5 Things You Need to Know about eGift Cards

Five tips to help you successfully deliver egift cards and safeguard against common pitfalls.

Want a Totally Custom Gift Card?   Make Your Own Visa Gift Card.

Electronic gift cards, also known as egift cards, digital gift cards, mobile gift cards and virtual gift cards, all refer to gift codes (see, they’re not even cards) that are delivered using technology such as email, SMS text, social media and smartphone apps. Although this new way of gifting is the talk of the holiday season, relatively few consumers have sent or used digital gift cards to date. But that is about to change.

As mobile payment transactions become the norm, people will likely turn to digital gifting as well.

So what should these newcomers watch for when making the leap from physical to virtual cards? Below are five things consumers need to know in order to have a positive egift card experience.

1. Timing is Everything

One of the primary benefits of sending gift cards electronically is that the gift can be sent almost immediately (and free of charge!).

Although egift cards make great last-minute gifts, I suggest allowing a small grace period (an hour or more) between the time you order the card and when you absolutely need to have it delivered. Because gift card issuers will have to approve the transaction, run it through fraud screening processes and complete the delivery electronically, you’ll want to leave yourself time to address any unforeseen issues. (Imagine thinking an egift card got delivered only to find an “undeliverable email” message in your own inbox later that day.)

TIP: Schedule delivery. Order digital gift cards through websites and apps that allow you to schedule delivery. That way you can place the order whenever it is convenient for you, but still hold delivery of the egift card until a more appropriate date and time (e.g. Christmas Eve, before the birthday party, on the morning of your anniversary, etc.). Here is a list of merchants that will schedule egift card delivery.

2. The Right Address is Critical

The egift card issuer’s obligation is fulfilled when digital delivery is successful–regardless of whether or not you entered the contact information correctly.

I once sent an egift card to my daughter via email. When it didn’t arrive after more than an hour, I checked my purchase receipt and discovered that I’d transposed a couple of letters in her email address. The issuing company graciously corrected the address and resent the gift for me, but they didn’t have to. Terms and conditions on several merchants’ websites clearly explain that an egift transaction is complete when delivery confirmation is received. Moreover, egift cards cannot be rescinded once redeemed. Had another person opened the transposed email and claimed the gift card, I likely would have been out the entire purchase amount.

TIP: Double check email address.Double check all contact information entered (including your own) when buying an egift card. Send virtual gifts with the same care you would exercise when sending money electronically such as through an electronic payment or a wire transfer.

3. You May Have to Follow Up

Successful delivery means that the technology worked–the email got delivered, the text message went through, the post went on Facebook and so forth. Successful delivery does NOT mean that the recipient actually received (or noticed) the gift.

I once sent an egift card to my brother via a smartphone app. Although he received a text message from the app, he didn’t recognize the sender. When he had trouble clicking the link contained in the text, he gave up and ignored it completely.

A couple of days later, I called my brother to see if he had gotten any surprises. “Nope,” he replied. Through further “big sister” questioning, I discovered that he didn’t have a smartphone. I called the issuing company and they said he could access the gift through email on his computer instead. After digging through junk mail folders, spam folders and refreshing the inbox several times, he still had no gift. As it turns out, my brother has at least three email addresses. I had sent the gift to one, but he was checking the other.

TIP: Pick the best technology for the recipient. Send electronic gift cards to the technology most used by the recipient, and confirm contact information ahead of time. If you’re not sure which email address is preferred, send a friendly exploratory email to see if you get a response. Do the same with a cell phone number or social media account. Don’t wait until your egift is lost in cyberspace to ask, “which email address do you prefer?” If you don’t hear from the recipient within a reasonable period of time, follow up.

4. Some eGifts Only Work Online

Although many egift cards can be used in stores, some merchants restrict egift card redemption to online purchases. Requirements such as this should be clearly stated on the store or restaurant’s website. Visa egift cards, for example, must be used online.

TIP: Make sure online accessible. Before buying an egift card, check to see where it can be used. If only redeemable online, consider giving an amount that will cover potential shipping charges. If redeemable in stores, confirm how the gift code can be presented at the cash register. In most cases, the recipient should be able to either print the email received at home and present the paper copy to a cashier or simply show an electronic (e.g. email, screenshot, gift card app screen) version of the code instead. Here’s a list of merchants that make it easy to print egift cards at home.

