This was a pleasant surprise. A credit card company sent to me in the mail a gift card for $25.

Now, I have to wonder why?

Yes, I've been a good customer and I pay my bill on time every month, but I rarely use the card. Are they sending me a reminder to use their card out of gratitude for the $25 gift? Perhaps.

Are they getting into the gift card business? That must be it.

I didn't know they had prepaid gift cards before and this might be a clever way to make people aware of them.

But they should have sent me an email advising me that the gift card was being sent to me in the mail. Usually when I get "card" in the mail from a credit card company it is a "dummy card" with no value and is just supposed to make me apply for a real card. I almost tossed this thing in the trash.

Luckily I didn't.