Top 11 Gift Cards to Give for the 2017 Holidays

What do iTunes, Starbucks and Walmart have in common?

Their gift cards are prime choices to give this holiday season, according to a recent analysis by WalletHub.

The website reports that while gift cards have been the most popular type of present for more than a decade now, they aren’t all equally great.

For the analysis, WalletHub evaluated 50 gift card options based on five features:

• The popularity of the card
• The amount of discount you can get on the card
• The card’s resale value
• How much people like the retailer
• Shipping fees

Each gift card that was evaluated received an overall score on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the best possible score. The highest actual score was 70 for iTunes gift cards, followed by 60 for Starbucks and Walmart cards.

The 11 highest-scoring gift cards — all which ship for free — are:

• iTunes — earned an overall score of 70 out of 100
• Starbucks — 60
• Walmart — 60
• Victoria’s Secret — 55
• Target — 55
• Amazon — 55
• Best Buy — 55
• Chipotle Mexican Grill — 55
• Fandango — 55
• Sephora — 55
• Disney — 55

Remember, you can save money on a variety of gift cards, including iTunes cards, by buying them from a wholesale club. For example, check out Sam’s Club’s “Gift Cards” webpage.

The most versatile gift card of all?

If you’re still stumped as to what kind of gift card to buy for someone, consider eGifter’s Choice Card.

It’s effectively a credit that the recipient can redeem for a gift card of their choice. As eGifter describes it:

“The eGifter Choice Card gives you total flexibility and choice! The recipient can choose from hundreds of gift cards on eGifter.com or in our mobile apps to get whatever they want, whenever they need it.”

There is no fee for you to give someone a Choice Card or for the recipient to redeem it. So, the recipient can spend the full value of the Choice Card on one or more gift cards of their choosing — “such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, Adidas, Target, The Home Depot … the list goes on and on,” eGifter says.

All you have to do is buy a Choice Card, which is available in amounts from $5 to $2,000. When you place the order, you can specify when you want the Choice Card sent to the recipient — immediately or on a later date of your choice. Alternatively, you can print a PDF version of the Choice Card to hand to the recipient yourself.

Do you have a favorite type of gift card, or a go-to gift card for giving to others? Tell us about it below or over on our Facebook page.