5. Lost eGift Cards are Not Lost

Physical gift cards can be purchased fairly anonymously and are difficult to replace if they get lost. But egift cards are different. These cards are typically ordered online where the buyer enters an email address, credit card number, physical address and possibly even a telephone number before completing the purchase. The recipient, who likely has to claim the code in some way, also ends up supplying contact information. With all of these identifiers, egift cards are easy to trace and replace if the recipient can’t find the original notification.

TIP: Keep track of egift cards. Enter all physical and virtual gift cards into a gift card app or mobile wallet. Not only will doing so make it easier for you to present gift codes to a cashier (some even create virtual barcodes that can be scanned), having all of your cards in one place will help you remember to use your gift cards.

Despite these potential problems with egift cards, we’ve experienced rapid improvements over the last few years. As a frequent buyer and user of digital codes, I can honestly say that processes are smoother than ever before and much of that is owed to smartphone technology. Where I used to print egift cards at home before taking them to the store, I now simply hand my phone to the cashier for payment. Though the way each cashier handles a transaction may vary (some swipe the phone, some key-enter the code, some hold the phone up to a scanner), in all cases, I’ve been able to use electronic cards with as much success as I enjoy when using plastic gift cards. Follow these tips and your experience should be equally positive.

Do you have any other questions about egift cards or need gift card help? Reach out to me in the comments below, on Twitter (@Giftcards_Com) or on Instagram (@gftcards).

Happy Gift Carding!

~Shelley Hunter, Gift Card Girlfriend

I have seen and tried many different ways to print card games at home. But I want to show you the way I like best.

There are a lot of creative people out there that started making card games with notecards and a pen. I know that is how I started.

But as I went through years and years of trial and error. I found better tools to use to print out my own card games.

My method also works well for printing other people’s Print & Play games to playtest.

While there are many other methods out there to print your own playing cards. This is the method I have found to be most efficient while still looking and feeling professional.

And just so you know. Here is a way that Nick Hayes has shared with the community that is supposed to be even more professional than my method.

But I still prefer my method in general for the card game prototypes I make.  Though once you are 95% done with balancing your game, I would recommend getting it professionally printed from one of these companies.

Mainly because I make so many balance changes to my games that I am constantly printing and cutting out the new cards.

Now onto the method. We must first…

My Experience:
I have personally used the HP InkJet 5740 Printer for almost all of my card printing. It has worked great.

I don’t know too much about which printers are the most cost efficient but this one seemed pretty good. The box of ink that I buy says it can print about 165 pages of color colored cards. Or 200 pages of plain black and white. However, my cards were very detailed (see image for this post) and took a lot more ink to print. So I probably only got about 125 pages per cartridge.

But that is still way better than having to print them at a local print shop like Office Depot. Something my friend sometimes has to do in a bind at a convention.

Though I do recommend using a local printer if you only want to print out a few pages of cards.

(Related – Ever thought about making a board game? Get the answers to many questions new board game designers have here.)

My Experience:
Once I found  thick cardstock like this, I never used regular printing paper again.

I used to use the basic “multi purpose” paper that is cheap. But it’s too thin. The ink bleeds right through and you can’t really shuffle the cards.

Your cards will feel much more like actual playing cards with thick card stock. And the ink won’t show through. Well, to be honest I could still see through them a little if I held them up to a light. But in general, I couldn’t see through them at all. This method is also much more effective at getting playtesters than my old fashioned “write on notecards” technique.

The prototypes that I have made that felt the closest to “real playing cards” used this type of card stock and were placed in sleeves (see below).

Less expensive option for game designers that have extra cards laying around:

People have also found it useful to print on thin paper like this and put their cards in front of old trading cards. If you have some old cards that you don’t use anymore, then you can sleeve them up (see step #5). And then place your thin paper cards in front of them.

Pros – This cheaper method is good because the cards will still shuffle well in the sleeves and they cost less.

Cons – The cards look worse when there is an old Magic the Gathering card behind them and the paper is seethrough.

My thoughts – Use the less expensive method for early on prototyping. Then once your game is 80-90% complete and you are making less balance changes, start printing with the thicker cardstock. It will look better and be more attractive to publishers and playtesters.

