Gift cards...refusal to combine into one card

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

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mpengle wrote:
Not sure what the laws say but i've combined 6 $25 giftcards into one card for $150. This was about a week ago, in store. They rangbup a new card for $150 and he used all my cards to pay for it.

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Operative word there is bolded.

You can buy a completely new gift card and pay for it with as many other gift cards as you want (so long as the total value doesn't exceed $500 for that day, IIRC). If you want the balance consolidated onto a card you already have you're a lot more limited to the number of cards you can "combine".

[keriflur]

I think it would behoove B&N to fix the various issues with gift card usage and processing (pulling from the card with the highest value rather than the smallest, resulting in lots of little balances, cards falling out of the system, etc.).  If the cards just worked, I don't think people would be so worried about consolidating them.  Just my .02.

[mpengle]

Actually, the store employee asked me first if I wanted to combine all 6 onto one of the cards I already had but I told him I preferred to use a new card so I wouldn't get confused later.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

As usual, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who ever reads BNInside.

(There is a way to ring all those cards onto a single preexisting card, but it's much less confusing just to do it with a new one)

[eaglewomanEP]

i always go to the store. Usually look up the NOOk expert there. They always combine mine, my last one was 6 cards and totaled $225.

I always eep the gift card until it is empty, in case there comes a problem down the road.

[DBDigital]

First, thank you all for responding.

It was very interesting that there is a 3 load limit on gift cards.  I knew about the total life time ammount that could be loaded on a card but not that it could only be loaded 3 times.  Would having 6 cards moved to 1 count as one load or 5? lol  But I guess I will just purchase a new card instead with the others.  I can understand money laundring laws, but when it is all B&N cards what is the difference especially with all little ammounts?  Having a lifetime limit I can understand.  Of course B&N has to go by the federal laws....seems that they are a bit too strict in this case.

I wish I lived closer to my B&N store, it is some distance from me.  Hmm wonder if I can call the order line and order a gift card with the total ammount and give all the other gift cards to pay for it?  Might give that a try soon if I can't get to the store.

[frantastk]

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DBDigital wrote:

First, thank you all for responding.

It was very interesting that there is a 3 load limit on gift cards.  I knew about the total life time ammount that could be loaded on a card but not that it could only be loaded 3 times.  Would having 6 cards moved to 1 count as one load or 5? lol  But I guess I will just purchase a new card instead with the others.  I can understand money laundring laws, but when it is all B&N cards what is the difference especially with all little ammounts?  Having a lifetime limit I can understand.  Of course B&N has to go by the federal laws....seems that they are a bit too strict in this case.

I wish I lived closer to my B&N store, it is some distance from me.  Hmm wonder if I can call the order line and order a gift card with the total ammount and give all the other gift cards to pay for it?  Might give that a try soon if I can't get to the store.

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I think you can buy an e-giftcard online. I've never done this at B&N so I'm not sure how it works here, but I've done it for other stores and they e-mail you the gc number after you buy it. At least one of the online stores I've bought a gc at had the option of mailing you the gc as well.

[JL_Garner]

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flyingtoastr wrote:

...due to money laundering laws we can only "load" a gift card a total of three times (for no value higher than $2000 combined), after which the Gift Card is deactivated.

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Ah, that explains why one of my gift cards came up with an error when I tried to reload it. I used to be able to reload them ad infinitum (one card I probably reloaded every other week for about a year and a half, mostly for Café and eventually NOOK purchases), but that's no longer the case.

[bklvr896]

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frantastk wrote:

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DBDigital wrote:

First, thank you all for responding.

It was very interesting that there is a 3 load limit on gift cards.  I knew about the total life time ammount that could be loaded on a card but not that it could only be loaded 3 times.  Would having 6 cards moved to 1 count as one load or 5? lol  But I guess I will just purchase a new card instead with the others.  I can understand money laundring laws, but when it is all B&N cards what is the difference especially with all little ammounts?  Having a lifetime limit I can understand.  Of course B&N has to go by the federal laws....seems that they are a bit too strict in this case.

I wish I lived closer to my B&N store, it is some distance from me.  Hmm wonder if I can call the order line and order a gift card with the total ammount and give all the other gift cards to pay for it?  Might give that a try soon if I can't get to the store.

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I think you can buy an e-giftcard online. I've never done this at B&N so I'm not sure how it works here, but I've done it for other stores and they e-mail you the gc number after you buy it. At least one of the online stores I've bought a gc at had the option of mailing you the gc as well.

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You can purchase gift cards online at B&N very easily.  You have the option of having the card emailed, or having a plastic card sent through the mail. 

If you want to consolidate the gift cards, I would think the easiest thing to do would be to buy a gift card online and use the gift cards you have to purchase it.  When you buy something online you have the option to select the payment type, I'd assume you could enter each gift card number and it would take the amount left on each card.  To me that would be easier than trying go through CS, read those number over the phone and have them consolidate.  The site says you can use up to 3 gift cards for a purchase.

[frantastk]

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bklvr896 wrote:

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You can purchase gift cards online at B&N very easily.  You have the option of having the card emailed, or having a plastic card sent through the mail. 

If you want to consolidate the gift cards, I would think the easiest thing to do would be to buy a gift card online and use the gift cards you have to purchase it.  When you buy something online you have the option to select the payment type, I'd assume you could enter each gift card number and it would take the amount left on each card.  To me that would be easier than trying go through CS, read those number over the phone and have them consolidate.  The site says you can use up to 3 gift cards for a purchase.

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Thnaks, good to know. I was thinking it would probably work out that way, but never tried it. I've done it in store, and the nearest one is less than 10 minutes away, so I don't actually shop on the website that often, except for nookbooks.