Is gift card activated?

It’s activated when you buy it.

I know it is supposed to have been activated, but I don’t think the cashier even scanned it….how can I check the balance online without opening the package?

Try one of these sites:

http://www.giftcardbalancenow.com/

https://www.smart-transactions.com/GetUMDCardbal.html

Go to the website of the company or call the number on the back for balance check. Furthermore upon website visit of the company, go ahead and scroll straight to the bottom and search for “Gift Card Balance” Most major companies has it. Best Buy for instance has this feature.

@Laurenls If the cashier scanned it in order to ring the item up for you to pay for it, it should have then prompted her to do the activation part of it. If you paid for it, it is mostly activated. If, for some reason, you did not pay for it, it is most likely not activated and you will need to return to the store to pay for it and have it activated. I don’t know that you would be able to check the balance without opening the packaging, but you can always open it and put it in a different package when you give it away.

You can also check on the receipt.

I don’t think there’s a way of checking the balance of a gift card without scratching off the pin number portion, this number would be needed if you call the 800 number to check the balance.

it’s highly unlikely that you would pay for a gift card and they wouldn’t activate it, this would have to be a very dumb cashier.

you could go to the store and ask them to check or scratch off the number on the back.