Gift List Services - a comparison
When deciding on which Gift List company to use, there are some important factors we feel you should take into consideration.
1) Is the gift list service a money contribution type or an actual purchase type?
What’s the difference? Well, the traditional department stores like John Lewis are the “actual purchase” type. Another words, 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. At The Bottom Drawer your 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 The Bottom Drawer 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 instead.
2) What things can we add to our list?
With the traditional lists at department stores like John Lewis you are limited to just the items they sell. You might think this isn’t a problem as they offer so many things but you won't be able to add items from any other stores, or towards something else like your honeymoon to their lists. It also means you are limited to the price they charge for those items – which could be a lot more than you'd pay elsewhere.
At The Bottom Drawer you are able to add any item, from any store to your list. To show how much difference this could make, here’s an example. Say you really wanted your guests to contribute towards a new Panasonic TX23LXD60 LCD TV. At John Lewis you would pay £745 for this TV. 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! (prices and details correct at 15 Feb 2007).
3) What if we want gifts from more than one store?
In the past you would have had to set-up a separate gift list at each store. With The Bottom Drawer you can have all your gift items on one list.
4) You’re not the only company that can provide this flexibility are you?
There are other companies which offer a cash contribution gift list service and a lot of them claim to be free to use. But remember the old saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”? Well it very definitely applies in these cases!
Whilst they are often free for you to use as the couple setting up the list (though they may charge for extras like invitation insert cards etc), they make their money by adding some fairly large fees to the payments your guests make, typically of 8% or more. At The Bottom Drawer we simply charge you one low flat rate fee (and often even this is waived - click here for more details). We may have to add on credit card charges when a guest uses a credit card, but we keep this to an absolute minimum at just 2.75% and make this very clear to your guests. We also give them the options of paying by cheque or debit card which totally avoids this surcharge (or you the couple can opt to pay any credit card fees instead of your guests).
At The Bottom Drawer, the average amount raised on a gift list is around £2,000. If you opted to use your list to buy gifts direct from us or our affiliated or partner companies our normal admin fee may be waived/refunded to give you a FREE service! But even if that isn't the case you would only have to pay our low flat rate admin fee. As your guests could opt to pay by cheque or debit card there are potentially no other charges incurred by you or your guests when you use The Bottom Drawer.
But at a gift list provider charging a percentage of the funds raised on your list of 9% and offering no cheque payment facility, you or your guests could end up paying £180 or more in charges! And chances are your guests won’t be too happy about these charges either so end up spending less on you! So please always check the small print before thinking of using one of these other services. For a complete cost comparison please click here.
5) I want something totally different!
Well that’s where The Bottom Drawer really comes into its own! If you would like a completely alternative gift list such as a garden makeover, or luxurious new fitted bathroom we can put you in touch with recommended companies local to you who can provide these services. Your quote from them forms the basis of your gift list. If you fancy something like this, just let us know, and we will do all we can to assist.
6) What about features that make it interesting?
The Bottom Drawer includes as standard all those little extras that make the whole process really easy to use for you and your guests. We include stylish Gift List Notification Cards to send out with your invites so your guests know where your list is held. Whenever a guest makes a contribution to your list you receive an email letting you know. Your guests can leave a personal message for you with their gift and you can log-in at any time to see what has been bought and the messages left making it very easy to send your "thank you" cards after your wedding. Read what other couples think of us on our testimonials page.
We hope that helps but if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.