me redundant and it’s still gathering dust as an emergency cash fund. So yeah, if he gave me a gift card, I’d have had to use it to buy myself something.
You are getting a 40# case of oranges apples or onions from me, solely based on how much each cost at the time.
Gift cards are a raw cash bump for stores perpetrated by idiots upon society. I’m rarely preachy irl, but gift cards always set me off. You’re just giving stores money for no reason. Why are you donating to Amazon? Bestbuy doesn’t need your money. I don’t even like massages.
You know what’s better than a gift card? Cash or making plans to just veg out for a couple of hours together. I will gut you like a fucking fish if you hand me a gift card. I will end your bloodline if you force me to call a phone line and register an account to access fucking money as a gift. You’ve inconvenienced us both. Just place the bills in an envelope and draw a smiley face on the front before I have to invent a hate crime
Edit: Per another comment, this seems to differ by country, and might be an impossible “win” for the US, where I haven’t seen expiring ones in ages.
When is the last time you’ve used a gift card? I haven’t had to fuck with making an account for one in over a decade. I’m also seeing other people in the comments talk about expiration, which is another thing I haven’t had any of them due in quite a number of years (pretty sure some laws changed so they can’t anymore).
I’d totally prefer cash, but it’s not some horrible affront to the natural order of things anymore.
Outside of those psuedo-debit card monstrosities. I still see those with extra fees, registration, and expiration (technically maintenance fees down to a zero balance). Those are extra dumb as fuck. Just give me the cash.
A bit extreme, but true. I fucking hate gift cards. ‘oh but this one is branded visa and you can use it anywhere’ well I want to deposit it in my bank account but they won’t let me do that directly noooo so I have to send you the money you just gave me in this moronic format through fucking PayPal which will take a 3% cut so that you can send it back to me with less value so I can finally transfer it to my bank account. Plus whatever shitty fee that you paid to get this garbage piece of plastic.
It took years of me saying ‘just CASH’ to family members, and eventually they started giving my gift cards, to which I recited a variation of this message, and the last few years they fiiiiiiinally have been just writing me checks.
It took like 15 years but I get all my gift, you save ‘card fees’, no bullshit middle-man, everyone wins.
Cut the middleman, gift me cash
One year, I got fifty gold colored US dollar coins and put them in a drawstring bag [the kind Robin Hood would carry] I gave it to my buddy for his birthday.
It was great watching him play with the money like he was a pirate, or a Roman emperor, or Conan the Barbarian.
Meanwhile my relatives just give 紅包 (Red Envelope)
But then the receipient also give them the red envelope in the same amount…
so what the fuck was the point lmao 🤣
Ang paoooooooooo It’s been years I’ve gotten one, I miss it.
Here, pal:🧧
🤗
I imagine that this works out to give typically younger people more money, so the point is in pretending that this isn’t what the scheme is.
More like: Your aunt give you and your brother red envelopes that adds to total of $100, then your mom gives the aunts kids red envelopes that add up to $100.
So $100 went to kids on both sides.
Then I go home and mom tells me: “Hey 乖仔 (my sweet lovely son) give me the money 我幫你保管 (I’ll safeguard it for you, “for college”!) 🤗”
So like… wtf lmao
Idk what happens on the other side tho… my cousins have Wiis in their house and Nintendo DS, I never had those as a kid. :(
God damn privilaged af, the counsins won the US-Born Birthright Citizenship + Rich Parents lottery, I hate them. (They hated me first, they excluded me because I didn’t know English initially)
Am I the only one who genuinely just wants good food and good company? Like, I have expensive wants, and cheap needs, I don’t like just getting money cause it’ll just go towards my cheap needs, my boss gave us a $50 gift card and I just used it on groceries. If I get anything, I would rather it be handmade, but good company is more than enough for me
You’re not alone. My family went no gifts this year and we just went out to eat and stayed home with some decent whiskey and beer.
I often prefer a well thought out gift card over money. It forces me to use that money on something. If I get cash then it just goes into my bank and becomes one with my spending and bills money. Yes, cash is the better form of money, but if you want me to actually spend the money on something, then a gift card is the way to go.
