The Best Gift Cards To Give This Holiday Season

Here are the best gift cards to buy for your loved ones, and how to get the most for your money.

Gift cards are a really good gift – they are always the right color and size and everybody always likes them. If you’re struggling this year to find the perfect gift, here are the best gift cards to buy this season and how to get the most for the money you spend.

When you give someone a card, you want to make sure that they’re going to use.

How do you know what are the most sought after cards for this season?

I’m glad you asked. Here are the best cards to give as gifts this year, according to US News.

Multi-media cards 

Sure, you can go the standard route with an iTunes or Google play card, but there are a lot of other options. If you’re buying for a gamer, you can purchase cards for the Nintendo Shop or Playstation Store.

This will save you all the trouble of having to guess what the hottest game or app is this season, and allow the receiver to spend their gaming (or music or media) bucks on anything they like.

Retail Giants  

Giving the gift of an Amazon card is like giving the gift of possibility. You can find anything on the retail juggernaut’s site, so this card has the highest probability of getting used before any other gift card.

If you’re thinking of giving a gift card to someone who might not be so internet-savvy, try gifting a Wal-Mart or Target card. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you like, you’ll find something to buy at one of these big box stores.

In the same spirit of the retail cards, you can also purchase cards to grocery store or markets. Everybody eats, so buying a Publix, Kroger or Whole Foods card is kind of like putting food in their mouth. Everybody appreciates a free meal.

Bank Cards/Added Value Cards

These cards offer the recipient unlimited choices. Not only can someone use a Visa, MasterCard or American Express card to buy things they want in stores, they can use the cards for online purchases as well. Often, these cards can be used over and over as you put more money on the account. The downside to these cards is that they often have fees associated with the original purchase, and each time you add value, so make sure to read the fine print.

According to the financial site, Wallet Hub, the most popular gift cards for 2016 are mostly clothing/department and restaurants.

The retailers with the highest ratings are TJ Maxx and Dunkin Dounts, so if you’re pressed for time, these could be a reliable go-to.

The stores with the lowest ratings are, surprisingly, McDonalds and Disney. I guess everybody is spending their own money at these two.

The consumer website, Fool.com, listed the biggest surprises in the gift card industry from the last two years. In a retailing twist, Netflix cards are down this year from 2015. That’s probably attributable to Netflix’s pervasive presence in American homes. What’s also encouraging is the fact that Home Depot cards are up.

Maybe everyone is outside working in their yard and touching up their homes instead of eating McDonalds and watching Netflix. Fingers crossed.