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I live in Belgium and my sister lives in the USA. I would like to send her a MasterCard gift card but I tried to pay with my Belgian MasterCard on giftcards.com and it failed because the form that they use apparently accepts only billing addresses in the US. I cannot believe that they are so short-sighted that they couldn't figure out a way to allow people from all over the world to send gift cards to their loved ones in the US!

So, is there a way to do it?

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Gift cards like this are an interesting thing. They are like cash but with no traceability, as the card itself can be bought with a credit card or cash. They can easily be used for illegal purposes.

Do you buy from many vendors outside of your country? I know that when I sell an item on eBay, I'll click US-Only for buyers, as the logistics of selling overseas/non-one's-own-country are an issue. For a big company with volume, less so, but still, an issue.

If I were the gift card issuer, I don't know if the effort (expense) to support foreign sales would be worth the volume it would generate.

Continue to shop around, but look locally for a card that would work overseas. Not to buy overseas.

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  • No traceability? I have to give the billing address for my credit card. The only problem is, the form for the billing address does not accept addresses outside the US. Amazon doesn't seem to have any problems with processing European credit cards, why would MasterCard or Visa have one?! – AsGoodAsItGets Mar 14 '14 at 14:10
  • The purchased card has no information. It knows its own value, and its point of purchase, but not the buyer's information. I hope that's clear. When purchased with cash, no ID at all is required. – JoeTaxpayer♦ Mar 14 '14 at 14:28
  • In the case of giftcards.com, I have to send the purchased cards to a valid US address and I have to provide a name for the card user as well. I still don't consider it such a big issue. And in any case, regardless of why they're doing it, it's still not helping my situation. – AsGoodAsItGets Mar 14 '14 at 14:49
  • Separate from your issue, in the US we have a tax code which (a) is incomprehensible (b) no one is happy with, and (c) has an overhead that's far more than it should be. You accused the vendor of being short-sighted, and wanted a solution. My answer was to try to explain why the vendor handles his business this way, and thereby giving you a hint for another direction to go. I wish you well. – JoeTaxpayer♦ Mar 14 '14 at 15:04
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    So what's the problem? – littleadv May 13 '14 at 16:19
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It should be noted that in this case, Visa/MasterCard are not at fault. They are simply two card associations that offer a payment network for merchants to accept payments.

Giftcards.com is not really affiliated with Visa/MasterCard, other than they serve as a third-party vendor of their gift cards. So at the core, your question is "Why doesn't this one online third-party gift card vendor accept a foreign billing address / card?" (The answer probably has something to do with keeping their own tax filings manageable). That would be something you could direct toward the Contact section of their website.

Judging from the comment chain on Joe's answer, you've already found a way to achieve your end-result. If your current solution doesn't offer what you need, you'll have to find another vendor that accepts non-US billing addresses. I'm not sure what the official policy is on suggesting products/vendors for money.se.

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    It's a tough issue. Products and policies change, and product related recommendations are frowned upon. You can see the recent questions closed for this reason. – JoeTaxpayer♦ May 13 '14 at 16:30
  • @Noah: I haven't found a way to achieve my end result. If you mean the fact that I can buy gift cards from amazon, this is not satisfactory because amazon does not carry all gift cards. The good thing about mastercard/visa giftcards is that they're like money, they can be spent buying anything, anywhere. – AsGoodAsItGets May 13 '14 at 20:21
  • @AsGoodAsItGets Operating under the assumption that WalMart's base offerings don't change too much, you can purchase pre-paid Visa Gift Cards (static amounts) from WalMart's website, and they allow you to pay with PayPal. Free shipping to a US address, too. – Noah May 13 '14 at 20:31
  • @JoeTaxpayer tagging you to review the above comment for appropriateness – Noah May 13 '14 at 20:32
  • @Noah - the OP wants a particular solution, once that one is offered, he'll be happy unless the seller changes policy, which renders the solution void. The comments are fine as long a they remain civil. – JoeTaxpayer♦ May 13 '14 at 20:38

protected by Chris W. Rea Nov 9 '15 at 22:47

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