Gift cards drive me crazy!

Oh my goodness gracious! We had such horrible experiences yesterday. Let me first say, I love the people who gave us the gift cards...just wish maybe they had picked a specific store or just sent the cash! So we went to wal-mart to spend a gift we got that said it had $40 on it. We had also received a $25 gift card (mastercard) and a $25 visa gift card from wal-mart that had the receipt taped to it, which we thought was weird, but more on that later. After deciding what to spend our $$ on, we were all ready to check out. We have the double stroller, but Cara has to go potty, so Eric takes her while I check out with Micah. The total is like $49. We had 1 gift card with $21 on it (long story), so we scanned that first, then we have $27.70 left. I gave the gift card marked $40 on it. She scanned it and said I owed $7.70 still. UGH. No big deal, the card was marked wrong, but it's that awkward thing, do you want to ask the person who gave it to you if they put $40 on it and it only got marked for $20 (because you don't want them to waste/lose their money), or do you just assume they were buying a few at once and wrote the wrong amount on there. I chose the latter, but ugh. So, I owe $7.70, that I hadn't planned on owing, so I whip out one of the $25 gift cards we have. After trying it like 5 times, and it not going through, I notice that it says it has to be activated on the little sticker, so I just put it away and thankfully Eric walked back up at that point with the other one that worked and we were able to leave.

So, we get in the car to go home and I call the number to activate the card. Except it needs this 14 digit activation code that is on the receipt that the card came with.....that I threw away last night! And we have 2 of these cards. At this point, I mistakenly say, "this is freaking ridiculous" and quickly my little tape recorder, Cara, shoots it back out of her mouth (in a much cuter version), but still we have to explain that that is not something we say and Mommy had to apologize. Can you just see her in Sunday School saying that?!?!?! :) So we get home, and know exactly which bag of trash it is in. Had it not been worth $50 to us (2 $25 cards), we may not have done it, but we dig through the trash. Not too horrible, but gross still the same, and we find them. Now I noticed before that it had $25 gift card and another item on the receipt for $8.94, what I didn't realize was that was the FEE Eric's aunt paid to get the card (times 2)!! Shoot, that sux! Just give me the $33! So I get online to register the card, thinking it would be faster. What I didn't know (and probably Eric's aunt didn't realize) is that these are basically prepaid visa cards for people who have bad credit. So you have to give all of your information (including certain ID #s that you should NOT have to give, that I tried not to, but wouldn't let me continue until I did) and they take it all and send you a personalized card in the mail in 7-10 days. I don't want a personalized card (or a second card with someone else's name for another $8.94)! Plus, there is a $4.95 MONTHLY fee, so if I don't spend my $25 GIFT card by 1/6/08, I get charged $4.95. My in-laws came over after Micah's parent/baby dedication today (another post on that later) for lunch and we mentioned it to them, because Eric's sister and brother got the gift cards too. They had even more problems, because Amanda (eric's 14 year old sis) is underage, and so they ended up having to register it in his dad's name. Anyways, if any of you are looking for gift cards for people, DO NOT buy the Walmart Money Card! What a waste of money!