Gift certificates used to be very simple. You went to the store and paid any amount for a paper certificate that entitled the holder to visit the store and decrease the amount due by said amount. The merchant kept a record in a binder and waited for them to be redeemed (hopefully collecting a little interest on the amount). Any change that was left from a purchase was usually cashed out. Everything was handwritten and just like cash. If you lost the certificate, you lost the money.

Then came the plastic cards that had a set amount. They survived the wash or other destructible event that paper didn’t survive. Some merchants offered online access to check your balance. After a purchase, the remaining balance would remain on the card. Only after spending the full amount of the card would you regain the balance. Merchants preferred not to cash out the cards.

Today, you probably have a number of gift cards that you’re waiting to spend on something you need. You also have those cards with balances of less than a dollar and no way to cash out and only one place to spend it. Nowadays you can register these gift cards online to protect the balance should you lose it.

If you buy a certificate from an online merchant, you may never see a paper certificate or plastic card. They will email the recipient a code that can be entered into a field during the checkout process. So much for a material object like cash.

There are options to refill the cards and keep them alive. Add value to them and send them off as a present to someone else. The ultimate regift.

Watch out for those pesky fees that deduct small amounts after a period of inactivity. To keep the record of how much the card is worth will cost you.