Physical Gift Card numbering

[WymAbbey]

I would like to produce my own gift cards on paper card and don't want to buy plastic ones. I have searched all the forum and can't find out how the 16 digit numbers on the plastic ones are generated. Is there a way to generate my own numbers or are all Square plastic cards uniquely numbered.

I'm perfectly capable of creating a program to bar code and sequentially number with a 16 digit our branded cards but need the numbering info.

This question was asked in 2022 and there still doesn't seem to be any progress on this.

There are even third party card producers selling Square cards so how do they get the numbering? https://ecardsystems.com/square/

Thanks for any ideas

[ryanwanner]

Hello @WymAbbey !

When you're making your own gift cards, there's nothing saying you have to use a 16 digit number on the card. This would be all internal for you, and there's no real way in Square to designate the card number if you're not using the eCardSystems cards. I'd say come up with a five or six digit code you can put on the cards and then track them on a spreadsheet that way. 

Just FYI, eCard Systems is the only authorized provider of gift cards for Square. Their 16 digit numbers are used for every seller and they have created the infrastructure to track them to the correct sellers. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

You will not be able to make your own cards that are tracked in Square, that is only available with e-gift cards or the plastic cards.   What Ryan suggested is what we used to do before we used Square gift cards.  We made out own paper gift certificates, logged them in a master notebook with names, amount, a unique number, date, phone number.  Then you have to track the usage of it over time when they come back in.  We decided quickly that trying to manage 100s of outstanding cards was a super pain and went to Square gift cards and never have to think about it again.  The great thing to me is unlike other gift cards, these can be used over and over again.  We have many cards that have been out in rotation over a dozen times.  So that "expensive" gift card is now 1/12th the cost per transaction.  And the new ones are great with the QR code so no more needing the swiper on your stand or phone.