I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to MS stuff. I keep telling myself one day I’m going to run through the thousands of ’empty’ VGCs to double check before tossing them away. But of course most of them have a monthly dormancy fee and I’m sure by the time I check them, they’ll have hit a $0 balance. As I’m typing this, I’m staring at a shoe box labeled 2015. There is no way any VGC have a balance left in that box.
I don’t think I’ve ever had to go back to find some VGC’s either, especially store drained ones. I’ve had to go back to some that I used online because the store refunded back to the VGC. But for a store drained VGC, I can’t remember a time when I had to find the card again.
Thus, going forward, I think I’ll keep my store drained VGCs in a bag and after 2 months, I’ll just toss the entire bag away. By then, the MO would have been cashed and if an issue came up, the bank or store would have let me know by then.
I’ll still foolishly keep VGC that I use online as well as any 3rd party GC’s like Best Buy or Amazon since they don’t have dormancy fees and I can balance check them down the road before I toss them.
What’s your strategy?
I used to manually type them in, hundreds of them. To check and make sure. Then I realized! use the square reader, or any other reader you have, do a $1 transaction, denied? Trash. Approved, uh oh!
I found one with over $200 on it, yikes!
And here I am throwing them in the trash can just outside the store on the way to my car…..
I scan/photo the card(s) and receipt and save to a file that’s automatically named (OCR and scripts) with the date, vendor, credit card used, and VGC numbers. After the card is drained, I bend the corner and put it in a box for a month in case there’s an issue. Then I bulk shred the cards and receipts.
I have piles on my desk. Run though them usually within a few months of being drained. I have a pretty good mix of MO/BillPay (one and done drains) and Regular purchases. Once I found a card I hadn’t finished draining that got in the pile by accident. A friend just found 1k in the back of his closet from over a year ago. The store refunds are an issue. Still fighting with Costco after 2 years. They refunded the VGC when I expressly told them I would need a store credit/costco cashcard or a check. Its $16 but the case with Customer Service is still ongoing.
I don’t really have a good reason for it, but I’ve saved everything since I started MS 8 years ago. The boxes of gift cards and receipts are really starting to take us a lot of space. I guess I’m a bit paranoid about getting investigated for money laundering or tax evasion with out having the evidence of what I was doing.
I have the same goal some day regarding going through a box of old money orders to quadruple check..
i check mine on a soda machine yearly. its simple-just swipe
That’s smart. I’ll have to do this then.
Interesting, does that work for all V/MC GC card types? Does the balance need to be greater than the cost of the soda?
Well if it’s under $1, then does it matter? Just toss it.
I keep them more out of a fear of the IRS wanting to ruin my life. Again.
Yep. This. You better keep that stuff for many years.