Our FAQ's are grouped into four sections:
General Questions
Ordering Questions
Cardholder Questions
Cardholder Troubleshooting
Click on the section name to see questions on the topic you are interested in reviewing.
Then click on the link to the question to review the answer.
General Questions
What is a Prepaid Card?
Who can purchase a Prepaid Card?
How do I purchase a Prepaid Card?
What are the different denominations for the Prepaid Card?
What do I get when I purchase a Prepaid Card?
How long does it take to receive a Prepaid Card?
Is there a Service Fee?
Is special pricing and options available for large or corporate orders?
Are other packaging options available?
Can I customize the Prepaid Card to include my company’s name and logo?
What is the “On-the-Spot” rewards program?
How do I pay for the Prepaid Cards?
Can the Prepaid Card be given to anyone?
Can I have the Prepaid Card sent directly to the recipient?
What if I purchased the card for an employee that no longer works for the
company? (I need to cancel the card and/or have it re-issued to someone else).
What if I need to cancel Replica Cards that I have purchased?
How do I return cards for a refund/credit?
Ordering Questions
I am having trouble ordering on-line, is there another way to place an order?
This is my first time ordering. What do I need to do?
How do I submit an order for a large number of cards?
I have ordered before but I don’t remember my User Name and Password.
Can I change my profile?
What is the Prepaid Card Order Template?
What information is required on the Prepaid Card Order Template?
What information is optional on the Prepaid Card Order Template?
Can I start filling out an Order Template, save it, and then return to it later?
What are some tips regarding using the Prepaid Card Order Template?
How can I get additional help?
Cardholder Questions
Where can the Prepaid Card be used?
Can the Prepaid Card be used to make purchases on-line?
Can the Prepaid Card be used at ATMs?
Can the recipient get cash for the Prepaid Card?
Does the card expire?
What if the purchase amount is less than the dollar value of the Prepaid Card?
What if the cardholder wants to make a purchase for more than the balance on the Prepaid Card?
How do I check the remaining balance on my Prepaid Card?
What if the Prepaid Card is lost or stolen or needs to be cancelled for other reasons?
Is customer service available for general questions?
What if a balance remains on the Prepaid Card after it expires?
How do I use the Prepaid Card at Gas Stations?
How do I use the Prepaid Card at Restaurants and other locations that have a TIP line in the receipt?
How is my Prepaid Card to be processed by the merchant (as a debit or credit card)? Does my card have a PIN?
How do I dispute an incorrect, unauthorizedor invalid charge made to my Prepaid Card?
Cardholder Trouble Shooting
I tried to make a purchase but my Prepaid Card was not accepted.
There may not be sufficient balance remaining on your Prepaid Card, to check your balance, click here.
Was the merchant possibly trying to process the Prepaid Card as a debit card with at PIN?, click here.
For instructions on how to make a purchase greater than the balance remaining on the Prepaid Card by paying the difference in cash, click here.
Has your card expired? Check the expiration date on the front of your Prepaid Card.
Were you trying to use your card at a Restaurant (click here) or Gas Station (click here)?
Were you trying to make a purchase On-line? If so, click here.
My Prepaid Card expired but a balance remains on the card. Click here.
My Prepaid Card is lost or stolen. Click here.
I am having trouble getting cash back from my Prepaid Card. Click here.
I still have problems or questions. How can I contact the customer service department? Click here.
Answers to General Questions
The prepaid card is a prepaid debit card accepted
anywhere MasterCard® or Visa® debit cards are accepted. That’s millions
of locations worldwide, including online. For more information,
Click here.
Companies, non-profit organizations, partnerships, and government entities may
purchase these Prepaid MasterCard® cards or Visa® prepaid cards.
Click here to order.
Prepaid Cards can be purchased in any denomination between $5 and $2,500.
You receive a Prepaid Card with the
recipient's name embossed on the card. The activated Prepaid Card comes in a blank
envelope for security reasons. Inside the envelope the Prepaid Card is held in a
three-fold card carrier that is personalized with the recipient's name, a
message from you (26 characters long) and the dollar amount. Prepaid Cards can
also be presented in a variety of available packaging.
