Shopping with gift cards

[Melissa]

I'm a little confused. My MIL just gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card. If I shop through the SR link and pay with the gift card, will I get SR credit? Some things seem to indicate no, and others yes.

[m 'n c]

It is truely just up to the merchant to whether they consider that a form of payment that is eligible for a % back. We really don't know until people report back if you can do it or not. Some merchants allow it without an issue other refuse to give payment to SR and others will do a % back on the cash in excess of the gift card.

I know that doesn't help much in your case but that might be why you are getting the yes and no answers.

[SunshineGirl]

You are actually right...sometimes it is no and sometimes yes! It totally depends on the merchant. You can always try it. They won't get mad at us for it. We just might not get the credit. But you can usually at least combine them with any kind of sale that we have going on.

[MdCaterer]

I DO NOT understand the reasoning behind the policy of not giving credit if the sale is paid for with a gift card. Gift cards are supposed to be the same as cash. They are purchased with cash. I think it is WRONG and discrimination. Eventually I am guessing they will have to honor credit on purchases paid for with gift cards, like they had to drop the fees that they were going to charge if you did not use them within a certain time frame.


I can understand not giving credit for purchasing a gift card because you could get double credit that way if you got credit for buying the gift card and then credit for paying with the gift card. But they need to honor one or the other common sense says that they should honor a sale that is paid for (regardless of payment type cash, check credit card or gift card).

Gift cards make the business a fair amount of profit from people who lose them and those who don't use them. It is unfair to penalize people for using them.

It's sort of like the old policy of charging more when a payment was made with a credit card because of the fees involved for accepting credit cards but that was outlawed as the price of doing business.

So, I imagine once someone gets mad enough to make an issue of it. They will have to give credit even if you pay with a gift card. :)

[fourfoxesinpa]

I just shopped at B&N two weeks ago and used a gift card and got SR credit. Hope that helps.

[bs4free]

I DO NOT understand the reasoning behind the policy of not giving credit if the sale is paid for with a gift card. Gift cards are supposed to be the same as cash. They are purchased with cash. I think it is WRONG and discrimination. Eventually I am guessing they will have to honor credit on purchases paid for with gift cards, like they had to drop the fees that they were going to charge if you did not use them within a certain time frame.


I can understand not giving credit for purchasing a gift card because you could get double credit that way if you got credit for buying the gift card and then credit for paying with the gift card. But they need to honor one or the other common sense says that they should honor a sale that is paid for (regardless of payment type cash, check credit card or gift card).

Gift cards make the business a fair amount of profit from people who lose them and those who don't use them. It is unfair to penalize people for using them.

It's sort of like the old policy of charging more when a payment was made with a credit card because of the fees involved for accepting credit cards but that was outlawed as the price of doing business.

So, I imagine once someone gets mad enough to make an issue of it. They will have to give credit even if you pay with a gift card. :)
This is just my opion, and may or may not be the case, but i think why some merchants are not paying incentives (credits) for purchase with gift cards is becuase while they want you to think they are the same as cash they are not, becuase with cash you can spend it any where a gift card can only be spent at the store or (group/chain) for which it was purchased!

The merchants are giving you an incentive (credits) to do business with them they want your cash. But if you have a gift card they know at some point that money is going to be spent with them or if not its all profit so why pay incentives on money that can only be spent with the merchant in the first place.

Thats just how i see what they are thinking and makes sense.

While i am glad that some merchants do incentives (credits) on gift card use and i would like them all, I would not like to rock the boat too far that they stop incentivising (giving credits) at all!

Again just my little opion.

[Magical JenK]

I just shopped at B&N two weeks ago and used a gift card and got SR credit. Hope that helps.

And I shopped at B&N 2 weeks ago as well, used a gift card & did NOT get credit yet....I'm sure that doesn't help, but I'm giving it another week or so before I give up all hope!! :0)

[fourfoxesinpa]

Well, maybe this will confuse things even more. The price of the book exceeded my gift card balance so I had to charge a couple of bucks on my credit card AND use the gift card. So, maybe that had something to do with it? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[cglaura]

This is just my opion, and may or may not be the case, but i think why some merchants are not paying incentives (credits) for purchase with gift cards is becuase while they want you to think they are the same as cash they are not, becuase with cash you can spend it any where a gift card can only be spent at the store or (group/chain) for which it was purchased!

The merchants are giving you an incentive (credits) to do business with them they want your cash. But if you have a gift card they know at some point that money is going to be spent with them or if not its all profit so why pay incentives on money that can only be spent with the merchant in the first place.

Thats just how i see what they are thinking and makes sense.

While i am glad that some merchants do incentives (credits) on gift card use and i would like them all, I would not like to rock the boat too far that they stop incentivising (giving credits) at all!

Again just my little opion.

That makes alot of sense. Really, the whole purpose of giving a % back is for them to pursuade us to shop there instead of a competitor. If you have a gift card then they already have you.

Also, it may be hard to know if full price was paid for a gift card. My grocery store sells multiple merchants, and often have them discounted $5 off if you buy a certain amount of things. Like, buy $100 worth of groceries, get $5 off a Gap gift card.

I just used a Land's End gift card I rec'd for my birthday, so I'm waiting to see if they allow the credits. :)

[MdCaterer]

This is just my opion, and may or may not be the case, but i think why some merchants are not paying incentives (credits) for purchase with gift cards is becuase while they want you to think they are the same as cash they are not, becuase with cash you can spend it any where a gift card can only be spent at the store or (group/chain) for which it was purchased!

The merchants are giving you an incentive (credits) to do business with them they want your cash. But if you have a gift card they know at some point that money is going to be spent with them or if not its all profit so why pay incentives on money that can only be spent with the merchant in the first place.

Thats just how i see what they are thinking and makes sense.

While i am glad that some merchants do incentives (credits) on gift card use and i would like them all, I would not like to rock the boat too far that they stop incentivising (giving credits) at all!

Again just my little opion.

I see your point and that makes sense but it still seems unfair as the advertising and marketing behind gift cards is that they are the same as cash.

I appreciate the incentives and would hate to see them go, but when you buy the merchandise how you pay for it should not be an issue.

The way I see it is accepting the gift cards same as cash is the cost of doing buiness same as with credit cards. Because the buyer has already committed to buying something from your store (by purchasing your gift cards) is NO REASON to punish them and say we will give you no incentives because we know you have to buy something from us because you already have our gift card. If that is the case I guarantee it will be the last gift card I buy from them. Again, this is JMHO

[Magical JenK]

Well, maybe this will confuse things even more. The price of the book exceeded my gift card balance so I had to charge a couple of bucks on my credit card AND use the gift card. So, maybe that had something to do with it? :confused: :confused: :confused:

I did too!! I did, however, purchase the books through the B&N approved sellers or whatever they're called. I got new books, but there are some used one over there too ya know?

??? I don't know! I got my books, so I'm happy!! :sunshine:

[SunshineGirl]

The bad news is that because rewards sites are a pretty small portion of their online business, they can actually just make the decision not to allow us to give rewards back at all if we protest too much. A lot of the merchants already will not. So we walk a very fine line when we push them too hard. Most of them just do not see the value of the advertising dollars to be listed on a rewards site. :(

[jnorth1007]

I don't look at it as them punishing us for using gift cards. I look at it as they are giving us an incentive to shop with them and they are setting rules by which we must abide. Just like with using coupons at the grocery. Everyone has the ability to use them but only those who abide by the terms (buying the correct package size and quantity) are able to take advantage of the savings. This is the same thing. They don't have to incentivize anything and by choosing to do so they set the rules. None of these rewards are ever guaranteed. They are free money. HTH!