If your gift card does not work online, check to see if it needs to be activated or registered before use. If you have a Visa gift card or Mastercard gift card from Giftcards. Registration usually involves linking a name and billing address to the prepaid card. Though you generally are not required to register a gift card in order to use it in stores or restaurants, the process is fairly important if you intend to use the gift card online.
To make it harder to use a stolen credit card online, many websites use a procedure called Address Verification System AVS to ensure the card number being used for payment matches the billing address on file with the bank. Since the Visa gift card number is entered into the same field used for a Visa credit card, the website will look for an AVS match even though it is less applicable to a gift card payment.
Registering the gift card allows you to update the address linked to the card. If the system will not let you update the information, you may at least be able to see what generic name and address has been associated with the card already. Gift cards ordered from Giftcards.
But some drug stores and gas stations sell gift cards that are not usable for a specified waiting period e. Because thieves sometimes use stolen credit cards to buy gift cards, the waiting period gives banks, stores and victims a moment to detect and report compromised cards.
If the theft is reported before the gift cards are used, the gift cards can be cancelled before the funds are depleted. At Giftcards. Though people generally understand this concept, online shopping is a little different than in-store shopping. If you handed a Visa gift card to a cashier and knew it did not cover the full amount of the purchase, you could expect the system to use the card balance and then have the cashier ask you for a second form of payment.
Since most websites cannot handle a split tender transaction as described above, the gift card is simply declined. Read my post on gift card hacks. Every time you swipe or enter your Visa gift card number into a payment system online or in person , the system checks to see if the card has sufficient funds to complete the transaction. Sometimes holds are not released immediately—it can take several hours or several days to remove a pending charge depending on how each merchant system works.
During that time, your gift card may decline if pending charges are tying up a portion of the gift card balance that you know should be available. If your card is not working and pending charges are still affecting the card balance, wait a few days and try again. A Visa card from a retail outlet is activated at the cash register, and you'll receive the activation slip.
Some Visa gifts cards purchased online need to be activated once you receive them in the mail. In this case, follow the activation instructions on the little sticker that comes on the front of the card. Typically, this requires you to call an number or access a website to enter the digit card number and associated security code.
For additional security, sign the card on the back as soon as you receive it. To register your card for online use, locate the issuer's number or web address. You'll find this information on the back of the Visa card or in a leaflet that comes with the card.
Call the telephone number or access the website to get started. You can also typically use more than one small balance store gift card with ease. If you are paying with a Visa gift card, however, there is generally no place to put both a Visa gift card and a bank card. YES with this Gift Card Hack: Many people think that you cannot use a Visa gift card online if the transaction exceeds the dollar value on the Visa gift card.
While that is true, the problem is more of a technical issue than a limitation of the gift card. The split tender or partial gift card payment transaction is possible when paying with a store gift card because you enter the store gift card into the gift card field and you enter your debit or credit card into the other field.
Without a little creativity, there is generally no way to use more than one Visa card to complete an online purchase. I have never seen an online shopping cart that allowed more than one bank card, of any type, to be applied to a purchase.
Perhaps in the future, shopping cart developers will create a new field for open-loop gift cards rather than re-purposing the debit or credit card field or they will allow shoppers to enter more than one bank card, specifying how much to charge to each one. Until then, we have to work around the problem of how to use a Visa gift card online when the transaction amount exceeds the balance of the card.
If the Visa gift card balance is greater than the transaction total , then simply enter the Visa gift card number into the credit or debit card field on the checkout form and complete the transaction. If the Visa gift card balance is less than the transaction total , then first use the Visa egift card to buy a store egift card for the same amount. Pay any remaining balance due with a debit or credit card.
Although this solution requires an extra step, it is one way Visa gift cards can be used when the balance of the card is less than the total amount due.
Sometimes you do not know the transaction is going to exceed the gift card balance until the shopping cart gets loaded up with shipping charges and taxes. When that happens, there are two ways to quickly get an egift card to use:.
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