'What is a Steam Card?': A complete guide to Steam gift cards, including how to buy and send them digitally
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A Steam card is a gift card that can be redeemed through Steam for credit.
Credit from Steam cards can be used to buy games, downloadable content, and in-game content.
Physical Steam cards usually come in denominations of $20, $30, $50, and $100. Digital cards come in denominations of $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100.
Steam cards can be bought physically from retailers, or digitally from Steam's online storefront.
While Steam is an online-only service, it still offers gift cards which can be bought in many stores. A physical gift card is a lovely addition to a traditional birthday or Christmas card — nicer than handwriting an activation code at the bottom.
Steam also offers digital gift cards, so the process can be done entirely online.
The only real difference between a physical and digital gift card is the amount of money they come in. Physical cards are sold in amounts of $20, $30, $50, and $100, while digital cards can be worth $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100.
A Steam card comes with an activation code, which can be used by the recipient to put the Steam card's value into their account's digital Steam Wallet. The Wallet balance can can then be used to buy games, downloadable content, and in-game items.
If you send a digital Steam card, the receiver will have the money added to their wallet by accepting the gift. If you've received a physical gift card, then you can activate it online by inputting the code.
Check out the products mentioned in this article:
Steam Gift Card (From $20 at Best Buy)
How to send a digital Steam card
1. Go to this page on the Steam website while logged into your Steam account. Select the dollar amount of the card you want to send.
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2. Select the friend on your Steam friends list you'd like to send the card to. The recipient needs to be on your friends list.
3. Steam will give you a text field to write a note to send the card with. This is an optional step, but a nice gesture.
4. You'll be asked to select a method of payment. Steam accepts most major credit cards, as well as PayPal purchases.
5. You'll be asked to agree to the Steam subscriber agreement, as well as be offered one last chance to change your purchase.
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6. Steam will email you to confirm that the transaction was made successfully, and your digital Steam card will be sent immediately.
If you've received a Steam gift card and want to redeem it, check out our article, "How to redeem a Steam gift card code to add funds to your Steam Wallet, or download a specific game."
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