American Express Gift Checks (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

I've got two AE gift checks I got for my winter bonus and was wondering if you know if these can be used online or not? I am looking to purchase some winter mountaineering gear that I cannot find locally. Would I be able to use these GCs online? (Other than simply buying them and depositing them in my checking account )

Jay

 

[CameronJ]

Jay,

Not that this really answers your question - but I've received these as bonuses in the past also. The easiest way I found to handle them was to just deposit them.

 

[MarkHastings]

The thing with these gift checks are, you have to sign them in the presence of someone who can authorize them (at least they used to be, I'm not sure about now).

My mom had one and she was going to use it at a dept. store. - She got to the cashier and the cashier told her to sign it. After trying to use it in the cash register, the cashier then realized that she needed the maganer to approve it...When the manager came over, he wasn't going to allow my mom to use it because it had already been signed (i.e. it had to be signed in his presence or else it was void). My mom was furious and fought like hell for him to approve it. The cashier said that she witnessed her signing it and he allowed it, but still...

So be careful. I'd deposit them as well. That's probably the safest bet.

EDIT: I found this on the AmEx site:So I guess the cashiers can now approve them, but it's still too tricky.