Yet another way CC companies are ripping you off!!!!

[napi21]

Since the holidays will soon be upon us and many people might
look to purchase pre-paid Visa or MasterCard cards as gifts, I
thought you might be interested in my story. I recently
received a $50 Visa pre-paid debit gift card for my birthday.
I have approximately $4 left to use on the gift card. I picked
up something that was slightly more than the $4 and figured I
could just pay the difference. The card kept getting declined.
The woman in the store told me that if there is less than $5
on the card (since it is basically viewed as a debit/credit
card), nearly all merchants will automatically decline the
transaction. Evidently, it's not like a regular gift card
where you can use the card until the balance gets to zero and
make up whatever difference the overage would be. I went to
guest services and they told me I would probably need to "re-
load" the card (for a small fee) in order to use up that last
bit of money! Even then, unless I managed to find a purchase
for the exact amount on the card, it is virtually impossible
to actually use the full amount without having to expend more
time and money to re-load it. The only one who wins in this
situation is Visa.
___________________________

[WCGreen]

1. Buy gift cards fro particular stores....

[napi21]

5. I understand that, but I thoughtthere mght be people here who didn't

know that VIsA/MC both do this! I can seesomeone not knowing what to get or even what store a grandchild or other distant relative might like and resorting to a generic card like VISA, just trying to be nice. These companies really pi^^me off with some of their policies!

[Jim__]

2. Thank god that congress protected the credit card companies ...

... from dishonest consumers. :sarcasm:

[Scout1071]

3. I've used $0.87 on a gift card before.

On a Visa gift card nonetheless.

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Start calling the company every day and demanding a refund.

If they hear from you enough, they'll do it just for "customer satisfaction" reasons. Keep demanding to talk to a supervisor and when you get them, demand to talk to THEIR supervisor until you get a promise of a full reimbursement. If you have the time it would be worth it just to piss them off.

[msongs]

6. gee, you could always try...NOT USING THEM? nt