Your Prepaid Cards will arrive within
5 to 7 business days after receipt of all necessary ordering information and
bank clearance of your payment. Payment by wire transfer is the fastest form of
payment. If you need to give your gifts sooner than 5 to 7 days after clearance
of your payment, the Replica Card (“On-the-Spot”
rewards) program or Instant Issue program may suit your needs.
Yes. The Service Fee covers the
Prepaid Card plastic, shipping and handling, bank fees, and merchant transaction
fees. Bulk handling fees apply. (Min $4 per order. $0.50 per piece Max $25 per order).
Rush fees may also apply.However, there is no sales tax associated with the purchase of Gift
Cards. For more information, see Pricing.
Yes. Corporations receive
discounted pricing based on the volume of Prepaid Cards ordered. Upon reqeust,
your order history will be evaluated and your price will be
adjusted accordingly. In addition, price adjustments are available for
corporations whose average Prepaid Card denomination exceeds $100. Please see
Pricing or contact a corporate account representative for special
pricing and consultation on how the Prepaid Card program can best meet your
company’s incentive and reward objectives.
Yes. We have several defferent packaging options available. For more information
see Packaging .
Yes. There are two levels of card
customization. The quicker and less expensive option is to print your company
name and logo on the top third of the standard
Prepaid Card design. There is a one-time artwork set-up charge plus a per Prepaid
Card fee for this option – see Pricing.
Your company can design a completely customized card design encompassing
your company colors, logo and other graphics over the entire face of the card.
Contact a corporate account representative for pricing and specifications.
“On-the-Spot” rewards program also features customized cards.
The “On-the-Spot” rewards program allows human resource
professionals or team leaders to have Replica Prepaid Cards on
hand ready to be distributed and activated on a moment’s
notice. These Replica Prepaid Cards, although not real
Prepaid MasterCard® cards or Visa® prepaid cards, look similar to real
Prepaid MasterCard® cards or Visa® prepaid cards but are not activated and initially are
not designated for a specific recipient. Replica Cards never
become inactive or expire. Team leaders can have a “stash” of
Replica Prepaid Cards to hand out to any employee at any
time--planned or unplanned. This flexibility allows team
leaders to provide instant rewards, proven to be more
effective than delayed rewards. These Replica Prepaid Cards can
be easily customized with your logo or completely re-designed
based on your needs.
Click here to read more.
Payment can be made by check, ACH, wire transfer, or credit card
(MasterCard®,Visa and American Expressare accepted). No money orders
or cashiers checks accepted. Contact a corporate account representative for
details. For security purposes, we require a faxed copy of your credit card
(front and back) and a copy of your driver's license or state ID after you have
submitted your order. Please fax required documents to 303-397-4233.
Yes. Prepaid Cards are the perfect gift,
Does the Prepaid Card show up on my or the recipient’s
credit report? No. The Prepaid Card is a prepaid debit card, not
a credit card, so no information is required to be reported to
the credit agencies.
Yes, cards can be mailed directly to the recipient. Card Recipient Name and full address are required. The purchaser will be
charged standard postage rates for each card mailed direct to the recipient. All orders shipped bulk are shipped via
Federal Express and the rates will vary depending upon your shipping destination.
If the purchaser of the card cancels the card before it is ever received and
used by the cardholder, the purchaser will be charged a $5 cancellation fee and
charged the purchaser's normal service in order to re-issue the card.
If the purchaser of the card
cancels the Replica Card before it has been registered and before an actual
Prepaid MasterCard® card or Visa® prepaid card has been produced, the purchaser may return the Replica Card for a
refund. Once the Replica card has been received, the purchaser will be charged
a $5 cancellation fee and be credited for the denomination, the Prepaid Card
service fee, and the Prepaid Card’s individual postage. The Replica Card service
fee and any other fees or charges will not be credited. Upon re-issue, the
purchaser will be charged its normal Prepaid Card service fee.
All sales are final. If the purchaser has unused cards they wish to
return, a $5 cancellation fee per card will be charged and the remaining
balance accumulated from ALL cards will be credited to the client's
account.Service fees are non-refundable and will not be credited
back to the purchaser's account.
Answers to Ordering Questions
Yes, you may e-mail us your order form. Processing time is faster for orders entered online, but feel free to email us
your order if you are experiencing online ordering problems or if this is more convenient for you. To download the order
form, visit Customer Service.
