Question About Gift Card Usage After Linking to a Customer

Questions
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1

Hello Square Developer Support Team,

We are currently integrating Square Gift Cards into our application and have a question regarding the behavior of gift cards after they are linked to a customer profile.

According to the Gift Cards API documentation, a gift card can be linked to one or more customer profiles using the LinkCustomerToGiftCard API.

We would like to confirm the following scenario:

  1. A Gift Card is created and activated with a balance.
  2. The Gift Card is linked to Customer A.
  3. Customer B obtains the valid Gift Card Number (GAN) and attempts to use this Gift Card as a payment method.

Will Customer B still be able to redeem the Gift Card successfully?

More specifically:

  • Does linking a Gift Card to a customer only associate the card with the customer profile for management, tracking, and display purposes?
  • Or does the customer association enforce an ownership restriction, meaning only the linked customer(s) can use the Gift Card?

Our expected use case is a typical eGift Card scenario where a purchaser may buy a gift card for another recipient. We need to understand whether the customer association affects the ability to redeem the Gift Card.

Could you please confirm the expected behavior and any recommended implementation approach?

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,
Murphy

4

Linking a gift card to a customer does NOT restrict who can use it.

Linking a gift card to a customer profile (via LinkCustomerToGiftCard) is purely for organizational/lookup purposes. It associates the card with a customer record so you can retrieve their gift cards via the API. It does not enforce any ownership or usage restrictions.

So to answer the scenario directly:

• A gift card linked to Customer A can still be used by Customer B (or anyone else) to make payments.
• The link is an association, not an access control mechanism.

5

Hi Square Team,

Thank you for the clarification.

I have one more question regarding the customer linking limit for gift cards.

We understand that a gift card can be linked to up to 10 customer profiles. If a gift card has already been linked to 10 customers, what will happen if additional customers (the 11th, 12th, etc.) try to use the same gift card for payment?

Specifically:

  • Will the 11th or 12th customer still be able to use the gift card normally?
  • Does reaching the 10-customer linking limit only prevent additional customer associations, or does it also affect the ability to use the gift card for payment?

Could you please confirm the expected behavior?

Thank you.

6

The 10-customer limit only applies to linking a gift card on file- it doesn’t affect payments. Additional customers (11th, 12th, etc.) can still use the gift card for payment normally by providing the gift card ID or GAN.

If you try to link an 11th customer via LinkCustomerToGiftCard, the API returns a 400 Bad Request with the message “Too many customers attached to a gift card.” The card, its balance, and existing links are unaffected. To link a new customer, you’d first need to unlink one with UnlinkCustomerFromGiftCard.

In short: the limit restricts customer associations only; redemption, reloads, and balance checks all work regardless.