Can I safely regift an unredeemed itunes gift certificate?

November 29, 2008 8:46 AM

Can I safely regift an unredeemed itunes certificate without said regifting being discovered? (details within)

I received a $200 itunes certificate. It's not a store bought card but rather a certificate printed from the computer with the "from" and "to" names included on it. I have not yet redeemed it. It was a very nice gift but I probably won't use it so I thought it could make a good christmas regift.

Can I give it to a friend without it being revealed I have regifted it? By this I mean:

1) When redeemed in the itunes store will the "from" and "to" pop up again so my friend knows?

2) Will the original gifter be notified that it's been redeemed or possibly the name of the redeemer?

posted by sharkfu to shopping (7 comments total)

I was going to suggest redeeming it and using the funds to buy a new gift card, but iTunes specifically mentions that you can't do that. So you can't do that. Which I'm mentioning here to save anyone else who also thinks of that as a possibility the trouble of looking it up for themselves.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:16 AM on November 29, 2008

If you have a friend or family member outside of this loop, maybe you can test by buying a minimal certificate and having someone else redeem it. (Or make a second iTunes account yourself.)
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:36 AM on November 29, 2008

Could you call Apple and see if they can help?
posted by chara at 9:59 AM on November 29, 2008

I was going to suggest redeeming it and using the funds to buy a new gift card, but iTunes specifically mentions that you can't do that. So you can't do that.

I'm not so sure iTunes saying you can't do that means you actually can't do that. I have only gift card money in my iTunes account (I've never put anything else in there), and while it tells me gift cards can't be used to buy gift cards, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping me from actually doing that. I didn't go through the entire process, though.

Assuming iTunes stops you somewhere after the gift card purchase form, it looks like you can still buy gifts for specific items in the iTunes store with a gift card. (There's no mention of that not being possible, as there is on the gift card purchase form). So rather than re-gifting the card itself you could use it to buy more specific gifts.
posted by scottreynen at 10:23 AM on November 29, 2008

Speaking frankly, I would not mind at all if someone said to me, I have this giftcard I will not use, would you like to get it for Christmas? It would not matter to me that you had not purchased the gift card with your own funds. If you're worried about being found out, honesty may be the best policy. It seems very unlikely to me that the original gift-giver would have any way of tracking when the card was redeemed or by whom.
posted by kate blank at 10:27 AM on November 29, 2008

I have given iTunes giftcards, and was not notified when they were redeemed. You're safe on that front.
posted by donajo at 4:20 PM on November 30, 2008

Just to follow up since it's post-Christmas-- no pop-up occurred on their end when it was redeemed, but I was honest about it in advance too. Thanks for the advice.
posted by sharkfu at 1:01 PM on December 31, 2008