You need to set up an order profile
and receive a User Name and Password. Click here to set up your profile. You
will use your User Name and Password for future orders and will not need to
repeat the profile set-up steps.
A custom Microsoft Excel Prepaid Card
ordering form is provided once you’ve created your order profile which allows
you to easily submit both large and small orders. You can copy and paste Prepaid
Card recipient names from your existing company files or database into The
Prepaid Card Excel spreadsheet. The template can easily be uploaded and
downloaded between this website and your computer.
Click
here to have your User Name and Password emailed to the registered
email address. I have ordered before and know my User Name and Password. Click
here to login If you want to place a new order, select New Order from the menu
at the top of your screen.
Yes. If you’ve ordered before but
would like to change your profile for a new order you may. For example, you may
want to have the Prepaid Cards shipped overnight air this time. Or maybe you now
want to pay by wire transfer instead of check. Click
here to login and select Edit Profile.
The Prepaid Card Order Template is a
Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheet used to place corporate Prepaid Card orders. You
can Upload and Download the template between this website and your own
computer.
If all the Prepaid Cards on the order are being sent to you (the purchaser), the only required fields are “Recipient First
Name”, “Last Name”, and “Denomination.” Recipient addresses are appreciated, if available, for customer service, but
recipient addresses are only required if the Prepaid Cards are being mailed directly to each individual recipient. (USA,
Canada & Puerto Rico only). If you are ordering Replica Cards, then only the “Denomination” field is required.
"To" and "Personal Message" are
only required if you are purchasing the optional Gift Boxes. The value of the
"To" text will be printed on the greeting tag attached to the Gift Box. If you
leave "To" blank, the recipient's first name will be printed. The "Personal
Message" will also be printed on the greeting tag and can have a maximum of 300
characters and spaces.
Yes. If you start a New Order but
don’t have all the information or time to immediately complete the Order
Template you can save the Order Template, re-open it at a later time, and then
submit the Template for order processing.
Input card orders on the GIFT
CARD_RECIPIENTS tab of the spreadsheet. Please only use this order form. Please
do not copy and paste your order into a different spreadsheet of your own.
Please DO NOT make any changes to the headings or add or delete columns.
This is an Excel-based spreadsheet,
so can copy and paste (Excel Special paste function) recipient names, etc. from your own spreadsheet or
company database into the Template. Within the Template itself you can use
standard Excel functions. For example, you can repeat data (such as repeating
the denomination or USA) down a column. Denominations with pennies entered will
be truncated to the dollar amount displayed in the spreadsheet. Only whole
numbers between $5 and $2,500 are allowed.
Be sure to not exceed the allowable
number of characters in each field. To view the maximum allowed characters for
a particular field, place your cursor on the column header (for example, “Last
Name”) and a pop-up window will appear.
Please DO NOT enter the company's
name, a slogan, or a phrase in the Recipient Name fields as these are to be
used for the cardholders' names only. These can be added if you are ordering
generic cards.
Please DO NOT use apostrophes or
any other non-letters or numbers as it will cause problems producing your cards
and will delay your order. Example: O'Neil should be entered as ONeil.
Email us at info@thegiftcard.com or call
877-300-4272. Our sales office is open from 7 AM to 6 PM Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday, holidays excluded.
Answers to Cardholder Questions
The Prepaid Card is a
Prepaid MasterCard® card or Visa® prepaid card that is accepted anywhere MasterCard® or Visa® debit cards are are
accepted - at millions of locations worldwide.
Yes. It is a MasterCard® or Visa® card. To make either on-line or phone purchases the billing address that is
associated with the card must be used as the billing address for the purchases. The billing address associated
with the card can be found on the tri-fold carrier to which your card was originally attached. It is located in the middle of the carrier on the left hand side.
No. This Prepaid Card cannot be used at
ATMs. There is no PIN number associated with this Prepaid Card. This Prepaid card may not be used to obtain cash.
No. There is no cash access. Prepaid
Cards are not redeemable for cash at ATMs or bank branches.
