Are there less expensive Gift Card options?

[sciabica1936]

I would like to add gift cards to my shop, custom printed with my logo, but I'm having trouble with the cost.  At $1.50 each, that's more than double the rate from the SAME printer!

$0.59 for 500 custom cards from ECardSystyems: https://ecardsystems.com/giftcardprinting.html

I think of everything in percentages, so if I want to sell a $25 card, the $1.50 is essentially a 6% fee plus the % CC transaction fee.  That's hard to swallow and does not IMO result in a good ROI.

That assumes the cards are not reloaded or reused.  Can anyone who's been using Gift Cards give me feedback on how many get reloaded?  Are you comfortable reusing a gift card once it's been depleted and selling it another customer?

Is there any way to get a Gift Card coded correctly from another printer?

[VanKalkerFarms]

We do reuse the cards. I'd say 50% at least. 

There re is no other company currently that works with square. There are no other fees besides buying the card as some other systems have cheaper cards then a 50¢ activation fee. 

You won't be charged anything by square if it is loaded with cash but will have the fee if a credit card is used to load it just as you would if they were buying merchandise with a credit card. There will be no fee at checkout when using the gift card for payment. 

[AltoFrio]

Technically, that's not true. There are plenty of companies that want to work with Square but Square refuses to release the information for anyone to print gift cards that work with their stuff. So technically, Square won't work with any other companies, not the other way around. This has really started to irritate me as a customer that Square is gouging prices on their gift cards and refusing to allow me as a customer to find an affordable option without completely switching companies.

[green-cupboard]

Thanks! You just answered my question...

[dejabrewcda]

Completely agree!  Square is being very unrealistic when it comes to gift cards. Their pricing for custom cards, something most businesses need for appropriate marketing, is simply highway robbery.  We already pay considerable transaction fees to them.  You would think they would open up to being able to purchase cards elsewhere that are 100% compatible with the Square system. Instead we have to go outside for a realistic option.

[toyssamurai]

This is especially true if you think about how the gift card works -- you swipe the card to load it, then track by swiping the card. Since the card is nothing more than a piece of plastic with magnetic stripe, it is more likely than not that all Square is doing is track the card by an ID. Given how much info can be fitted into a magnetic stripe, if Square opens up the format of the data embedded in the magnetic stripe, it will be extremely easy to print custom gift card for Square.

[martina_a]

Hi @sciabica1936, Martina here from the Gift Cards team.

Thanks for the feedback! To add some context around our Gift Card prices, we decided to price in a way so that sellers incur a one-time cost to use our program. Most POS and gift card providers (including eCard Systems) charge a monthly subscription fee of $15 or more for the service of activating and redeeming gift cards, in addition to the costs of purchasing the gift cards. That means, even if you don't sell or redeem any gift cards in a given month, you'd still pay a fee to keep your gift card program up and running. At quantities below 500 cards, launching a gift card program with Square is often less expensive than doing so with other providers or POS.

[dejabrewcda]

You have made it extremely difficult for small businesses to order a more customized card.  Even the quick card (which is just a logo) has a minimum order of 125 and if we wanted a custom card minimum 250.  

At $2 each that is a considerable amount either way for the initial purchase. Also, we have many customers requesting gift cards of $10 and $20 values. At $2, a $10 gift card already costs us $12 and $22 respectively. Can you recommend an alternative card to use with Square that will also track its balance?  

Thank you in advance for your response!

[VanKalkerFarms]

If you want the ability for Square to track the balances then these gift cards are what you need to use.  You can use other gift cards but you would have to manually track the loading and balance of the cards which is time-consuming and costly which balances out with the cost of the card.  with ecard systems there is a lot of other costs besides the card fee, here is from their website.

Using the Quick card option 125 cards cost $1.50 each.  there are no other fees after this like monthly fees, or startup fees, or loading fees etc.  these are the cards we use.  also, remember that the cards can be used again and again.  95% of the cards that have their value used up we give out again, therefore cutting your cost in half and half again.  Some people may have written in magic marker or something on them which is hard to get off.

[Sean · Accepted solution]

Hey y'all! Just wanted to offer a quick update, as there have been some recent developments around gift card pricing. To get going (in case you missed it), Square recently launched a FREE eGift card offering. Read more about eGift Cards (they're really awesome). Outside of this cool new feature, we also just recently lowered the prices for all of physical Gift Cards.

