How to get guests to pay for your UAE wedding gifts…

A monogrammed towel with the wrong initials, a spa voucher in some blessed place that you may never wish to visit, or an ugly looking horse statuette that you may have to pay to be picked up as trash from your house… The list of unwanted wedding gifts can go on.

Giving what is needed can only help a couple start their new journey in life and be appreciated by the bride, groom and their respective families as soaring wedding bills dry up their liquidity.

A novel idea is being floated for to-be-married couples in the UAE to get what they require and not just junk to be stacked somewhere in the house.

YouGotaGift.com (https://yougotagift.com) allows couples to register online or make an account for what is called a money registry. By doing this, the couple can request the guest to contribute money into an account.

“It’s the most flexible gift because it’s cash. If you are not sure what you want for your wedding, and don’t have a store in mind, why not ask for cash instead. Create a money registry and receive the contributed funds in the form of a single ‘LoadnShop’ Prepaid Visa Gift Card. This Gift Card can be used worldwide to shop where Visa is accepted,” the website recommends.

This is how it works. You need to create a gift page on the site with a unique address for your gift. Then, send it to your friends and family to contribute – by debit/credit card and, lastly, collect funds and transfer money into a single prepaid Visa Gift Card.

Tempting as it may sound (having what you want), it doesn’t come for free.

There is a 5 per cent administration fee. This is a fee applied on the total amount pooled towards the wedding gift. For example, if Dh10,000 is pooled towards a wedding gift, YouGotaGift.com will charge Dh500 administration fee to process and deliver the Visa Gift Card to recipient.

And even the guests will have to foot an additional charge. Contributors to the wedding gift pay a standard credit card processing fee of 2.5 per cent and this is added to the contribution amount. For example, if a guest contributes Dh1,000, they will be charged Dh1,025 to cover the credit card processing fee.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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