Check your gift card's balance before throw it away!

[minmin001]

So I had two Macy's gift cards in my wallet and one of them was from over a year ago which was a long time. Yesterday I went to Macy shopping and wasn't sure which card has how much balance on it so I let the sale's girl checked both of them. One of them had $0 balance on it. I was confused, wondered why I kept it in my wallet and wasn't sure how many times I have used it since it's been so long ago (I knew that I used at least once on one of them) I almost told her to just throw it away and thought I may have made a mistake on my memory since it's been so long. But then I told her I will take it back and check the balance online to refresh my memory on it.
I went home and of course Macy's online gift card balance page doesn't work (kept bring me back to home page), when I used the phone # to check it kept telling me the card # doesn't exist. I almost gave up but decided to talk to a live person instead. So after much trouble I was finally able to talk to someone and she confirmed me the balance was $0. I asked her to tell me what were the purchase and she told me. The first one was something that I remember but the 2nd purchase which had $63 something balance was NOT made by me. It was at CA for some men's dress shoes and shirts (Never been there during that period of time and my FI does not ever wear men's dress shoes or shirts that I'd get him)
I have no idea how the person got a hold of my gift card # since I always had it in my wallet but I reported to their fraud department and should hear back in 1-2 weeks. So if you have a very old gift card that you are not sure if you used all the balance on it or not, be sure to just check it online (most of them should be very easy unlike what I had to go through to check) before just throw it away...

 

[luv2sparkle]

Wow, that is crazy Min! I hope you get reimbursed for the loss. There are so many ways for people to rip you off these days! I would have never thought of that. Good info.

 

[minmin001]

Wow, that is crazy Min! I hope you get reimbursed for the loss. There are so many ways for people to rip you off these days! I would have never thought of that. Good info.

I will wait to hear back and ask them the ways how people can steal your gift card number so I can share it here
I was so close to throw my gift card away so I want to make sure others are aware of it too

 

[Maria D]

I really think consumers should just stop giving gift certificates and gift cards. For reasons that I don't understand, some people think giving money is crass yet gift cards are "thoughtful." They are not. You don't even have to go to the particular store to get them. I can get gift cards for about 30 different places at the checkout line at the supermarket.

I've been burned so many times as both giver and receiver. I once gave a good friend a quite generous gift certificate to her favorite boutique clothing store when she got her degree so that she could buy an interview outfit only to have the place go out of business before she was able to use it. Should have written a check. I've given gift cards to kids only to find out later that they were lost before they were used up and I've had gift cards given to me that had money depleted from them on a monthly basis after the first year. And then there's LNT, Hollywood Video, Border's... you may or may not have time to scramble to use them before the bankrupt business runs out of stuff worth buying. What a waste for the consumer and money-maker for the business.

And now there's apparently gift card fraud.

Cash -- good anywhere, anytime -- the perfect gift!

 

[minmin001]

Update! I never got a call from them but today in the mail I got a Macy's gift card with the balance of what was stolen from my other card which was $60+ so I guess you can get it back even if it's a gift card!

 

[ame]

I personally PREFER a gift card. I ask for them for like three specific places that I regularly go. The big fraud thing around here now is that people are scanning the gift cards that don't have the scratchoff pins and waiting for them to be activated then using them before the recipient. All three places I ask for cards from have PINS and two of them require that you go there only to get them. But I haven't saved them for long, and I keep track of the balances.