Lost Your Amazon Gift Card? here’s What to Do!

Losing an Amazon gift card amounts to a loss of money because it is equivalent to cash. The situation is especially hurting if you just finished shopping and want to redeem your card for payment. If this is the case, you’ll have to abandon your shopping cart or use an alternative payment method.

If you lose your Amazon gift card, you can have it replaced by contacting Amazon customer service. You’ll need to provide the gift card’s serial number, the recipient’s name, the purchaser’s name, and the recipient’s email address.

In the rest of this article, I’ll discuss how to contact Amazon customer service to have your lost gift card replaced. I’ll also take you through what to do if your Amazon gift card claim code is not working. Keep reading!

How To Replace your Lost Amazon Gift Card?

According to CNBC, consumers lose $3 billion annually in unspent gift cards. One of the contributing factors to this is lost gift cards. Luckily for you, here is a guide on how to get your lost Amazon gift card replaced.

Contacting Amazon’s customer support team is the first step to replacing your lost Amazon gift card. However, there are some documents you need to have before contacting the support team.

Documents Needed To Replace a Lost Amazon Gift Card

Preparing yourself before contacting Amazon’s customer support team for a lost gift card replacement is essential. This makes the process smooth as you don’t have to cut short the conversation in search of some details.

Here are the documents you should have before connecting with the team:

• The card’s serial number. All Amazon gift cards have a 16 or 30-digit serial number used for identification. The number usually is at the back of a physical Amazon gift card, or within the email notification you received for an eGift card. You can also check the receipt for the serial number.
• Recipient’s name. You must provide the recipient’s full name to enable Amazon to identify to whom the card was sent.
• The purchaser’s name. This is the person who bought the card intending to gift somebody.
• The recipient’s email address. Amazon will use this email address to send the replacement gift card.
• Order number. All Amazon gift cards have an order number for easy identification. The order number is always printed on the receipt or in the email for eGift cards.

Reach Out to Amazon Customer Support

Now that you have all these documents, the next step is to reach out to Amazon customer support for a replacement. Here is the procedure:

1. Log in to your Amazon account.
2. Select Amazon Help Center.
3. Select “Start Chatting.” You can also opt for the “Call Me” option if you don’t like chatting.
4. If you select “Start Chatting,” a chat window will pop out to chat with Amazon’s customer support team. Otherwise, follow the screen prompts to schedule a call with the team.
5. Select the “Manage my account, gift cards, and prime” option.
6. Initiate the chat.
7. Elaborate on the issue with as many details as possible. Let the team know that your Amazon gift card got lost and that you want it replaced.
8. Provide all the requested information.
9. Wait for the new card’s delivery.

The Amazon customer support team will cancel the existing card and issue its replacement.

If your replacement is confirmed, you’ll have to wait for a cancellation and replacement email. The email will contain a new gift card claim code that you can use to redeem your card.

Remember that the customer support team may request additional information to process your request. This is because Amazon needs to confirm that you’re the rightful owner of the lost card.

How To Redeem Your New Amazon Gift Card?

Once you’ve replaced your lost Amazon gift card, the next step is to redeem it. You can’t use your Amazon gift card to shop on Amazon before redeeming it. Redeeming entails converting the gift card to an Amazon gift card balance for payments. 

You can redeem your Amazon gift card through the App or Amazon’s website using the following processes:

Redeeming Through Amazon App

The following procedure works both for iPhone and Android smartphones:

1. Launch the Amazon App on your phone.
2. Tap the three lines at the bottom right corner.
3. Tap on account.
4. Navigate to the payment section and tap “manage gift card balance.”
5. A new page where you can redeem your gift card opens.
6. Select “Redeem another gift card.”
7. Enter your card’s claim code.
8. The card’s amount should reflect in your Amazon gift card balance account.

Redeeming Through the Website

1. Launch your browser and search for Amazon.com.
2. Log in to your account and hover your mouse over the “Accounts & Lists” section.
3. Select “Gift card balance” in the next menu.
4. A page with your Amazon gift card balance will open.
5. Click “Redeem a gift card.”
6. Enter the gift card’s claim code in the box that appears.
7. Click “Apply.”

Amazon Gift Card Redemption Challenges

Apart from losing your Amazon gift card, you may face other redemption issues that can make using your card on Amazon challenging. The following are some of these redemption issues and how to address them:

1. Invalid Amazon Gift Card

You may get an error message that your Amazon gift card is invalid. This is mostly because you’re trying to redeem a card that has already been redeemed or made an error when entering the claim code. Missing the claim code by even one digit will cause a redemption error.

You can solve this by confirming the claim code on your gift card. Confirm that the claim code is correct before clicking the “Apply” button.

The second solution is checking whether you’ve already redeemed the claimed code. The best way to approach this is by checking your Amazon gift card balance to see whether the amount of the card in question exists. 

Here is the procedure to check for your Amazon gift card balance:

1. Log in to your Amazon account.
2. Hover over the Accounts & Lists section at the top right corner.
3. Click Gift cards on the new menu.
4. Look at the top for your Amazon gift card balance.

If the problem persists, reach out to Amazon customer support for help.

2. Unreadable Claim Code

Unreadable claim code mainly results from using rough objects like knives to scratch off the silver panel to reveal the claim code. It can also result from trying to redeem an Amazon gift card that has already been damaged or tampered with.

I’ve written a detailed guide on what to do if your Amazon gift card code is unreadable. You will get all the details in that article, so make sure to check out that article as well!

If you have an unreadable claim code, you’ll have to contact Amazon customer care support for help. They must check the system to retrieve the card’s details. Thus, you’ll be required to provide the following information:

• The gift card’s serial number
• The gift card value
• Recipient’s name
• Your name
• The date you received the card
• The recipient’s email address
• Order number

3. Gift Card Applied to the Wrong Account

It’s possible to have more than one Amazon account. Thus, you may redeem your gift card to the wrong Amazon account.

It’s worth mentioning that Amazon gift cards are redeemed to the account used to log in. Therefore, if you used a different account to log in first, that’s where your card was redeemed. In this case, you can use the gift card balance in the account to which it was redeemed.

Alternatively, you can unredeem the gift card balance and transfer it to the correct account.