Can You Buy Gift Cards With a Credit Card? All Your Questions Answered

Gift cards. The popular “go-to” gift for coworkers, classmates, peers, friends, and family. Gift vouchers themselves have been around since the early 1900s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that they really began to pick up steam with popular retailers and fast food chains selling them. Nowadays you can find racks of gift cards at your local grocery store or pharmacy. There’s also eGift cards which have become the next step in the gift card evolution as the rise of technology and digital payment grows. But like anything, there are probably a few questions regarding gift cards you might have like Why Can’t You Buy Gift Cards With Gift Cards? Or can you buy gift cards with a credit card? Well, luckily we’ve come to answer these questions and more:

• How do gift cards work?
• What is an open loop and closed loop gift card?
• Can you buy gift cards with a credit card?
• Do gift cards expire?
• What is a Visa Gift Card?
• What is an eGift card?
• Where can I find the best eGift cards online?
• Can I swap one gift card for another gift card?
• How do I and can I convert gift cards to cash?

There is a place where you can get e-gift cards from a wide number of national well known brands and even some local vendors known as GiftYa, but we will do a deep dive on that later in: “Where can I find the best eGift cards online?”

How do gift cards work?

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Now this may seem like a redundant or even dumb question, but we thought we’d cover what a gift card is and how they work before we get into more technical questions. And we thought we’d explain it best with an example:

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Person A 🧑‍🔧 the “mechanic” wants to buy a gift card for Person B 🧑‍🏫 the “teacher” – so the mechanic goes to Office Depot to buy an Office Depot gift card for the teacher and when the mechanic buys that gift card at Office Depot, the money they use goes directly to Office Depot then and there. The actual money itself has already been given to the business at the date of purchase. 

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The plastic gift card is “a physical representation of the dollar amount purchased stored in their database.” The money is read through the card by a magnetic strip, barcode, encoded chip, or serial number (every gift card is different). 

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There are also two different types of gift cards, the open loop and closed loop.

What is an open loop and closed loop gift card?

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“Open loop” and “closed loop” are two types of terminology used to describe two different kinds of gift cards. Let’s bring it back to our mechanic and teacher to help describe what makes each different:

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Person B 🧑‍🏫 the teacher wants to do something special now for person A 🧑‍🔧 the mechanic since they got them an Office Depot gift card. But one problem: they aren’t sure where to get them a gift card. There’s so many restaurants, stores, and retail options out there and they don’t want to get them a gift card to a place they won’t go to. So the teacher decides to get the mechanic an open loop card which is a gift card that can be used at any store so long as the registrar accepts it, like a Visa gift card. Visa gift cards can be used at many different businesses, leading to more open and spread out transactions.

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Originally person A 🧑‍🔧the mechanic bought person B 🧑‍🏫 the teacher a closed loop card when they bought them that Office Depot gift card. A closed loop card is one you can only use at one specific place like an Office Depot card can only be used at Office Depot, not Old Navy, while a Visa gift card can be used at both. 

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Can you buy gift cards with a credit card?

The short and quick answer is: yes, you can use a credit card to buy one or multiple gift cards. At most places both in store and online you’ll be able to use your credit card funds to pay for a gift card, however, you could potentially run into some trouble when trying to pay for it as some cashiers may decline that usage of payment due to potential scammers.

Now you may be thinking, “but I’m not scamming anyone? Why can’t I use my own credit card to pay for this gift card for someone?” And you would be right, it’s more so that the cashier is being protective of those who do steal other’s credit cards to buy gift cards. This isn’t super common and most employees will happily let you complete a purchase, but sometimes you might run into those who want to be extra cautious. If that’s the case, make sure you have cash or a debit card just in case.

Do gift cards expire?

If you want to buy someone a gift card or you have found an old gift card at the bottom of your bag that you remember getting a long time ago, you might be thinking: “huh, I wonder if this has expired? Wait, can gift cards expire?”

Gift cards can expire, but not for at least 5 years after it was bought.

We’ve looked into Why Do Gift Cards Expire? before as there is a lot of interesting information regarding the practice.

A federal law states that “a gift card cannot expire until at least five years from the date it was activated.” However, if you go to buy something and the registar says your gift card expired but it hasn’t been five years, you can get the original value of the card transferred over to another at zero cost.

The CARD Act (The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act) passed in 2009 explains the full details of expiration dates, along with inactivity and service fees that may be on their gift cards. Consumers need to state all this information publicly to potential customers so they can’t be tricked or swindled.

What is a Visa gift card?

We talked about Visa gift cards when going over what an open loop card is, but what is a Visa gift card? And if you liked the sound of buying a Visa gift card for someone, where can you get one for yourself?

