I personally think open-loop gift cards are a scam plain and simple. Yet, if you must choose an open-loop gift card, this experience might make you want to (a) always be persistent to get what you are owed and (b) choose AMEX over other the other branded open-loop gift cards.

In short, the customer took his $50 AMEX gift card to a store and was unable to use it. He called AMEX customer service on the spot and a half hour on the phone resulted in little help and somewhat of a rude experience. So he wrote a letter to AMEX and they fixed the problem, said they would handle the bad customer service rep internally, and gave him reward points worth another $50 gift card. Kudos to the customer for demanding what he was entitled to and AMEX for stepping up to the plate.

As for the other cards, Visa and Mastercard cards are service by many different banks and they all have horrible customer service sites and for some of them it is impossible to get an actual person on the phone. Discover, like AMEX manages its cards directly, but is generally less universally accepted than AMEX. So, if I had to choose an open-loop gift card, I’d probably choose AMEX.