In a move that didn’t require Miss Cleo’s level of premonition to predict but stings nonetheless, GC Galore is reporting that GiftCards.com is now limiting Visa Gift Card loads to $250 per card. That overnight change follows in the footsteps of GiftCardMall and shouldn’t be a shock given the current environment, but that doesn’t make it more pleasant.
Stephen reports that GiftCards.com was still selling $500 Visa Gift Cards last night, but is no longer selling cards loadable with more than $250 as of this morning. That is quite unfortunate given that the $250 cards carry a $4.95 activation fee, making them much more expensive (shipping is additional). That compounds with the fact that shopping portals began limiting rewards at GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com to $2,000 in purchases per month. Going forward, the value proposition and scale will be very limited.
On the other hand, the scale and cost of Simon volume gift cards, particularly with the promos they have been running (unfortunately the most recent one expired), is starting to look better by comparison. I’ve been giving all of the above a miss lately as I’m still very slowly working through gift cards that I had picked up before the pandemic surged and shut everything down – I’m not making any special liquidation trips but rather only liquidating cards on the occasion when I otherwise need to visit a place where I can liquidate.
Again, this change isn’t surprising. Given the current economic environment, I’d guess that there may be some perceived risk leading to these reductions. Hopefully things will eventually turn the other way down the road, though we likely won’t know for quite a while yet.
H/T: GC Galore
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[…] GiftCardMall.com given the new monthly caps on portal earnings for those sites and the fact that those sites now sell a max denomination of $250 per gift card, Simon is looking a bit better. In my case, I’m willing to pay a bit more than the cheapest […]
If the businesses we have been doing business with no longer want to be in business anymore, that is certainly their right After all, 2020 is a great year for shedding customers – not!
Does anybody know whether the 2k monthly limit is per calendar month, or from last purchase? How exactly is the 2k limit calculated? Thanks
[…] It is getting harder and harder to do this MS thing you guys…Bummer: GiftCards.com now limits Visa Gift Cards to $250 loads. […]
The end is near…er 🙂
won’t likely see any more promo from SM, or its fees may rise
Also can’t access past orders now. They want us to forget the $500 card ever existed!
Ugh what’s next, gift cards can’t be used as debit?