The 10 most popular types of gift cards in the USA

Gift cards have become a staple choice for gifting and making convenient purchases. In the USA, you can find different types of gift cards across various industries.

These gift cards are often created to reward customer loyalty and can be used to purchase items at discounted prices from retail stores. 

In this blog post, we will explore the 10 most popular types of Gift cards in the USA and some tips on choosing the right gift card.

Key Takeaways

• The popular types of gift cards in the USA span various industries. Therefore, choose gift cards that suit your preferences.
• Following the tips in this guide will help you choose the right gift card for yourself and recipients.
• If you have difficulty choosing the gift card brand, going for universal gift cards like Visa gift cards can be a better choice.

Top 10 Most Popular Types of Gift Cards

1. Entertainment Gift Cards

Entertainment gift cards in the USA are popular types of gift cards owned by popular entertainment brands. They allow you to access and enjoy premium movies, music, TV shows, streaming services, and documentaries. 

These gift cards cater to various interest groups, making them an excellent choice for individuals and families. The only downside is that to continue enjoying these entertainment brands' entertainment contents, you will have to keep subscribing to their monthly or yearly plans, which may require regular buying of these gift cards.

Entertainment gift cards include Netflix gift cards, AMC Theatres gift cards, Disney gift cards, Spotify gift cards, etc.

2. Dining Gift Cards

Another popular type of gift card in the USA is the Dining gift card. These gift cards are excellent choices for people who love to eat and drink or try different culinary dishes. You can give yourself or someone in that category a dining gift card. 

However, remember that a dining gift card is restricted to a specific restaurant chain, and the monetary value of these gift cards may not cover the cost of a high-end meal. Therefore, it is essential to check the value of the dining gift card before ordering food or drink to avoid embarrassment.

Examples of dining gift cards include Starbucks gift cards, Uber Eats gift cards, Olive Garden gift cards, Freemans Restaurant gift cards, and so on. 

3. Retail Gift Cards

Examples: Amazon, Walmart, Target

Retail gift cards are another type of popular gift card in the USA. These gift cards are customised designs from a brand that lets users or customers buy various products, such as groceries, electronics, home decor, supplements, etc, at a discounted rate. 

They come in various designs, denominations, colours and shapes. The easiest way to identify a Retail gift card is to check for the brand’s logo on the gift card. If it is an Amazon gift card, for example, you will see Amazon boldly written on it with a curved arrow beneath the word.

Retail gift cards include Amazon gift cards, Walmart gift cards, eBay gift cards, etc.

4. Travel Gift Cards

Travel gift cards are owned by travel and hospitality brands in the USA. They provide users who love to travel and explore new cities, countries and even continents for adventure or fun the convenience of doing so. With the travel gift cards, users can quickly pay for transportation, which could be by taxis or flights, accommodation and so on while travelling.

So, if you or your loved ones love to travel, a Travel gift card would be a perfect gift. Some examples of travel gift cards include Uber, Airbnb, Nordstrom, and Southwest Airlines gift cards.

5. Apparel Gift Cards

Apparel gift cards allow fashion enthusiasts who love shopping for items of clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories to shop for their preferred fashion style and size at a discounted price. These gift cards can be used in in-store and online shopping and give you access to various products from the brand.

It can be a perfect gift to loved ones who are fashion enthusiasts. Some examples of Apparel gift cards include Nike gift cards, Macy’s gift cards, etc.

6. Home Decor Gift Cards

Home Decor gift cards are another popular type in the USA. Home improvement brands often own them and give users access to buy a wide range of home improvement items like artefacts, gardening tools, renovation types of equipment, pieces of furniture and so on at a discounted price. 

These types of gift cards often come in handy when you are moving into a new home or renovating your current home. Because it helps you cut costs on the amount of money spent on improving or decorating your home., you can also gift these gift cards to loved ones who are moving into a new home as your little way of supporting them.

Examples of Home Decor gift cards include Home Depot gift cards, Lowe’s gift cards, and so on.

7. Virtual Gift Cards

Virtual gift cards are the digital forms of a brand’s physical gift cards, popular in the USA. They are primarily used to shop for items or pay for services on a brand’s website, mobile app or online store and come in varying denominations, equivalent to that of the physical gift card.

When you purchase a virtual or e-gift card from an online or physical retail store, the details of the virtual gift card will be sent to your email address or messaging app. 

Some examples of virtual gift cards include Vanilla gift cards, American Express gift cards, Sephora gift cards, Amazon gift cards, etc.

8. Gaming Gift Cards

Gaming gift cards are also very popular types of gift cards in the USA. They are customised designs from brands that offer a gaming experience for their users. With these gift cards, gaming enthusiasts can pay for subscriptions, purchases

gaming features, and other customised products from the brand.

As with other branded gift cards mentioned in this article, the only downside of owning a gaming gift card is that their use and worth are limited to the brand or platform. Examples of gaming gift cards are Xbox gift cards, Steam gift cards, PlayStation gift cards, etc.

9. Gas Gift Cards

These gift cards allow you to buy gas at any designated gas station outlet of the gas company. You can also purchase other products and services the company sells at a discounted price.

I have to add that while some gas gift cards allow you to buy gas at any of the company’s gas outlets in the world, others are restricted to a city or country. Therefore, always confirm this from the gift card merchant before purchase, especially when you plan to use it while travelling, so you do not become disappointed 

Examples of Gas gift cards include Chevron gift cards, Sumoco gas gift cards, Shell gift cards, etc.

10. Versatile Prepaid Gift Cards

Versatile prepaid gift cards offer users the option of using them for transactions in 

almost any part of the world. They are primarily used in place of cash when purchasing items in both online and physical stores and are quite popular not only in the USA but worldwide, too.

While these gift cards are perfect options for users who want a flexible and convenient method of making payments with their payment cards, they come with their downsides. 

To use this card, you first need to activate it, and a fee will be deducted from your gift card for that service. There are also other fees like usage fees and so on. Other than that, a versatile prepaid gift card is a must-have.

An example of a versatile prepaid gift card is the Visa gift card.

Tips for Choosing the Right Gift Card

1. When choosing gift cards, it is essential to know what your preferences are so that you can get gift cards that are suitable for you. This is also important when you are buying gift cards for other people as a gift. Find out what their interests or preferences are so that your gift will be well-appreciated.

2. If you are unsure of the gift card brand to buy for yourself, family, friend or acquaintance, you should purchase versatile gift cards like Visa gift cards that are universally accepted instead.

3. When choosing gift cards, take the tone to verify what the don't card's restrictions are to maximise the card's value fully.

4. If you gift a gift card to a loved one to mark a special occasion in their lives, it is essential to go for gift cards that allow users to customise it the way they want.

5. Go for gift cards that regularly run promotional offers so that you can take advantage of discounts and sales events to maximise the gift card's value.

Conclusion

Now that you know some of the popular types of gift cards that are available in the USA, adding some of them to your gift card collection would not be a bad idea after all. 

I recommend you go for gift cards that suit your needs or that of your recipient if you are giving it out as a gift and leave a positive comment if this guide was helpful.

Till next time, thanks for reading!

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