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Not necessarily. If I give my mother $50 for a spa place, I'm gifting her a relaxing day that she might not be able to budget for or otherwise justify. If I gif

Not necessarily. If I give my mother $50 for a spa place, I'm gifting her a relaxing day that she might not be able to budget for or otherwise justify. If I gift her $50 cash, it's probably going to get used as part of next week's grocery budget if not lost in her purse entirely.

JohnFen 7y ago
> If I give my mother $50 for a spa place, I'm gifting her a relaxing day that she might not be able to budget for or otherwise justify. If you know that your mother enjoys that particular spa, then I agree, it's a good, thoughtful gift -- basically that's the right way to use gift cards/certificates. That's not how they're used for the most part. For example, 90% of the time when I'm given a gift card, it's for Amazon -- the thought behind that is precisely the same as it would be for cash, except that I am now constrained to using it on Amazon rather than somewhere else that may be a lot better for me.
- ghaff 7y ago
  People give Amazon gift cards because they think of them as basically giving cash without giving cash. I know it's not universal but, for me, an Amazon gift card just gets deposited straight into my Amazon account and applied against new orders until it's gone.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    > People give Amazon gift cards because they think of them as basically giving cash without giving cash. For people who think of them that way, it just raises the question -- then why not give cash? Cash is much more useful.
ljm 7y ago
Well, why not talk to them and say you’ll make the spa happen rather than buying a voucher? A gift card is a crap surprise so why not communicate and say that for Christmas, you’ll make their spa trip happen. Then you go and book it or make arrangements. Like you would before gift cards existed. Sort it out for them so they don’t have to do it themselves. If she takes 50 bucks and uses it in groceries it’s because she needs them. If you arrange a spa day outright then it’s not a question of money.

JohnFen 7y ago

> If I give my mother $50 for a spa place, I'm gifting her a relaxing day that she might not be able to budget for or otherwise justify. If you know that your mother enjoys that particular spa, then I agree, it's a good, thoughtful gift -- basically that's the right way to use gift cards/certificates. That's not how they're used for the most part. For example, 90% of the time when I'm given a gift card, it's for Amazon -- the thought behind that is precisely the same as it would be for cash, except that I am now constrained to using it on Amazon rather than somewhere else that may be a lot better for me.

ghaff 7y ago
People give Amazon gift cards because they think of them as basically giving cash without giving cash. I know it's not universal but, for me, an Amazon gift card just gets deposited straight into my Amazon account and applied against new orders until it's gone.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  > People give Amazon gift cards because they think of them as basically giving cash without giving cash. For people who think of them that way, it just raises the question -- then why not give cash? Cash is much more useful.

ljm 7y ago

Well, why not talk to them and say you’ll make the spa happen rather than buying a voucher? A gift card is a crap surprise so why not communicate and say that for Christmas, you’ll make their spa trip happen. Then you go and book it or make arrangements. Like you would before gift cards existed. Sort it out for them so they don’t have to do it themselves. If she takes 50 bucks and uses it in groceries it’s because she needs them. If you arrange a spa day outright then it’s not a question of money.