What is the point of gift vouchers?!

[iandbeech]

So you can buy a voucher as a gift at a chosen shop and it will be accepted at all its other branches! Or you can give cash as a gift instead - accepted absolutely everywhere!

Or am I missing something?!

[Cotty]

Its just a step away from giving money. I gave Virgin Magastore vouchers to my brother the other day for his birthday. The reason was I wanted to buy him a couple of CD's but didnt know what he had or had not so now he can choose himself

[Cotty]

Its just a step away from giving money. I gave Virgin Magastore vouchers to my brother the other day for his birthday. The reason was I wanted to buy him a couple of CD's but didnt know what he had or had not so now he can choose himself

[blaineuk]

if some one thinks you would like to get somrthing from a certain shop you can and also if your parents think you will waste the cash then this way you can't.

[condor]

and usually there's a card that holds the voucher free with it as well

[flooritforever]

I also think these are pointless.

I think it was Jasper Carrot who put it best:

Jasper Carrot said:

"Buy a WH Smiths £10 gift voucher, and you can spend it in any branch of WH Smiths." Wow! I was gonna give my nephew one of those stupid awkward £10 notes that you can only spend in every shop in Britain.

[BliarOut]

Very handy for the kids to 'buy' for the ex. Just the right amount of impersonality to avoid any potential problems

[black-k1]

I think it makes a lot more sense to give “Bank of England” gift vouchers. Acceptable in all high street shops.

[FourWheelDrift]

To annoy people you don't like at Christmas, give them a voucher for a duff shop. They can't complain because you've given them a gift even if it means they have to spend it at Mr Byrites.

Muddy Chimble.

[leosayer]

It's a lot safer for your friends if they happen to be crack addicts.

[iandbeech]

FourWheelDrift said:

To annoy people you don't like at Christmas, give them a voucher for a duff shop. They can't complain because you've given them a gift even if it means they have to spend it at Mr Byrites. Muddy Chimble.

Now that is a thought!

[Mr Whippy]

My dad is useless with gifts.

Writes in cards "universal gift vouchers" and just bungs cash in them...

Vouchers are pretty daft really, suppose it stops you just bunging cash in the wallet and using it to fill up the car, but hey, cash is gonna get you what YOU want ultimately. Even if thats petrol that you choose

Dave

[ClareC]

Well I for one think that gift vouchers are much better than cash for the following reason.

If someone gives me a gift of £10/£20 etc in cash (i.e. an insignificant amount in terms of my general finances) - It'll merely get absorbed into my general spending budget and I won't buy anything with the money that I wouldn't have bought anyway.

However with a gift voucher I will go to the shop and select a "present" for myself with the voucher and thus I can link the gift of £10/£20 to a tangible object that I now have that I would not have otherwised purchased.

Actual presents are better - but for people who can't decide what to get gift vouchers are the next best thing.

[Jaglover]

ClareC said:

Actual presents are better - but for people who can't decide what to get gift vouchers are the next best thing.

I agree

and in some cases you cannot buy the actual present anyway.

I have bought my wife a spa day as one of her presents this year, but rather than book it on a day she might not like, I have bought the voucher so she can choose the day.

[2wheelsonmawagon]

Vouchers have their uses. When I was a feckless student a millenium ago at least getting vouchers meant that I would by an (ahem) LP or some new clothing (voucher dependent of course) rather than just pissing cash up the wall at the first possible ooprtunity.

[WD*]

I was reading an amusing story in a magazine the other day:

A couple had decided to give their friends vouchers instead of gifts, and so had duly bought them, and writtenin the cards "You can buy your own gift this year", then posted the cards...

...Come christmas day and they realised they hadn't put the vouchers in, and so had a lot of disgruntled friends to explain to!



I suppose the point of gift vouchers is it shows you have put a little bit of thought and effort into it, by chosing an outlet that the person may like.

Dad has bought my three young cousins (one aged nine, two aged 6) gift vouchers for argos and was going to wrap them an argos catalogue each... unfortunately nowhere seems to have argos catalogues left!

[m1spw]

I once got £50 worth of vouchers for some store or other. Problem was they only have branches in London or Birmingham (or some other city round that area) and I lvie in Newcastle....

Bugger all use, "worst present ever..."

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

2wheelsonmawagon said:

Vouchers have their uses. When I was a feckless student a millenium ago at least getting vouchers meant that I would by an (ahem) LP or some new clothing (voucher dependent of course) rather than just pissing cash up the wall at the first possible ooprtunity.

...and you view that as a positive? you weren't trying hard enough, I'd have found a way to launder 'em for beer tokens