no more lost or forfeit gift cards...
I make most purchases here with a credit card, so the Amazon Gift Card is not a regular payment method for my routine purchases.  What it *does* provide me is a dumping ground for almost every other hard to use gift card — presents, store refunds, promotional rebates, participation incentives, etc.  It can be a pain to track a pile of cards, which can expire, are hard to drain of "change" from a partial use, and some merchants will discourage or refuse a split payment.  I've lost significant money to those challenges, and spend too much emotional energy trying to avoid the traps.<br /><br />Now I immediately dump any gift card I receive into the Amazon card, knowing that sooner or later I will have a purchase to make.  No lost cards.  Nothing lost to fees or expiration or loose change.  No problem with use limitations.  Yay!  It is also a faster way to receive credit for returns to Amazon than waiting for the bank to issue credit, or having 3rd-party vendors complicate the process.<br /><br />The gift card is automatically the default payment choice for my next purchase — so I don't forget and have money sitting in an unused credit.  But if I *don't* want to use it (from a different budget category, or money I owe to somebody else), I can change the default choice and hold the gift card balance for whatever time or purpose.<br /><br />The process is sort of not intuitive and it's easy to lose where things are on the Amazon site, but once figured out it's swell.  I would take a rating star or half star for ease of use — but I know of no alternative with similar utility, so it sits at the top of its class.  However many stars that should be.
Rating: 5 stars