Where Your Money Actually Sits After You Buy a Gift Card
You hand over fifty dollars and receive a piece of plastic. The plastic is not the money, and understanding where the money went explains almost every frustration that follows.
How It Works
The mechanics underneath the plastic — where your money actually goes, what activation really does, and why the distinction between closed-loop and open-loop decides what you pay.
4 guides in this subject
Activation: The Riskiest Thirty Seconds in the Transaction
Activation is the moment a worthless piece of plastic becomes money. It is also the moment most disputes are quietly created, and the point where a receipt stops being optional.
Closed-Loop vs Open-Loop: The Distinction That Decides Your Fees
One kind of card works in a single chain and usually costs nothing extra. The other works almost everywhere and charges you for the privilege. Almost every fee question traces back to which one you are holding.
Breakage: The Business Built on Cards You Never Finish Spending
Unredeemed balances are not an accident the industry is trying to fix. They are a recognised revenue line with a name, an accounting treatment, and a forecasting model.