How to redeem eGift Card using phone number?

[Linus47]

I know this has been asked before but I haven’t found a working answer. I ran a test eGift Card to my own email to see what the user experience is. In the email, it lets you “View your eGift Card” in a browser. There, you can enter your phone number and “simply” give your phone number at checkout to redeem your card. 

I made a test checkout in Square and entered my phone number under “Customers” in the menu. I added myself to the sale. At checkout, there is absolutely no option to redeem the gift card balance. I have the settings set up to save a customer card on file. How in the world do I “simply” redeem an eGift Card using a phone number??

[Ellie_]

Hi there, @Linus47,

Thanks so much for reaching out, and for taking the time to test out the eGift Card experience yourself. I completely understand the confusion here; the “redeem with your phone number” option can sound simpler than it currently works in practice.

Here’s what’s actually happening, when a customer views their eGift Card and enters their phone number, that number is linked to the gift card in Square’s system. This allows the card to be pulled up under that customer’s profile if you search for or add the eGift Card directly at checkout, but it doesn’t automatically appear as a payment option when you add a customer by phone number.

To redeem an eGift Card, you’ll still need to:

1. At checkout, tap Gift Card as the payment method.

2. Then either:

   • Scan the eGift Card barcode, or

   • Manually enter the 16-digit gift card number from the customer’s email or browser view.

If the customer linked their phone number, that’s mainly for their convenience, for example, they can retrieve or check their balance later by phone, but currently, phone number lookup at checkout isn’t a substitute for selecting the gift card payment option.

I know that’s a bit different from what the email implies, and I completely understand the frustration. I’ve shared this feedback with our product team since we know having a smoother, phone-number-based redemption process would make things much easier for both sellers and customers. Please let me know if you’d like me to send a quick walkthrough of how to process an eGift Card redemption, I’d be happy to help!