Why US, UK and EU Gift Cards Pay Different Rates

There's an old claim in gift card circles that US cards pay more than UK and EU cards, and that the currency on the card is what decides it. The GiftCash NG rate table says something different. Currency turns out to be one of the smaller factors, and for most cards on the list it isn't a factor at all.

The Claim, and What the Table Shows

The Nigerian table at /rates lists 28 brands across 43 published rows. Of those 28 brands, 18 quote in US dollars only. No pounds, no euros, no Canadian dollars.

For those 18 cards, the US-versus-UK comparison can't be made, because there's no UK or EU rate to compare against. The group includes Amazon, Apple, PlayStation, Google Play, eBay, Target, Sephora, and Nordstrom, which between them cover most of the cards people actually hold.

The remaining 10 brands quote in a currency other than the dollar, and they break down like this:

Only two cards on the entire table quote all four currencies. Everything else stops at a single currency, and for most of the table that currency is the dollar.

Same Currency, Different Payouts

The useful test is to hold the currency constant and see whether the rate still moves. It does, and by more than you'd expect.

In pounds, six brands quote a rate. On 23 September 2026 they paid:

That's a spread of about 9 percent between the top and bottom, all in the same currency, all on the same day. Paysafe publishes two bands and the figure above is its higher one, which is the convention this page uses throughout.

In euros, six brands quote a rate:

The euro spread is wider still, at roughly 32 percent between Transcash and Xbox.

If the currency were driving the payout, cards quoted in the same currency would land in the same place. They don't. Airbnb pays 9 percent more per pound than Matalan, and Transcash pays 32 percent more per euro than Xbox. Whatever is setting these numbers, it isn't the symbol printed on the card.

Why You Can't Compare Pounds and Dollars Directly

There's a trap waiting in the two tables above. Airbnb's ₦1,238 per pound is a bigger number than Apple's ₦1,127 per dollar, and it would be easy to read that as Airbnb paying more.

That reading is wrong. A pound and a dollar aren't the same unit, so the two per-unit figures measure different things. Roughly speaking, comparing them directly is like comparing a price per litre against a price per gallon and concluding that one fuel is more expensive.

Making the comparison properly needs an official rate for each currency pair, and the platform publishes a reference line for USD only, at ₦1,331. There's no published GBP or EUR reference, so the table can't support a pounds-against-dollars verdict at all. Anyone presenting one is working from numbers the table doesn't contain.

What you can compare is same-currency performance, and that's what the two tables above do.

What Actually Sets a Card's Rate

Hold the currency constant and the pattern behind the spread becomes visible. It's how much demand a card's balance attracts, which tracks how widely the balance can be spent.

The clearest evidence sits in the dollar column. On 23 September 2026:

Every card in that table is quoted in the same currency, and the top pays 2.46 times the bottom. Apple sits highest because its balance covers apps, music, storage, and hardware, which gives a buyer a wide shelf to resell against. Razer Gold follows because its credit applies across many game titles. Xbox sits at the bottom because its balance is locked to one console ecosystem, which leaves the narrowest pool of buyers and forces the deepest discount.

Compare two retailers to see the same effect in a single category. Nordstrom pays ₦1,051 per dollar and Amazon pays ₦652, both quoted in dollars, both selling general goods. The department store model, with a balance that spreads across clothing, home goods, and beauty, draws more demand than a card most buyers associate with a narrow set of purchases.

The rule to carry away is simple. The currency on the card is mostly a logistics detail: it decides where the card can be spent and who can buy it. What decides the rate is how many buyers want that balance and how easily they can use it.

Checking Your Own Card

Three steps, and none of them take long.

Find your card on the table. Open /rates and look for the brand. If it isn't listed, the card needs a live quote through its directory page rather than a published figure.

Read the row for your currency. If your card is a UK card and the brand only lists a dollar row, the table isn't quoting your version of the card. Ask for a rate instead of assuming the dollar figure applies.

Check the band. Cards with more than one face-value band don't always pay the same per unit. Amazon's $50 to $100 band pays ₦665 per dollar and its $100 to $500 band pays ₦652, so a card in the lower band gets the better rate.

If you're choosing between cards to sell, the currency question is the one to stop worrying about. The Steam page and the Xbox page are the two cards where all four currencies appear, and they show the same pattern. One card, four currencies, four different payout rates. The card you hold matters far more than the currency it's printed in.

Read the live table at /rates before you decide, and check the brand rather than the currency.