How To Use Visa Gift Card On Apple Store

Monday May 1, 2017

How to Use Digital eGift Cards in Stores

Quick tips on how to use egift cards in stores and restaurants plus what you demand to know about Visa egift cards.

banner with gift cards

How eGift Cards Work in Stores

I've used mobile gift cards in stores multiple times without incident, but before this week, I broke my own rules for using egift cards and found myself unprepared.

When the cashier asked me for payment, I of a sudden remembered that I had digital gift cards that I had wanted to use. So I dug through my handbag to find my smartphone, which took longer than information technology should have. Then I blanked on where I had stored the egift cards. I could non retrieve if I had moved them to a mobile wallet, stored them in a gift carte du jour app, had taken screenshots of the digital codes or had planned to simply pull upward the email at the point of auction.

Feeling pressured by the line of shoppers stacking upwards behind me, I got flustered and paid for my purchase with a debit card instead of the egift cards I had intended to use. Although using egift cards in stores is easy, the process can certainly be made EASIER if you lot have egift cards ready to use before you lot actually need them. Below are my tips on how to use egift cards in stores.

Prepare to Use eGift Cards

Since electronic payment is a fairly new way to check out at the cash register, taking a few steps to become organized before you lot approach the cashier volition help you avoid the mistakes I made.

using egift card at the store

Below are my tips for using digital gift cards in stores without incident.

1. Store eGift Cards Immediately

Upon receipt, copy egift card information to 1, easy-to-admission location. While it is nifty to go on the original notices in any form they arrived (e-mail message, text message, etc.), recording the gift code, PIN and expiration appointment (if applicative) in a single place makes it easy to find your stash of digital gift cards in a hurry and gives y'all a backup of pertinent information in case you accidentally delete an original notice.

If y'all are not already using a mobile wallet, so I suggest one of the following:

Mobile Wallet on your Smartphone: I have both an iPhone and a Samsung phone. I've stored gift cards in both, simply I find the SamsungPay app easier to use. Information technology feels more like an system tool. Apple Pay works as well. I only fumble more when I utilize that wallet for some reason. Either manner, the easiest identify to store digital gift cards is on the mobile wallet you already own.

Screenshot I often take a screenshot of the gift codes (and PINS) that I plan to use presently. I honey apps and wallets for getting organized and updating balances, but I tin open up the photo library on my phone faster than I tin get into an app. I likewise know that I will be able to obtain the card information quickly if the store's wifi is irksome or I have trouble getting a cellular connection on my phone. Having a screenshot is a proficient backup method too, if nothing else.

eMail Folder If you frequently get digital souvenir cards via email, so yous could put the emails in a binder on your phone to make it easier to find the ones you are looking for when you get to the annals. Keep in mind, however, that many egift cards require you to merits a code one time you receive it, and then the souvenir carte information may not be on the actual email. You will likely have to click a push button within of the email to become to the egift card itself.

Impress a Paper Copy If you are not comfortable showing a digital gift card, and so you lot should be able to impress the egift card instead. When you lot impress the egift card, make certain to capture the lawmaking and Pivot to be sure the card will be usable in stores.

two. Keep all eGift Cards in One Place

Because I am always testing out different ways to use egift cards in stores, I often have unlike egift cards in unlike places. The confusion in my wallet is what led to my confusion at the cash register. Pick a method that works for you and stick with it. If y'all do non desire to utilize an app, you lot could put screenshots of each digital card into a binder on your telephone'south abode screen or print concrete copies of each egift card on your printer at dwelling house and put the papers in your real-life wallet. Whatsoever method you cull, stick with information technology and utilise it consistently.

iii. Refresh eGift Card Balances

While many mobile wallets and souvenir card apps have automatic rest update features (which I Dearest), not all merchant cards are connected and sometimes you have to refresh a carte manually in order to see if it has been used. When souvenir cards are completely used, remove them from your wallet. Information technology is easier to stay organized if you lot are just tracking souvenir cards with usable dollars left on them.

iv. Tell Cashier You are Paying with an eGift Menu

Earlier getting into line, pull up the digital souvenir card you programme to use. Open your email, open the app, open your mobile wallet or dig through your handbag to detect the newspaper copy. If yous wait until payment is due, you may find yourself equally flustered as I had been. Instead, plan alee and tell the cashier that you lot will be paying with an egift carte du jour. That way, he or she tin can prep the greenbacks register if necessary.

You'll be happy to know that I have since corralled all of my mobile gift cards into one smartphone app, updated the balances and deleted the cards I can no longer use. The next time I need to make a purchase at a store with a digital gift card, I'll have my phone handy and will get logged into my gift card app before I approach the annals to make certain everything is in order. Though egift cards can be used at stores, getting organized ahead of time and having your telephone ready earlier the cashier asks for payment will ensure the all-time outcome and smoothest transaction possible.

What almost Restaurants and Visa eGift Cards?

Visa egift cards are only usable online, over the phone, by mail-order or any identify that a concrete card is non required. Read this blog post on how to use Visa egift cards online..

Eating place egift cards are usable in stores, merely you will desire to read this blog mail service on how to use egift cards at restaurants. The process is the aforementioned, but since you will not likely be standing next to the cash register, there are a few tricks to know ahead of fourth dimension.

What other questions do you accept nigh egift cards? Have you used an egift card at the shop? If then, add a note in the comments below or leave a bulletin for @GCGirlfriend on Twitter.

Happy Souvenir Carding!

~Shelley Hunter, Souvenir Bill of fare Girlfriend