Gift card with a zero balance: Here is what you should do.

If you have many friends, you probably have tons of gift cards. If you have used tons of them, greater chances are that these gift cards will have zero balances. They will just be lying on your office and functionless. Some people would just prefer to have the plastic cards and add them to the stash they already have of their gift cards.  It is therefore not ideal for you to just accept or think that your prepaidgift balancecard has a zero balance. When the cashier tells you so, here is what you should do.

Inform the cashier the payment options you will be using.

The good news is that with the advancement of technology today, you will find a wide array of payment option available for you to choose from.  Therefore it will be a good thing to inform the cashier the type of payment option that you will be using prior to handing over your prepaid gift card. If you get the cashier involved in the process early, you can be sure that the prepaid card will be used appropriately. Therefore there will be no errors that will lead to a gift card with money on it showing zero balance.

You will need to ask the details of the error message.

It is a good idea not to just assume that the gift card that has been handed over to you does not have money on it.  It is because that there are many reasons that can cause a gift card to be declined in the moment the cashier run the card.  One of the reasons is that the gift card was not activated in the first place. Sometimes the amount being charged on the card is larger than the actual funds available on it.  Asking the details of what is happening with your gift card will be preferable that simply just accepting it has no money on it.

You should make sure that the gift card is activated.

The activation of your gift card is an important thing for you to consider before using the gift card. The good news is that you will find tons of information related to the activation of your gift cards. Loads of information is available online. You should also note that the information will be present at the back of the gift card. Make sure you activate yours. Understandably, activation of the prepaid gift card is one of the ways of limiting cases of fraud with them.

You should ask for your balance and transactional history.

Understandably, you will not get the prepaid gift balance and the transaction history from the cashier of the store you are purchasing goods at. But the good news is that any merchant will be able to provide you with that information.  If you have the balance, it is also important for you to obtain the transactional history of the account.  The two processes will enable you to see where your money has been spent. You will therefore be sure of the balance you have on your account.