The compromise is to do cash that’s earmarked for something. My family will give me an envelope and say “this is for bitcoins” or “reddit gold”. And then I tell them “okay…” And then just buy whatever I want.
this is for reddit gold
Thanks for the gold,
strangermom!My mom gave me reddit gold once when I broke my arms.
you gave your Reddit username to your mom? That’s brave
but then you could invest it and it’ll become a gift that keeps on giving.
Yeah no thanks. Cash doesn’t expire, it also doesn’t make me use a split payment because all of my gift cards have some but not enough, I’ll just put it with the rest of my cash.
It does slowly wither away due to inflation.
This is why I started gifting various debts, they actually increase in value over time!
I don’t like gift cards or money because it tends to end up being circular - so not a gift at all, just $50 that keep making the rounds.
The group might as well spend that money on a wandering birthday scepter. Much better and you can hit people with it.
You could totally hit somebody with a money bag too.
Sometimes scepters come in the strangest of forms!
I love it when people think of money when they think of a present for me.
Gift cards are a scam, especially the ones that expire. These companies make shit ton of money from gift cards that never get used. Not to mention the free interest they make on that money.
Giving any kind of gift from the heart is a nice gesture. That being said, I always preferred giving cash to gifts cards since it doesn’t restrict the recipient to one store.
Although if you know their specific interests, gift cards are a good way to encourage someone to get themselves a treat they wanted but otherwise wouldn’t have splurged on, or a good gift for those who want to shop online without having to enter payment information.
With cash, there’s the pressure to spend it on essential things like groceries, rent, transportation…if my friends and family need any of those things, I would gladly help them pay for it without obligation, but it’s not what I would choose as a gift for special occasions. Not talking about generic gift cards, but I might give them a coupon for a salon I know they frequent, or a craft or music supply store where they go for equipment.
i absolutely get the underlying intention, but the bad feeling of having missed the deadline and ending up with a voided present is just awful
Most gift cards I know of have no expiration dates. Gift certificates, something from a more barbaric age, on the other hand…
No expiration date? In which country? I’m in Australia, I’ve worked in a couple retail stores and it’s usually a 3 year expiry for gift cards. You also have the generic visa gift cards you can purchase at supermarkets, same 3 years.
Yeah. That used to be the case in the US, but it’s illegal now.
Largely because, instead of expiring,after a year or so the card would charge a monthly maintenance fee until it was empty. This was deemed unreasonable and declared problematic.
Now that’s something I’ve never seen before. I agree, it is absolutely unreasonable. I find it interesting that instead of just removing the maintenance fee you instead remove the expiry as well as the fee. I don’t understand the logic but, it is what it is I guess
Believe it or not, in the US I haven’t seen a gift card with an expiration in probably a decade, outside of the generic visa ones draining to zero over time due to maintenance fees.
They can still do an expiration date, but it has to be 5 years out.
If you’re taking 5 years to use a gift card, that’s on you.
arent gifts supposed to be something someone wouldnt normally buy but would enjoy?
unless they have shown interest in getting money as gifts, it feels like the most boring gift
If they thought I could use money, they should have just given me money so I can decide where to spend it.
Giving you money would be thoughtful. Involving a company is thoughtless and without reason.
A gift card can definitely be thoughtful, especially if it’s to a place that aligns with their hobby.
Like, I’m into hiking and backpacking, and I’m very particular about my gear. I don’t really want someone to waste their money getting me something for my hobby that’s A) junk gear because they don’t know it’s junk (happens a lot with knives), B) something I already have, or C) something that I have no use for. I don’t expect anyone to actually keep up with what gear I already have, even my wife.
With an REI gift card I can pick out something I might be hesitant to splurge on which will actually benefit me. Plus, I don’t have to pretend to be excited about a present that will sit on a shelf for a year before going to Goodwill.
With cash, the money is going to go towards paying bills, which definitely isn’t the intention of the gift.
The person getting the gift card has to put thought into where to get it from; cash is way more thoughtless.
