Why You Should Check Your Apple Gift Card Balance

Few gifts are more exciting than an Apple gift card, with its ability to be used in Apple Stores and on Apple.com to buy the latest merchandise from the world’s most valuable company. The excitement of receiving a gift card is enough for many people to immediately plan a trip to their local Apple retail store, but some prefer to hold onto the gift card for a few weeks or months until the next, hotly anticipated Apple device makes its way to a keynote and launch event. For these customers, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the gift card’s balance to avoid unpleasant surprises, which could result from things like identity theft or gift card theft. While keeping the gift card tucked away, there’s a few reasons to check its balance and a few easy ways to make that happen.

Check the Balance: A Few Reasons to Keep an Eye on the Gift Card
The Apple Store gift card is one of the hottest items during the holiday season or for any special event, but its worth keeping an eye on its balance over time. There are a few reasons why this is so important in today’s connected economy.

1. Errors at Checkout

Sometimes, the gift card’s balance is not properly set during the checkout procedure. This means that the gift card may actually have a lower balance than expected, and there’s often only a 30-day window to return the gift card and resolve the discrepancy. Gift card recipients should activate the card and check its initial balance as soon as they receive the item in order to avoid a very unpleasant surprise when they opt to use the gift card at their Apple Store of choice.

2. Identity and Card Theft

It’s not unheard of for a gift card to be stolen, or for the gift card’s unique number to be obtained by hackers, leading to balance discrepancies. For customer that are holding the gift card until a new, major product release occurs, the prospect of this crime occurring is reason enough to keep a periodic eye on its balance. Millions of incidents like these occur to consumers each year, without regard to the gift card’s associated retailer, total balance, or unique identifying numbers. Attention to detail will help recover any stolen funds quickly.

3. Expiration Policies

In some states and countries, gift card balances can be slowly reduced if they go beyond a sort of “expiration date.” Often, this expiration date occurs between one and 5 years after purchase. Typically, the merchant will deduct a small amount from the card’s each balance as a “maintenance fee” until the card is used and its balance is exhausted. Keeping an eye on the Apple gift card can help consumers avoid this frustrating practice if they intend to wait a while before using its loaded balance.

Checking the Balance: Apple Gift Cards Make It Easy
With most retailers, checking the balance of an associated gift card typically requires calling a hotline and entering the card’s information into an automated system. That’s certainly possible with Apple gift cards, whether they’re used for the Apple retail store or the iTunes Media Store. This is a decidedly “retro” way of checking up on one of Apple’s gift cards, however. The company’s iTunes gift cards show their balance on the homepage of any iTunes storefront, making it easy to see the exact balance at any time. All it takes is a Mac, iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, and a data connection.

For Apple Store gift cards, customers can add the card to the Apple Wallet, formerly known as Passbook. Within Apple Wallet, the gift card will always display its available balance for easy, periodic checking. The gift card can also be used from within the Apple Wallet app for purchases using the Apple Store app or in the actual retail store itself. By following these basic guidelines, Apple customers can make sure that their gift cards have and retain the proper balance both now and well into the future, avoiding any unpleasant surprises as they make their next big purchase.