My Experience:
I actually use scissors like this right now. But every time I am in the middle of cutting out my cards, I think “I REALLY need to get a paper cutter.”

And then I finish cutting the cards and forget about it until a couple of weeks go by and I am cutting out more cards. Or when I am writing an article about it. *I really do need to get one of these paper cutters…*

I have seen other people post about how much they like their paper cutter. And how much time their paper cutter saves them.

So if you like printing out a lot of cards, then I think you would really thank yourself if you got one of these. There are many to choose from, but I linked this one because it is the one I want to buy next.

(Related Reading: Introduce a family or friend to these fun and easy to learn board games.)

A Rotatrim Cutter –

An Expensive but More Precise Alternative to a Guillotine Cutter

This Rotatrim cutter is a top of the line manual paper cutter/trimmer. These are very expensive and you probably wouldn’t need these for prototyping. But if you find yourself cutting out a lot of items and need it to be precise, then this is the best there is.

Photographers working in a dark room used these for extra precise cuts. I remember using one of these in my college Photography classes. It was really nice but I never realized how expensive they were!

My take on the Rotatrim – I would still personally just get the guillotine cutter for my prototyping projects. But I could see a day where I invest in a Rotatrim like this. If I had some big projects that required precision or if I had a child and I wanted them to be safer working on projects with me.

(Related – Almost everything you need to know about making a professional looking prototype)

Update!
If you choose to go with the electrical card cutter above, then you don’t need to use a corner cutter like this. However, this corner cutter still saves a lot of time for those of us that cut out cards manually.

My Experience:
I could have put this step in with the “cut out the cards” step. But I wanted this part to stand out because I think the cards look and feel much better when the corners have been cut.

When I first started printing my own card games. I would cut out my cards and start shuffling them. But something seemed off…

Then one day I was looking through some old WoW (World of Warcraft) tcg cards. And I noticed that they had rounded corners.

“Oh yeah!” I thought.

I immediately purchased a corner cutter and have enjoyed the feel of the cards much more since.

**Note – The corner cutter I have listed here is the one I would buy if I was shopping for one now. The one I have been using is this one. It is a good one but there have been times where I wished I could adjust the size of the cut. So I would rather get the adjustable one shown in the picture (or link below).

(Also Read – Craft the perfect pitch to entice playtesters to test out your prototype)

My Experience:
And the last thing I do is sleeve the cards with these matte card protectors.

I love the feel of sleeved cards. And with the thickness of the card stock, the cards actually feel close to that of a standard sleeved card.

Also, the ink will rub off onto your fingers while shuffling the cards using this method if you don’t sleeve them. This is another reason I like them sleeved.

Adhesive Alternative – For those that don’t like sleeves

I have also seen people spray their cards after printing them (step 2 of this process).

The typical spray that is used to coat the cards is Acrylic Adhesive spray.

I wouldn’t want to personally do this but I wanted you to know what others have found to work. My preference is to simply sleeve the cards.

**Note – I use the Matte card sleeves for my prototypes. They have a somewhat dull look to the front of them. I like this because it blocks glare on the cards.

But feel free to use whichever card sleeves you want. Just be sure to get the right size.

The “standard size” sleeves that fit Magic the Gathering (MtG) cards are almost always the size you will want. Especially if you are printing standard “poker sized” cards (which are 2.5 in X 3.5 in.)

(Related: You might also like reading our interview with a board game manufacturer)

Bonus step: Laminate Your Homemade Cards

My Experience:
I haven’t laminated any of my cards but several other game designers have recommended it to me. This is what one person highly recommended if you want to laminate your prototype. He specifically used it to laminate player mats because they didn’t get reprinted often.

Laminating the cards seems like it would work best with:

• Cards that you don’t plan to have to reprint much such as score trackers and player mats and
• Cards that don’t need to be shuffled

If you are needing to shuffle your cards, then I still would recommend using card sleeves as seen above.

(See also – 5 ways to make your prototype more entertaining and fun)

Your Thoughts on Printing Cards for Board Games at Home?

How do you print card games at home?

Let’s all work together and find what ways work best. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below so others can learn from you. I look forward to seeing what you have found useful in making your cards at home as well.

(Related – Ever thought about making a board game? Get the answers to many questions new board game designers have here.)