Why won t Amazon let me use my gift card balance

To use a Visa gift card on Amazon, you essentially have to trick the site into thinking you're adding another credit or debit card onto your account, and not using a gift card at all. 

Make sure your Visa gift card is activated and ready

First, make sure the gift card has been activated. This should have happened at the time of the sale. You might have received a gift receipt or a card holder confirming its activated status, but you can also call the phone number on the back of the card.

Next, check the card's balance. This is especially important if you have already used it, as gift cards often have activation fees. That $50 card may actually have a $49 balance. You'll need to know the exact dollar and cent number, so don't skip this step.

Quick tip: You can check your balance by calling the number listed on the back of the card, or by going to the card issuer's site.

Loading a Visa gift card on Amazon

To get started, go to Amazon's homepage on your computer. 

1. Click Accounts and Lists, located toward the top-right corner of the screen.

2. Click Your payments.

3. Under the words Add a payment method click the button labeled Add a credit card or debit card, located under Credit or debit cards.

4. Add the info exactly as shown on the card, meaning the card number, expiration date, and the name, which may be A Gift for You or some other short statement.

5. Enter your address when prompted even though the card is not technically associated with any location.

6. The next time you shop on Amazon, make sure to select the gift card you loaded as your payment method — you can identify it by the last four digits of the card.

Quick tip: You can also do this on the Amazon Shopping app. Once you log in, select the profile tab, then choose Your Account followed by Your Payments. From there, you can tap +Add next to Cards and Accounts to add your Visa gift card as a payment option.

Other hacks for using Visa gift cards on Amazon

It's kind of annoying that you can't use a gift card along with another mode of payment, right? To get around this you can use your card's balance to buy an Amazon gift card that you give to yourself, and that can be used for anything on the site and combined freely with another payment method.

Quick tip: As the holidays approach, you might want to consider using Visa or Amazon gift cards to help pay for gifts. If that's something that appeals to you, you can make an Amazon wish list to help keep track of gift ideas.

You can also reload gift cards on Amazon, which can make them easier to use on the site. To do that, you'd go to the Accounts and Lists tab on the homescreen, followed by Gift Cards.

From there, you can select the yellow Reload your Balance button, located toward the top of the page.