Gift Card Granny, an online gift card store.

Buy A Visa Gift Card

Like we said above, Visa gift cards work like any other gift card except instead of being limited to that one place, you can use the gift card at any place that accepts Visa (which is most businesses in the country). That means you can go out to eat at your favorite restaurant, pay for your meal using your Visa gift card, then go shopping at DSW just like we described! As long as the store accepts Visa cards you’re good to go! With Gift Card Granny you can load up to $500 on the card and send it either to the person’s email or get it made as a plastic card that’s delivered via mail.

You can Purchase a Custom Visa Gift Card from Gift Card Granny here!

What is an eGift card?

Gift Card Granny’s custom Visa gift card is both a physical gift card and an eGift card (it just depends on how you want to buy it). Since online shopping is so prevalent, major businesses now have an option for people to buy and send an electronic gift card (eGift card) via text or email. Just like physical gift cards have that magnetic strip, barcode, encoded chip, or serial number- an eGift card will too. But instead of a cash register reading the code, the website will.

Usually to use the gift card, you’ll either create an account on the store’s website where you can add the gift card to your account so when you enter check out the value of the card will automatically be taken off the purchase total; or add the gift card number when you’re at check out.

There are some places online that only sell eGift cards, like GiftYa.

Where can I find the best eGift cards online?

We have the perfect pitch on why GiftYa is as well loved as it is:

GiftYa is an online distributor for thousands of eGift cards to restaurants, famous retailers, department stores, local businesses, online subscription services and shops, spas, hotels, airlines, and more. You can surprise a friend or loved one with a gift card whenever you feel like instantly thanks to GiftYa’s fast delivery system. All you have to do is go onto the website, pick a card they might like, choose an amount up to $250, customize it by adding a picture, video, and message, then decide whether you want to send it via text or email. 

Then once you have everything sorted you can specify whether you want to send the gift to the recipient immediately (only takes a few minutes for them to get the card through their email or text), or set up a future delivery date. The delivery date can be on their birthday, at a time when they’re at work and you want to surprise them in the middle of the day, or first thing in the morning. GiftYa makes gift card buying fun and easier than ever.

Can I swap one gift card for another gift card?

Besides in-person trades between family members and friends, you can’t go to the store with a $25 Dunkin’ gift card and try to swap it out with a $25 Target gift card. But GiftYa has a service that allows just that if you buy or have been sent a GiftYa gift card for a restaurant or store you don’t necessarily like.

When you first receive the gift card you will have the option to “swap for a different merchant.” There they can choose from any one of GiftYa’s thousands of vendors for one better suited to their liking. That way the gift will never go to waste and you or the recipient can spend the money on exactly what they want.

GiftYa also has a gift card built for choice and that’s:

GiftYa Select

Buy A GiftYa Select Gift Card

A GiftYa Select gift card is the gift card for our indecisive friends as with this gift card you can use it to select any merchant on GiftYa’s catalog and whatever money is on the card will then be for that place you pick. Basically the gifter has given the giftee the choice to choose the place instead of the gifter scrambling to pick a place the giftee might like.

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All you do is select the fun stuff, like how much money you want to give and the customization of the card itself and what it looks like when it’s sent over. The recipient will then be able to do all of these things with said GiftYa Select card:

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• Select a merchant of their choice
• Activate to a Visa, Mastercard or Amex
• Use as an eGift
• Get a Visa gift card mailed to them
• Transfer to their Zelle Account

This way it’s a win-win for both parties!

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You can Purchase a GiftYa Select Gift Card from GiftYa here!

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How do I and can I convert gift cards to cash?

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There are certain times in life that you don’t need a gift card, but you do need the cash that’s on said gift card. Luckily there are services that allow people with unused gift cards to get the money off that card and into their bank account.

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Sites like CardCash and Raise buy gift cards from almost any store where you can get cash back. Normally there’s a small fee that the site will take from the original value of the card but nothing more than a few dollars. So you can get cash back from an unwanted gift card through reputable sites. (Always make sure to check and see from reviews and other blogs to see if the sites are legit before giving your gift card’s information away).

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And if you have a Zelle account and an unwanted GiftYa gift card, GiftYa has an option for you to transfer those funds to your Zelle account. There will be an option to “Send to your bank account with Zelle” where a $3.99 processing fee will be taken from the card’s value so keep that in mind. But you will get the cash sent to your account almost immediately- (though in some cases it can take up to 24 hours).

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And there you have it! We’ve answered whether you can buy gift cards with a credit card, along with a few other gift card questions that may be relevant to your searches. Now’s the time to explore the world of eGift cards through GiftYa.

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