Bank Issue Gift Cards Remain Most Popular

Gift Cards from Banks were most popular in 2008

Visa, MasterCard and American Express gift cards top the list

In a somewhat surprising fashion, gift cards from banks have landed in the top 10 list of most popular gift cards for 2008. This is suprising because they are most often heavy in fees and expiration dates. None the less gift cards from Amex, Visa and MasterCard were given by the thousands last year.

The theory at GiftCertificateGuide is that on some level, the bank issue gift cards are a gift card OF gift cards. Let us explain. Imagine the mind of a gift card giver. On some level they are not looking to make a choice. This is the beauty and luxury of gift cards. One may not know what size or color of Nike running shoes his friend wants but he can 'go on a limb' and assume that a Nike gift card will make them happy. Now consider the giver who is not sure if Nike is the best store. Perhaps and adidas gift card would be better...Torn with indecision the gift card giver can fall back to a bank gift card and know that with Visa or Amex being accepted on most websites they can not go wrong with a bank card. We call this the "why make a decision" thory on bank gift cards.

There is a second theory as well. We call this the "son at college needs money and this isn't really a gift card at all" theory. We are working on a better name. We believe that many of the bank gift cards are simply used as a way to give cash. These are not for special occasions as traditional gift cards are. These bank gift cards are likley given on a fixed schedule and replace the mailing or wiring of money. If this theory is right at all then the bank gift cards should be removed from the Top Ten gift card list and they should yield to the shopping merchants that made the list. These include wal mart, target, home depot and iTunes gift cards.