Reader Jason asked me if I could put together a list of stores that let you use gift cards in Canada that were purchased in US. I said I didn’t really know of any aside from Starbucks, but he did have a list so I thought other readers could contribute to this resource.
Stores That Work
Here is the list of stores that do work:
- Airbnb
- Banana Republic
- Costco
- Fairmont
- Gap brands
- Home Depot
- J.Crew
- Lululemon
- Marriott
- Sears
- Starbucks
- Works: USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong,
- Doesn’t work: France, Germany, Taiwan, China, Japan, Thailand
- Subway
- Tim Horton’s
- Toys R Us
- Whole Foods
Stores That Don’t Work
- Uber
The reason people might be interested in this is that it’s often a lot easier to purchase discounted third party gift cards in the USA than it is in Canada. If you’re Canadian it might make sense to purchase these third party discounted gift cards with a card that has no foreign transaction fee. It seems that these stores will keep the gift card in it’s native currency and then do a currency conversion at the point of sale (with no fees and good conversion rates). Just keep in mind you are at the risk of currency value swings. Starbucks is a particularly interesting one as they operate in a lot of countries and airports. One of the best ways of dealing with foreign coins (aside from keeping them as a souvenir or giving them to kids) is to add the coins to your Starbucks account. Feel free to add your own data points in the comments.
