US gift cards: when the face value is already dollars

American accounts are the default across a lot of gaming. Sign up without thinking about it and you'll often end up on the US store, which makes this the region people most often have without ever choosing it.

One currency, start to finish

This is the only shelf where the face value and the price are both in dollars. A $25 card puts $25 in the wallet. It won't cost exactly $25, because the price covers what the card costs us and the payment fee, but you're never converting anything.

Gaming

PlayStation Store comes in $10, $25, $50, $75 and $100. Game Pass has the widest set we stock anywhere, from $9.99 to $100. Roblox runs $10 to $100, Nintendo $10, $35 and $50, Blizzard $20 and $50, Minecraft $9.99 and $19.99.

Razer Gold goes from $10 to $200, and it's the one worth knowing about: it pays for games that have no card of their own. Free Fire top-ups start at $1.

One gap to plan around. There's no Xbox wallet card for the US at the moment, only Game Pass, so if you need spendable balance on an American Microsoft account rather than a subscription, check the US gaming shelf before you count on it.

Amazon, in any amount you like

The American Amazon card is a range card rather than a fixed one. Type any amount between $5 and $500 and that's the card you get. Almost everything else in the shop comes in set sizes, so this is the one to reach for when you need an exact total.

Everything else

Google Play from $10. Uber, Uber Eats and DoorDash from $15. Starbucks from $5. Sephora, GAP, H&M, Asos, Adidas and Home Sense on the shopping shelf, with Airbnb and Hotels.com over on travel.

US or South Africa?

For Steam this comes up constantly, and it has a guide of its own. The short version: you don't choose, your Steam account already did. Buy for the country showing in your account details today, not the one with the nicer prices.

PlayStation works the same way. A US card needs an American PSN account, and if you want one, making a PlayStation account for another country is the honest route. Read it first, because games bought on that account stay on that account.

Then

Set your region to the United States, check what's actually in stock on the United States page, and read the region line at checkout before you pay. The Loot Guarantee covers a code that fails. It can't recover one spent on the wrong store.