photo credit: Mark Sebastian
The wedding we attended this weekend presented an interesting opportunity for a wedding gift: Visa money gift card or a personal check to help fund a savings account. My wife’s cousin is a missionary in Africa and they didn’t have the traditional wedding registry with appliances, dishes, and bedding. They requested cash so that they could buy local items in Africa and save space while flying home. Typically my wife and I would go online and view a friend’s wedding registry for gift ideas. Should we treat this wedding any differently? Would you give them a Visa money gift card or a check?
What is your wedding gift budget? Do you have a set spending limit when purchasing gifts for a wedding? We typically spend $100, and I believe we spent $50 when we were first married. We budget a bit lower for baby showers and spend around $50. This might seem high, but we typically attend a wedding every two years. Our budget for this wedding was $100 and we couldn’t decide what was better: Visa money gift card or cash?
The Visa money gift card has some major drawbacks as a wedding present.
The Visa gift card charges a $4.50 sales charge to fund the card. That’s a 4.5% sales charge! That $100 would cost us $104.50.
The Visa money gift card has an expiration date and must be used before this date. An expiration date on money is not fair for consumers. How can you give a cash gift with this restriction? I have had 3 cash gift cards that have gone unused and expired worthless. I realize it was my own fault, but I actually forgot I had them. They sat in my wallet, and expired. Lesson learned, spend them immediately on groceries, gas, and necessities first. I would hate to give a Visa money gift card and have it expire worthless for them.
The Visa money gift card has a fee if the card is lost or stolen. You must register your card first, and then charged a replacement fee for the lost card. This Visa gift card had a $5.00 replacement fee.
Why should we give them the gift of cash?
They could deposit the check in a savings account or any investment account. It is 100% liquid and has no fees or expiration dates. Better yet, they could start an emergency account and set aside funds for unexpected expenses. This could be a great start to a young marrieds family budget. Save up that first $1,000 and then move on to establish a short-term savings account. Would you buy a Visa money gift card or a cash gift for a wedding present? Have you ever written a personal note in your wedding gift card encouraging them to utilize the funds for a savings account?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Cash, newlyweds always have unexpected expenses. Cash when there is no registry is a great gift.
Hey I love the new site look! Passive Dad, I was wondering if you will allow me the honor of syndicating you on my blog? Let me know.
tony
Hi Scott, I noticed that you stopped by my place and I wanted to come over to give you a shout out. I first went to your other blog…are you still working with that? I noticed on your other site a post regarding Selling Blogs, and you mentioned MomsCashBlog well I am the person that bought MCB and I am here to tell you that it is being done. But I must admit it is no easy task I did get some flak from well really only 1 or 2 people saying it was cheating to buy a blog already up and running. I’m here to tell you it is harder to try to keep the blog at a certain page rank and to keep the same traffic as the previous owner. I am doing just fine except for a few tech. problems that really should of been addressed when I purchased the blog. I could tell people what to do and not to do. lol But to get to your post I agree that most newlyweds really need cash. I think it’s great that your cousin is a missionary in Africa and I can only imagine that they will need things that we probably don’t even think about… so I vote CASH. Stop by again and give me a shout out would love to hear your opinion or just a shout.lol Thanks JJ I will be back…nice site
@ Carol I remember when my wife and I were married, we sure appreciated the cash and checks too. We didn’t do the money dance, as we didn’t have music or dancing at our reception. That could be another source of income
@ Tony Thanks for the kind words.
@ JJ Yes, my wife’s cousin is doing a wonderful job in Africa and could really use the cash for her wedding. I’m about to send them an email and find out how they are doing since they returned home.