- You can send digital gift cards with some popular cash transfer and online shopping services.
- When you need a last-minute gift that still has a personal touch, electronic gift cards can be your savior.
- Amazon, Venmo, and Cash App are three platforms where you can send electronic gift cards.
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If you missed the window to order a gift for someone during the holidays, or if you’re in a faraway state and don’t want to deal with shipping, don’t panic. It’s easy to give a digital gift card to help in a pinch.
Many popular money transfer services allow you to send cash to people you specify, but the personal touch may not be enough. You can use these platforms to send digital gift cards to popular vendors like Starbucks, Lululemon, and Nordstrom.
Digital gift cards account for 40% of all gift card purchases, and the top reason people buy digital gift cards is to receive them, according to a study conducted in May by Bank of America and Strawhecker Group. The idea was to give people more options.
Electronic gift cards came in handy when I wanted to send a birthday gift to a friend who lives in another state. Instead of sending $20 in cash to his Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, I sent him his $20 Chipotle gift card through Venmo.
Perhaps the difference is not monumental, but it felt more personal to me. If you feel the same way, here’s how to send a digital gift card. All these steps were performed via the mobile app on the iPhone.
First, here are some pro tips to consider when deciding which service to use.
- Developed by Amazon and Block, Cash App has more stores to choose from than Venmo.
- Of these three companies, only Amazon lets you schedule your card to be sent at a later date.
- Cash App allows you to transfer smaller amounts of dollars. So, to test it out, I sent a $1 Lululemon card to a friend through Cash App, but not through Venmo or Amazon.
- Venmo has the most creative and festive card delivery features.
- All three services offer roughly the same level of ease of use for recipients, so send gift cards using methods you know your recipient already uses.
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- Open the Amazon app on your phone.
- Press the three bars on the bottom right. Select Gifts & Registries, then Gift Cards.
- From there, you can choose an Amazon gift card or a gift card to another store.
- I pressed “Special Gift Card”.
- Scroll down and you’ll see two bars: one for e-gift cards and one for physical gift cards.
- Select the “eGift Card” option.
- You can choose any vendor you like, and each store has a different minimum and maximum value that you can submit.
- You can choose from several card designs and select the amount below.
- Enter the recipient’s email or phone number and enter a message or select the default message, “We hope you enjoy this gift card!”
- Please check the number of cards to avoid accidentally sending more than one card.
- You can also choose a date for your card to be shipped.
- Press “Buy Now” and select your payment method and address (even if it’s digital).
- Please press “Order”.
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- Press “Payment/Request”.
- Select the person you want to send the gift card to.
- Select the amount you would like to send (some gift cards have different minimum and maximum values, which cannot be confirmed later).
- Please write your message.
- Press “Gift” at the top right of the text bar.
- Choose from gift cards.
- You can then customize how the recipient receives the gift card, just as if they were opening a physical card containing the gift card.
- Choose the card that best fits your gift reason (you can preview it before you decide).
- Press “Continue”.
- Press “Next”.
- When you’re ready to send, press “Purchase a Gift Card” at the bottom.
square cash app
Source: Square
- Please select the amount to send.
- Press “Pay”.
- Press “Gift Card”.
- Which vendor will you choose?
- Enter the person you want to send the card to in the “To” bar.
- Please write your message in the “For” bar.
- Press “Next” in the top right corner, then “Send Gift Card” at the bottom of the next screen.