Christmas is coming, so what do you buy the loved one who has everything? One possibility is the gift card, an electronic version of the traditional gift voucher that has taken the US by storm over the past decade, and is also becoming popular over here. The popularity is odd: this is a gift that combines all the charm of a hideous cardigan, with the can’t-lose flexibility of a rumpled tenner slipped in a Christmas card.

Dismiss my complaints, if you will, as unwarranted generalisations from personal experience. I have had one instance of gift cards as a recipient and one as a giver, and neither was a success.