Gift List Services - a comparison of features and drawbacks

Is the gift list service a money contribution type or an actual purchase type?

What’s the difference? Well, the traditional department stores that you see on the busy city High Streets are the “actual purchase” type. In otherwords, when you add an item to your list and one of your guests' buys that item, that item has indeed been physically bought and neither you nor your guest can change your mind about it. With the specialist gift list services like The Bottom Drawer, the list is a “money contribution” type which means your guests make a contribution towards your selected gifts but the gifts aren’t actually bought until after your list closes. This gives you the flexibility to change your mind.
This is worth bearing in mind because if you have your list at a department store you may well end up with odd dinner plates or glasses from a larger set which you then either stick away unused in a cupboard because you don’t have the full set, or you end up having to pay out yourself to complete the set. If you use a more flexible gift list service for those items you can decide when your list closes whether to buy the complete set or use the money received to buy alternative items you can afford instead.

Am I limited to the items that store sells?

With the traditional lists at department stores in the cities and towns, yes you are limited to just the items they sell. You might think this isn’t a problem as they offer so many items after all. But, remember it also means you are limited to the price they charge for those items – which could be a very expensive mistake to make.
At flexible gift list companies such as The Bottom Drawer you are able to add any item, from any store to your list. The gift list company simply collects your guests contributions for you which you are then able to spend at any store you wish. To show how much difference this could make, here’s an example with data taken on the 15 February 2007 from John Lewis, an independent store and The Bottom Drawer. Say you really wanted your guests to contribute towards a new LCD TV. At John Lewis you would have had a reasonable choice though at the independent store if you wanted one over 20” you would have had a choice of just 1, the Panasonic TX23LXD60. At The Bottom Drawer you could choose from every TV available on the market. But let's stick with the Panasonic to give a fair comparison. At the independent store the price was £795 for this TV, if you had your list at John Lewis and selected this TV you would have had to pay £745. However, if you held your list at The Bottom Drawer you could choose from the best price available, which a Kelkoo search showed to be £494! So going with an independent store or other city High Street Store could mean you pay more than £250 over the odds!
It is only at the specialist gift list companies where you can really have a unique gift list. For example, how about a garden makeover paid for by your guests? At The Bottom Drawer this becomes a reality as they can arrange for a local landscaper to produce a quote for you which then forms the basis for your gift list so each square metre of patio can be one gift, each plant another gift and so on! They can also arrange similar services for a new kitchen or bathroom or your dream honeymoon! Other unusual gifts couples have recently obtained through The Bottom Drawer include a hottub, a piano and a horse box trailer!

What if I want gifts from more than one store?

Traditionally, you may want some lower priced gifts from Argos to go with some more exclusive gifts from John Lewis. In the past you would need to set-up two separate gift lists at two separate stores and send out two lots of invitations. With a flexible gift list provider you can have all your gift items on one list (and yes you can often even add items from John Lewis, Next, Argos and the other traditional department stores!)

What about the charges?

With the traditional department stores it is usually free to set-up your list and in fact they may offer incentives to draw you in such as vouchers to spend in their store. But remember you are limited to the items that store sells, at the price that store charges which could be quite expensive (see point 2 above)! You should also check delivery charges as whist some will be free, others will charge a separate, small delivery charge to each guest which can add up to quite a significant amount of wasted money.

Pay for your honeymoon using your wedding gift list

With the alternative flexible gift lists the charges are normally split in two ways: charges to you to set up and use the list and charges that are levied against the value of the gifts your guests make to you. You need to compare carefully to know the full charges you will be paying. Many of the services that offer a free facility to set-up the list then go on to charge 9% or more on to the orders from your guests. Not only can this add up to an awful lot of money but your guests won’t be too happy either! Some services such as The Bottom Drawer are set-up in such a way that potentially there is no cost for you the couple to use the service AND no cost for your guests to make contributions as they earn income by selling items direct to you or from commission received from the companies they work with to provide gifts. You should also check that all payment options are supported for your guests so that those that prefer not to pay by credit or debit card have the option to pay by cheque and over the phone too. One final thing to bear in mind is that the money collected may be used to purchase gifts from stores other than the flexible gift list company – so you should check what the delivery charges will be from the store(s) you will eventually be buying your gifts from.

Security

Naturally when several thousand pounds is potentially being collected via your gift list you need to feel certain that your money will be safe in the hands of the gift list company. No matter what the size of the company they can never totally guarantee to be around forever - witness some household names (not wedding related!) that have disappeared over the years. But there are ways you can limit the risk.
For one, any transactions that your guests make using a credit or debit card must be handled over a secure server using encrypted technology. This is fairly standard these days.
Also, fairly good protection is offered when your guests use a credit card or Visa debit card as the card companies can often be obliged to refund any money if a company gets into difficulty and can’t fulfil on its promises. But this doesn’t apply to other debit cards or cheques.
A good thing to do is check the small print for the company you are dealing with – do they openly tell you about the directors of the company? If it is a limited company it is much easier to track down who is behind the company in case something goes wrong – if you are dealing with a small internet company it could be very difficult for you to get any comeback if the company goes bust.
Finally, consider how secure your own information is – what if someone hacked into a site, pretended to be you by obtaining your details, and asked for your gift list funds to be transferred to THEIR bank account! Only one gift list company in the UK is certified by Hackersafe, the worlds leading compliance company (who also monitor Microsoft sites) – and that’s The Bottom Drawer. Their site is tested daily to make sure it is secure against all known hacker tricks.

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