Many retail stores offer customers a store credit represented by a plastic gift card that can be used as cash to purchase any product available in the store. For years, store credits for gifts or returns were issued in the form of an official paper certificate or wallet sized paper card signed by the store manager. In more recent years, the swipeable plastic gift card has become the more popular medium for which store credits are distributed. The plastic gift card allows companies to keep track of usage via the card’s magnetic tape in the same way that credit cards do. Once a gift card’s credit amount is spent, the card can be either disposed of or recharged.

Everyone seems to have a few favorite stores and brand names that they are fond of. Usually, others around them are aware of a friend or family member’s loyalty to a particular store or brand. Hence, giving someone a gift card from a favorite store makes an easy gift choice for the giver and virtually guarantees the recipient’s satisfaction. It’s easy to see why gift cards are extremely popular during the holiday gift giving season. Gift cards are an appealing gift from the recipient’s point of view because there are unlimited product choices available. The entire store’s shelves are at the fingertips of the gift card owner. There is also typically no time limitation or expiration. This means that the gift card owner can wait and purchase an item at a convenient time such as during a sale.

Most large retail stores offer gift cards for purchase. Clothing, electronics, and restaurants are among the most popular, but virtually any industry can sell or give away gift cards. Most gift cards from well known retail company stores can be used in-store or online. They may include a pin number for verification or security purposes. Gift cards may also have monthly maintenance fees and expiration dates. Terms and conditions stated by the issuing company may also apply to gift cards.

Free gift cards differ from regular gift cards in one simple and very obvious way: they don’t cost anything. Some stores give free gift cards to customers as part a special offer or promotion they are advertising. For example, Bed, Bath and Beyond has offered a free gift card in the amount of $50 with certain product purchases over $250. One major car company reportedly gave vouchers for free $75 gift cards when web site visitors requested a brochure for one of their cars and took a test drive. OfficeMax has given gift cards to customers for items replaced under their extended warranties.

The easiest and most common method of obtaining free gift cards is online via the Internet. Online free gift cards are most commonly found online in $10, $25 and $50 denominations. Even though online gift cards are advertised as free, it’s important to remember that the prospect is always required to take some action before taking ownership of the free gift card. This action could be one or all of the following:

• Complete out an online form with name, address, phone, etc.
• Take an online survey
• Apply for one or more trial offers

It’s fair to assume that the higher the value of the free gift card, the more the applicant will be asked to do.

Most free gift card offers are facilitated by affiliate advertising networks. Members of these networks are either publishers or merchants. The merchant (affiliate advertiser) designs a banner ad, text copy or other “creative” advertisements for publishers to deploy on their web sites.

When a web site visitor clicks through the ad and completes an action such as filling out an online form for a trial offer that promises a free gift card, the publisher is compensated by receiving a percentage of the sale. In the case of pay-per-click networks, the action is a pay-per-click amount determined by publishers who bid on keywords they want to target. The affiliate network tracks all ad impressions, clicks, and sales for both the merchant and the publisher. What is happening here? The publisher is simply sending the merchant a referral or lead and receiving compensation for it.

So, the merchant gains a new customer, the publisher earns a commission, and the web site visitor gets a free gift card. Notice that everyone who is part of this process both gives and gets something in return.

Some free sites commonly offer free gift cards and free gift certificates to visitors via ads as described above. Free sites or free stuff sites are good at finding and organizing free gift card offers as well as a host of other free offers. One such site is aplusfreestuff.com, a free stuff site described as offering the “highest quality free stuff, samples, contests and coupons.” One pleasantly unique aspect of the A+ Free Stuff site is that there are no pop-ups or banners to coerce visitors, only text links.

There are also independent rewards programs such as YourGiftCards.com that offer multiple free gift card offers. These sites act as online direct marketers who aggregate advertisers in order to target consumers online with free gift cards and other promotional offers. Some such sites allow visitors to accrue a points balance for completing sponsor offers. Often the sponsor offers come from well-known retail stores from which a large number of consumers are likely to be familiar with. The chances are good for finding at least one sponsor offer of reasonable interest. Once the balance reaches a certain level, the points can be used to redeem a free gift card. These sites may have direct agreements with advertisers who cover the cost for the free gift cards and the shipping and handling. However, independent rewards sites normally want keep their distance from the merchant so as to not imply any affiliation with brand names. These independent sites may even have their own customer service departments reachable by phone.

Doing a little research before beginning an online free gift card sign up process can save the free gift card seeker a great deal of time and frustration. If possible, try to determine the criteria for obtaining the free gift card beforehand. Some free gift card offers, especially the higher dollar amount ones can sound appealing on the surface. It’s quite easy to get excited about the possibility of getting a free gift card from your favorite store. Advertisers know this. But, it can be very disappointing to invest time in completing an online free gift card sign up only to discover that the offers are not desireable or the demands are too high. Read the free gift card offer terms. If the free gift card web site doesn’t answer your questions, consider contacting them to get answers via their email address or contact/help form. Apply for free gift cards from stores that you are familiar with. Finally, follow through and hold the free gift card offerer–not the merchant–accountable for delivering what they promised.