Ace Hardware Gift Card

You can check your Ace Hardware gift card anywhere you are and you do not need anybody's help. The balance check is free, it takes about a minute, and you should always do it before you talk to any trader. Ace runs its gift card programme through a company called Ace Incentives, Inc. That is the name you will see printed in the small text on the back of the card or at the bottom of the e-gift email. Ace Incentives keeps the balance record, so that is where you are checking.

Here is the process:

1. Find your card details. On a plastic card, turn it over. You are looking for a long card number, usually around 16 to 19 digits, and a shorter PIN or access code that is often hidden under a scratch panel. On an e-gift card, both numbers are printed directly in the email you received.
2. Open a browser and go to acehardware balance enquiry. This is the official balance page, not a third-party checker. Be careful here, because a lot of the sites that rank for "gift card balance" are scrapers that harvest card numbers.
3. Type in the card number and the PIN exactly as shown. Do not add spaces. If the scratch panel is damaged and you cannot read the PIN, stop and skip to step 5.
4. Read the result. It will show you the remaining balance in US dollars. Screenshot it. That screenshot is what you will show a trader later, and having it ready speeds the whole thing up.
5. If the website refuses the card, call Ace customer care on 1-888-827-4223. This is a US toll-free number, which means it is not free from Nigeria or any other part of the world. Use a calling app or ask someone in the US to check on your behalf. You will need the card number ready.

Redeeming an Ace card is simple, but it comes with limits that catch people off guard, so read the online section carefully.

Redeeming in a physical Ace Hardware store

1. Shop normally and take your items to the till.
2. Hand the card to the cashier before payment. If it is an e-gift card, show the barcode on your phone screen or hand over a printout.
3. The cashier scans it. If the scanner will not read it, ask them to key the number in manually. This happens often with printed e-gift barcodes and it is not a sign that your card is fake.
4. If your bill is higher than the card balance, you pay the difference with cash or another card. If the bill is lower, the leftover value stays on the card for next time.

Redeeming online at acehardware.com

1. Add your items to the cart and go to checkout.
2. Find the gift card field in the payment section and enter the card number and PIN.
3. Click apply and confirm the balance has been deducted from your order total.

Note: Now the limits that matter. On acehardware.com you can use a maximum of three gift cards on a single order, and the total gift card value applied to one order cannot exceed $250. So if you are holding a $500 balance, you cannot spend it in one go online. You would need to split it across two separate orders. Plan around this if you are helping someone in the US spend a large balance.

> There are also two things the card simply cannot do. It cannot be used to buy other gift cards, and it cannot be used to pay off an Ace Hardware house account or trade credit account. Both of those are blocked at the point of sale.

No. That's a separate product issued by Sutton Bank on the Visa network for home repair and maintenance services, not the standard Ace merchandise gift card, so it needs its own listing rather than being grouped with this one. Ace states outright that the standard gift card can't be redeemed for Ace Hardware Home Services.

No, Ace Hardware gift cards can't be used to purchase other gift cards.

No, Ace Hardware gift cards don't expire and carry no fees.

As of today, a $100 Ace Hardware gift card fetches a good rate which is 15% higher than the market average.

This is the question everybody asks first, and the honest answer is that there is no fixed Naira price for a gift card the way there is a fixed price for a bag of rice. What you get depends on three things multiplied together.

The first is face value, which is the dollar amount loaded on the card. The second is the trader's rate, which is what they are willing to pay in Naira for every one dollar of that face value. The third is the deduction they apply for card type and condition.

So the math is straightforward. Face value times rate equals your payout. At a rate of 1,200 Naira per dollar, a a $100 Ace Hardware card would return roughly 1,200 multiplied by 100, and that is 120,000 Naira

But here is where Ace differs from the cards you are used to. With Amazon or Steam, almost every trader in Nigeria quotes a rate, so there is competition and the number is fairly predictable. With Ace Hardware, most traders do not carry it at all. When you find one who does, the rate will usually sit well below what you would get for a mainstream card of the same face value, because the trader has fewer buyers to resell it to and is carrying more risk on their side.

Two other factors move your number. E-gift codes normally attract a better rate than old physical cards, because the trader can verify and resell a code faster and does not have to worry about a scratched-off PIN or an expired plastic. And receipt-backed cards attract a better rate than cards with no proof of purchase, because the trader knows the funds are less likely to be clawed back.

> Always confirm the rate before you commit to a trade, because a rate you saw last week is not a rate you are being offered today.