The Prepaid MasterCard®
card or Visa® prepaid card Expires according to the expiration date embossed on the front of the Card. Because
The Prepaid Card is a MasterCard® or Visa® card it must have an
expiration date for it to work in the point of sale terminals used to authorize
purchases at themillions of locations worldwide.
Once The Prepaid Card passes the embossed expiration date on the front of the Prepaid Card,
the cardholder may request a reissued Prepaid Card. Fees do apply. Click
here to see instructions.
Our company wants the
service fee for purchasers to be at an affordable price for the initial
activation of the Prepaid Card. Our company has opted for
a six month activation to keep service fees in the first six months of the
Prepaid Card as low as possible. We find that most recipients are able to or
choose to use the Prepaid Card in full before the end of the six-month
activation, thereby taking advantage of the one-time low service fees for the
first six months of activation.
Click here to see fees associated with inactive accounts.
Replica Prepaid Cards never become inactive or expire.
The remaining balance remains on
the Prepaid Card and can be used towards the next purchase. Prepaid Cards may be used
to make multiple purchases at multiple locations until the remaining balance is
depleted, after which time the card is invalid.
If the purchase is more than the
existing balance on the Prepaid Card, first pay the cashier by check or other
charge card for the amount that your purchase exceeds your Prepaid Card remaining
balance. Then ask the cashier to run your Prepaid Card through for its remaining
balance as a regular charge. Authorization will only be given for the amount
available on the Prepaid Card.
Before you can check your balance
you must Register Your Prepaid Card -- Click here
to Register Your Prepaid Card. If you have already registered
your Prepaid Card, Click here to see
your purchase history and remaining balance.
Contact customer service
immediately at 877-303-4438. If
reported prior to the funds being depleted a new card or a check can be issued
for the remaining balance less applicable fees once the waiting period expires
to ensure that all additional transactions on the card have been
received.
Cards embossed with generic names
rather than actual cardholder names cannot be re-issued unless the cardholder's
name has been placed on file prior to the card being lost or stolen and the
MasterCard® or Visa® number of the card is known.
You will be charged a $5
cancellation fee and a $5 re-issue fee against the remaining balance.
New cards are issued for remaining
balances of $5 or more and checks are issued for remaining balances of $1
to $4.99.
If the purchaser of the card
cancels the card before it is ever received and used by the cardholder, the
purchaser will be charged a $5 cancellation fee andcharged the
purchaser's normal service fee in order to re-issue the card.
You can reach us through our Contact Us page or by calling us at 877-303-4438.
Our phones are staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, holidays excluded.
Our office is open from 7AM to 5PM Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Friday.
If you have a remaining balance
after your Prepaid Card becomes inactive, your Prepaid Card will be charged a $10
inactivity fee to maintain your account balance. Each month thereafter
your Prepaid Card will be assessed a maintenance fee of $3 to maintain your
account.
If the Prepaid Card has become
inactive and a balance remains we will reissue a Prepaid Card in the same
name. The re-issue fee is $5.
To request a re-issue, please mail contact Customer Service at 877-303-4438.
The Prepaid Card does not work
directly at the pump. The cardholder needs to present the card to the merchant
and ask for an authorization on the card for a specific dollar amount.
Please note that most restaurants
have their point-of-service terminals pre-programmed to add a 15%-20% gratuity
to your bill total at the time of card authorization. For your card to be
accepted, the total of your bill plus the automatically added gratuity must not
exceed the available balance on your Prepaid Card. For example: If you have $25
remaining on your Prepaid Card, and have a $24 restaurant bill, your Prepaid Card may
be declined for that purchase because the restaurant may be trying to authorize
a $30 purchase, not a $24 purchase. This issue applies to any merchant with a
tip line on the receipt.
Although your Prepaid Card has the
word Debit printed on it, do not attempt to use/process it as a Debit card. The
Prepaid Card can only be successfully used/processed as a regular charge card. Any
attempt to use/process the Prepaid Card as a Debit card or store prepaid card will
result in the card being rejected. Your Prepaid Card does NOT have a PIN.
In order for MasterCard® or Visa® to process
a dispute, the disputed transaction has to be within the last 45 days.
MasterCard® and Visa® rules state that the
cardholder must submit the dispute in writing.
For questions regarding orders, please email: Orders@theGiftCard.com.
For other questions, please email: info@thegiftcard.com