GREENSBORO, N.C. — Gift cards, or pre-paid credit cards from Visa, Mastercard, or AMEX gift are common. Chances are you’ve given one to someone or you have one yourself.
The common issue is not knowing how much of a balance you have on that card. How do you check the balance? For a lot of folks, the answer would be to Google it. For example, maybe you type in “check visa gift card balance”. That would be a mistake.
“You want to be careful about websites where you go to check the balance of your gift card. We're getting reports on our Scam Tracker that the sites are stealing the money off your gift card,” said Lechelle Yates of the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB put out a post about how not to get scammed out of your gift card this season. The article talks about best practices when buying a gift card and how to look for cards that may be compromised. The last three points in the article talk about checking your card's balance and registering your card just in case you lose or misplace it.
Googling how to find my balance or clicking on a pop-up ad that looks like it's from a retailer, these are two things you should not do! So, the best way to find your balance is by…
“On the back of the card, it will tell you the site you go to check the balance. Those are the sites I would use,” said Yates.
As soon as you get a gift card, look for the website on the back and register the card. This protects your card balance if it's lost or stolen.
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