DO NOT REDEEM!!!
I think it is for the better. Digital gift cards are more convenient. Plus less paper and plastic use is a net positive for the environment as most people throw physical gift cards (that are redeemed digitally) in the trash anyways. Although it is good to acknowledge that people who will lose out on the attachment in physical sense, like wrapping it up for a friend and seeing the excitement on their faces or a kid or a teenager going getting a physical one with their pocket money cash. But this is mostly in the west though as in the East the concept of physical gift cards is long gone now and even kids spend money digitally through parental access payment methods.
When I was a kid physical gift cards where the only way I could pay for online games since my nobody at home had a credit card that accepts international transactions.
This sucks. I was reading how about fraudsters buy counterstrike items to launder money and it’s crazy. They must have found steam cards are a huge part of the operation too.
I just want an alternative to the whole VISA/Mastercard BS and this one was the easiest.
From what I can tell from Kitboga videos, all retail gift cards are a lucrative way to launder proceeds from scams. Valve was probably just more tired of dealing with it.
I actually think this might also potentially have something to do with the lawsuit regarding potential gambling on the platform.
Because children absolutely could buy gift cards and use them to open loot boxes etc. Not positive but just throwing that out there.
I absolutely could be completely wrong about this.
Yes, they aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They are doing it to avoid liability
gift cards doesnt require you to be an adult or ID to purchase as well. i remember i bought it a few visa gift cards for various games, since i dint have a CC at the time.
This kinda tracks. One time someone I knew bought a series of games on Steam at once, and his bank blocked them. In calling them, he learned that (in addition to some other circumstantial clue) their pattern recognition picks up on game purchases, since that’s an excellent target for someone who just stole a credit card. Scammers can often resell the games in some way, through some anonymity.
It’s a classic case of bad actors ruining a great convenience for regular consumers. Physical gift cards were the perfect cash to digital bridge for privacy conscious users and people without traditional bank accounts. Unfortunately, the scale of refund fraud and elder scams involving these cards has gotten so massive that tech companies are realizing the retail footprint just isn’t worth the liability anymore.
Could just use amex
Does Discover still exist?
Sure does but they recently got bought out by capital one. No one knows if this is good or bad
It’s definitely bad for the consumer
you can use paysafecard or a service like bitrefill, if youre into crypto
I worked on a retail store for a time, it was sad that a lot of old people spent a lot on money on gift cards, specially Steam and Apple gift cards because they didn’t even knew what they were purchasing, and 7/10 times when you warned them about a scam they tell you to eat shit, but it was funny because it was like: An famous singer is contacting me, just to tell me that if I give them a $100 gift card they will send me $100.000.000
And there were some more extreme cases of old people who lived alone and didn’t know much about technology, that it was like a rolplay but on real life and the currency to keep rolplaying was the gift cards.
And another thing is that the old (due to the scammers) were the most unbearable people in the world, because the scammers didn’t ask, they demanded gift cards, and they were always asking for $100 gc. If the elderly people couldn’t get them, they threatened to stop talking to them, so we had to deal with unbearable old people constantly.
Well that sucks, no more paying in cash for physical cards.
Back when I used to work retail all gift cards were inside the registers only allowed to be activated once the registers opened.
This meant it was less likely for someone to either swap gift cards for counterfeit ones, or take pictures of all the cards waiting for someone to activate them and drain the balance.
to either swap gift cards for counterfeit ones
That would show an error on the checkout
or take pictures of all the cards waiting for someone to activate them and drain the balance.
Nowadays they are alls scratch-offs. That was a different time back then
Removed by mod
If I wanted to talk to ChatGPT, I wouldnt have made the effort of going on Lemmy.
I won’t read a wall of text essentially saying the same as the comment I answered.
No I think this is an awful move. Digital Gift Cards will still be available. And I think for gifting its actually really nice to still have.
Only thing is gullible boomers are way less likely to buy a gift card online. Because they won’t be able to figure it out.
But there will always be some form of gift card. if not steam gift card people will buy apple or google play cards. Its a sad thing going of with the scamming but honestly a physical gift card still beats a print out of an email on a piece of paper.
Apple and Play store gift cards are a lot less valuable. With Steam gift cards it’s trivial to turn them back into cash. Just buy marketplace items (like Counter Strike skins) and sell them for cash. By the time the fraud is reported the gift cards are already redeemed and the cash extracted. With other gift cards they have to resell them and hope to get it done before the cards get flagged
Valve could also just stop allowing people to turn the gift card money back into real cash. It would be trivial to implement this with a bit of goodwill. But i get your point
How would this be trivial? They would have to completely disable trading marketplace items
Great the discounts you get on them at Costco just vanished now, I guess. That sucks.
And it gives those card companies more ability to screw them like they did before.
This was honestly not a very wise decision.
I was looking for Sream gift cards as birthday presents for some friends 2 months or so ago. No wonder I couldn’t find them.
Shit, there goes another alternative to my VISA card T-T
That’s probably a big deal in Asia. I get the impression banking is not so smooth an experience out there (most specifically in Japan), and instead most people still work directly with cash; so any gacha game or online store will very much rely on convenience stores to stock their cards.
It’s not that banking is difficult in Japan (unless you’re a foreigner), it’s just culturally a cash-centric economy. There’s a whole etiquette about placing your money on a specific plate, making sure the bills are face-side up, paying as close to exact change as possible, etc.
Japanese 7-11’s all have an ATM that will accept American debit cards and allow you to withdraw Yen, even handling the conversion fee for you. Cash cards with RFID chips like Suica make subway/train fare super fast and simple. It’s not for lack of technology, for sure.
Ugh I loved getting these as gifts from non-gamer family. A Visa/MC gift card I’ll just spend on necessary things but a Steam gift card was for games.
Wait that’s still a thing? I haven’t been able to find one in years
oh, ffs. well, piracy it is then.
Yupp Valve did after all famously say it was due to service issues.
Well, they just made a huge service issue for some people.
That’s honestly my only recourse now. Credit cards aren’t really a thing in my country (they exist, you just never need them) and I refuse to hand over my shit to data brokers like klarna or paypal.
tbf, i was able to pay with my normal bank account on steam in the past. so its not as bad for me. but i dont trust my bank either tbh.
