If you purchased a gift card for someone this past holiday, you may have been burned by a company that closed its doors before the gift card could be redeemed. I was recently reading about this problem, which apparently occurs more often than I thought. According to one article that I read, one beauty salon sold gift certificates all the way until Christmas Eve, closed on Christmas Day, and never opened its doors again. If buying gift cards is so risky these days, what’s the safest way to pay for them – cash or credit?
With the economy in such bad shape, it would be a good idea not to many any gift card purchases at all. But if you insist, do so with a credit card. After all, more businesses are likely to shutter if the economy keeps worsening. The same is true if you make a down payment on an item or purchase an item in advance. Certain retailers keep accepting these payments even though they know they probably won’t be able to make good on them.
But, generally speaking, if you pay with a credit card, the card issuer bears the burden of collecting payment for the item from the merchant so you should be overly concerned about paying for something and being left empty-handed..
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