I normally hate gift cards, but Amazon gift cards are okay
When people give me gift cards, it's often a chore to use them.  I forget to carry them with me, I buy something but forget there was a gift card in my wallet, they expire or start deducting fees if you don't use them right away, or in the worst case I can't find anything that I want or need from that particular store.  It's also a pain trying to keep track of how much is left on each card and what you spent it on.<br /><br />On the flip side, sometimes when I do remember that I have a gift card, I feel almost obligated to spend the gift card on something nice instead of on my normal purchases like personal hygiene products and food--you know, because the person who gave me the gift card probably didn't envision buying me deodorant and eggs.  (But then again, maybe they thought I could use some deodorant and thought giving it to me directly would be too rude.)<br /><br />Aside from these generalities, I have a few specific thoughts on certain types of gift cards.<br /><br />Restaurant gift cards: Of all the gift cards I get, restaurant gift cards are the easiest to use.  Either I get to try a new restaurant that I haven't visited before, or I get treated to a meal or two at one of my favorite places.  I take my wife out to dinner and use the gift card in one or two visits.  If there will only be a few bucks on the gift card after our meal and tip, we usually add drinks and/or dessert.<br /><br />Best Buy: I hate Best Buy.  Fortunately, nobody gives me Best Buy gift cards.<br />Kmart: I don't normally go to Kmart, but at least I can go there to convert a Sears gift card into a Red Lobster gift card.<br />Lowes: I buy a ton of stuff at Lowe's so I definitely use those gift cards, but it's disappointing to me if I end up spending the gift card on a bunch of random little supplies instead of on tools or on a larger project.<br />Sears: I hate Sears and the closest one is more than an hour away.<br />Target: I don't normally go to Target<br />Walmart: Normally I just buy small, random, everyday stuff<br /><br />AMEX/Visa/Mastercard prepaid debit cards: Don't get me started!  These things are the biggest pain of all.  I've had Visa and Mastercard prepaid debit cards and gift cards that wouldn't go through on a purchase on numerous occasions, and by the time I thought to try using them again, they were expired or all the funds had been consumed by monthly service fees.  Although legislation has since been passed which outlaws such fees, I still can't stand the idea that the person buying the gift card has to pay an activation charge.  Whenever I get these cards, I've now learned to either apply them to my Amazon account (if it actually goes through) or cell phone bill immediately.<br /><br />Amazon: the best thing about Amazon gift cards is that I already buy a lot of stuff from Amazon.  In a way, I feel like a sucker for spending so much at Amazon after starting my Prime subscription a couple years ago, but as it happens, Amazon also has the best prices (or close to it) anyway on a lot of the stuff I buy.<br /><br />The only downside to Amazon gift cards (and it's kind of a big one for me) is that it's really easy to unintentionally eat up your gift cards without realizing it.  Case in point: the other week I applied a gift card to my Amazon account.  A couple days later, I rented a movie, which was charged against my gift card credit.  When I went to buy something else, I thought I would be partially paying it with the gift card credit but the amount paid by gift card was less than I expected.  I was about to write Amazon's customer service to complain, but then I looked at my gift card history and could see very plainly where the money left.<br /><br />It is because of this purchase history feature alone that I'm comfortable giving Amazon gift cards a 4-star rating.  If it weren't for that, I would probably just give them a 3-star rating (at best) because of my overall annoyance with gift cards in general.
Rating: 4 stars