Comment by citizenpaul
3 days ago
Gift cards are one of the dumbest most brain-dead pieces of scam ever invented. With all kinds of restrictions that resemble "scrip" type payment systems. They only exist to increase a larger entities control over you.
Why take perfectly good cash and change it to something worse in every way? I cannot understand why so many people enthusiastically go out of their way to buy gift cards. Can you take my cash and convert it to something with the same function but with all kinds of restrictions and gotcha's? Sure no problem....
One use for them is to obfuscate my banking information. A few years ago, Sony leaked a ton of Playstation customer information. Since then, if I want to buy games from them, i buy a gift card from someone else, and then use the gift card. It adds a layer of indirection.
Also for mental convenience. I use Spotify Premium. I don't want a recurring subscription charge that I would have to remember to cancel. So I go buy a year's Premium gift card (with a small discount on the monthly rate by doing so). If it runs out, I just get put back on the free tier with ads and no direct song picking until I get another gift card. They can't charge me in perpetuity, and if I ever stop using it enough for keeping it to be worthwhile it effectively cancels itself.
I see your point and it is good but a bit single purpose. I separate my whole finance life into incoming/outgoing accounts for this purpose. Essentially like a business. This prevents anyone including my own bank from taking my money. My incoming is a separate bank that I transfer from to my payment accounts.
Paranoia of the war on drugs is part of it as well. Some are afraid that kids with large sums of cash would spend it on drugs or alcohol and it is more difficult to barter giftcards for drugs.
Not a good reason but it is a real one I have heard.
I can get gift cards for my groceries and fuel with a permanent 4% discount. I'm going to spend the whole amount there anyway - what wouldn't I use that path every time?