card out of the gca following a triggering event the gca balance can be transferred into another financial account specified by the giftor alternatively the gca balance can be given to the giftor by check cash money order or the like in some embodiments the giftor can choose to transfer the funds to a third party such as a church civic group or general creditor in some embodiments the giftor can choose to transfer the funds out of the gca associated with an expired or otherwise invalidated gift card and into a gca associated with an active gift card fig5 is an illustration of a system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention in this embodiment the giftor has chosen an u201c independent u201d dgc issuer 501 as his dgc issuer that is the dgc issuer 501 is neither a financial institution nor a merchant the dgc issuer 501 maintains its customer accounts in a database 508 employees of the dgc issuer 501 can manage the customer accounts through desktop computers 506 that interact with the dgc issuer 39 s servers 507 the giftor can choose to open his customer account and request debit gift cards remotely through his own computer 515 the giftor 39 s computer can communicate over the internet 505 with the dgc issuer 39 s website to perform the necessary steps outlined previously alternatively the giftor can interact with the dgc.