There's no fee and you can apply the e-gift card value to a purchase, then pay the balance with a regular credit or debit card. "If you have $3.98 on a Visa gift card and you're purchasing a product for $5, the gift card will be rejected," says Hunter.īuy an e-gift card from an online retailer. Some, such as Amazon and Walmart, allow you to use a general-purpose gift card to buy an e-gift card for use on their sites. In other words, you can't pay using both the gift card and your credit or debit card. When you purchase a product online, you need to input the Visa or Mastercard gift card number into the debit or credit card field on the website-not the gift card field, which is reserved for store-branded gift cards, she says. If you end up with a small balance on a gift card issued by Visa, Mastercard, or American Express, spending it can be complicated if you're shopping online because of how checkout works at most retail websites, says Shelley Hunter, a gift card expert with.