Here's a quick chart to outline the changes (pricing updated as of August 2022): 

As always, thanks for the feedback! It's truly invaluable!  

[pessosices]

Any reimbursement/remedy for existing Custom Gift Card orders with the price decrease?

[martina_a]

Hi @pessosices, we're honoring price adjustments for any GC orders made w/in 2 weeks of the price change on May 5 (so any orders between April 21- today). You can contact eCard Systems for the adjustment if your order applies:  1-866-776-7409

[mao411]

Gift card is way too expensive to use....

[dejabrewcda]

Agree it is far too expensive. After considering our options we decided to go with ecardsystems. It is a standalone system that works on the iPad along with Square register. It would have been ideal to get them through Square but we are a very small business and the cost of gift cards through Square makes it financially impossible to offer gift cards to our customers. Ecardsystems is a good alternative.

[XtinaDam]

Thank you @dejabrewcda and @mao411 both for your feedback.

We have heard our community's comments on the cost of gift cards and have been working with our vendors to find ways to continue to decrease the cost to our sellers (for example, minimum orders for custom cards have dropped from 500 cards to 125).

Would you be willing to give a little more info on what part of the offering feels too expensive for you? Is it the up-front cost of ordering gift cards? Or the standard payment processing rate when a card is purchased/loaded for the first time? Unlike most alternatives we do not charge an ongoing subscription fee to use gift cards, which may make the costs look more expensive at first glance -- though we would really like to understand how you think about that when considering what costs are appropriate for your business or not. Please share any more details or feedback you're willing to offer for our team!

Also, if you haven't yet discovered our free eGift Card offering, any Square seller can set-up a digital gift card order page, so customers can purchase eGift Cards online and email them to friends and family. eGift Cards are free to set-up and offer to your customers, you only pay 2.9%+$0.30 in payment processing when a gift card is purchased from your business. You can set them up in your online dashboard here: https://squareup.com/dashboard/gift-cards/electronic 

Thank you!

[RHatch]

One thing I don't think users understand is that there is NO processing fee to use the gift cards.

Every business is different but for me using Square, Gift cards were the better choice.

I bought 500 custom cards for $650.   Knowing that these will last me for years.  Also unlike the Ecard system, I can Reuse them (different than reloading them.)

Now with the Ecard system, I could get 500 custom cards for $295, but I have to have their service which is $19.95 for 2 iPads per month, so $239.40 a year.

So Ecard would be $534.44 for the first year and Square is $650

but Ecard would be $239.40 every year after that and Square would be $0 unless I need to order more cards. 

So as long as I don't order cards but every other year, which I will not,  Square for ME is the cheaper, easier option.

[lemonade605]

My pricing concern is the cost per card. In my opinion I should be able to order gift cards from any supplier (most with per card costs below $.30) and have them work with my square point of sale system. But I've been told that Square is not willing to release the information needed to encode these cards because they want you to order through Square. I think all Square users would order through Square if their price per card were in line with other plastic card printers. Just lower the price per card and we wouldn't need to have these discussions about needing a third party processor with monthly fees (which is your basis for charging more per card).

[Helen]

Thank you for your post about the cost of gift cards @lemonade605, I know our Gift Cards team will appreciate your feedback! If there are any changes to the cost per gift card in future we'll let everyone know in the Community. 

[VRtual]

Just release to us the track information and if you use LoCo or HiCo. I own a print business and can get gift cards printed up for 90% less than what you are selling for. Every other POS system allows this, as Ive installed many POS systems in my IT days. I understand if you’re trying to make a buck on gift cards, but your price is way too high.

[RSS1]

Seriously Square...charging $1.00 per Gift card is highway robbery...and is actually insulting.

We are now seriously considering moving our store to another vendor. Shame on you.

[Helen]

Hi @RSS1, I'm very sorry for the frustration this has caused. Any additional information you can share will really help the Gift Card team. Is it the upfront cost that's too much? Did you use other gift card vendors in the past with a better pricing structure? 

The Gift Card team reads every post in this thread and is working to improve the pricing structure for Square Gift cards. If we have any updates to share we'll post here, and you'll automatically be notified.