Who Knew the Headache When Buying Gift Cards in Amarillo?

I am simple when it comes to Christmas shopping. It's not that I don't care. I do know my family and friends. It's usually the time constraint. I do know what my family loves. To be honest my daughter, like a lot of people, prefer and ask for gift cards.

Gift Cards Really Are The Ultimate Gift

I am sure you have a lot of people on your gift list that really love gift cards. You can pick out exactly what you want.

One of the things my daughter asks for is gift cards to different fast food restaurants. Being a new mom it really does help her out to just go pick up dinner for herself. Oh and having it paid for definitely helps.

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I do try to buy local gift cards when I am buying gifts for my friends locally so that is not the issue. Since my whole family lives out of town I do have to find cards that can be used in other areas. That is where I run into trouble.

Who Else Runs Across This Issue?

I went to Walgreens one day and picked out a gift card to send my mom for her birthday. This was not even during Christmas time. I was picking her up an Amazon gift card, because again she lives in Phoenix.

They told me I had to use a debit card or cash to purchase. I get this rule, if I had not just used my credit card there a week before to buy my daughter a few gift cards. So I told them I would leave and go to Market Street. I bought some food and that $50 Amazon Gift card with my credit card.

No issues at all. Then I decided to go back to Walgreens a few days later and pick up two fast food gift cards. I wanted to test their "policy" out.  I went to another cashier with my credit card in hand. No problem whatsoever. So the frustration was it just depends on where you go and with which cashier.

I get it. It is Christmas time and stolen credit cards can be an issue. You know what? My debit card could be stolen just as easily. Someone could steal my cash too. I can't see that any chain business selling gift cards can be hurt by my $25 - $50 worth of gift cards last month. I even know that I am just one person and it can add up quickly. That is just the price in doing business. I also know that these big chains have insurance.

Why Do I Like To Use My Credit Card to Buy Gift Cards?

Usually that is the only form of payment I have on me. If I don't have my purse. More importantly, though, I like to rack up those reward points as much as I can.

What did bother me was the fact that I went to Walmart this weekend to buy all my gift cards for my daughter and her boyfriend. I bought over $300 in gift cards on my credit card with no issues. I did the same thing last year at Walgreens with again, no issue.

Has anyone else had a purchase turned away for gift cards because they were using a credit card? I just need to know.