Western Union just announced a new prepaid debit/gift card, but I think they missed the real feature that Western Union as an organization could offer. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear about a Postal Service employee getting caught stealing gift cards from the mail. The mail is clearly an insecure way to send gift cards and when you do send them via USPS, you take your chances. You can purchase the Western Union gift cards online and have them sent to the recipient Fedex Overnight, second day, or regular First Class mail. Western Union’s real strength is the number of locations – about 345,000 agent locations worldwide. If Western Union allowed you to send the gift card to the recipients nearest agent location, that would skirt the mail safety issue and would be a significant value-add for a gift card that is otherwise indistinguishable from the rest of the pack.

Update 4/13/10:  They apparently have a new promotion that offers free shipping through First Class Mail for their gift cards.