Exeter business allows consumers to receive cash gifts rather than overpriced greeting cards with their new online service

A new website, www.DontSendMeACard.com, has launched this week and will finally provide a real online alternative to an age-old expense – greeting cards.

With consumers spending £1.5bn a year on greeting cards in the UK and 4 out of 10 consumers believing that greeting cards have become too expensive, they are increasingly out of touch with what people really want.

www.DontSendMeACard.com provides an online alternative where users can have the money instead of the overpriced greeting cards. Cash gifts can be received through the site by requesting that family and friends send the equivalent cost of sending a card.

Users simply choose an occasion, such as Christmas, a Birthday or a Wedding and an Occasion page is created that they can share via Facebook, Twitter or email. Friends and family can then see that they don’t want cards and the reason why they would prefer the money instead.

Loved ones can then contribute by selecting the type of card that they would have otherwise purchased, ranging from the lower end of the scale to the outrageously excessive. Even the cost of the stamp can be added, as well as a cash gift if desired.

It is surprising how much money all those cards can add up to and users could be getting £50 or £100 for each occasion request they put out. Rather than receiving hundreds of pounds worth of cards, users can get something they actually want, such as the latest video game, a day at the spa, or they can give it to charity.

Not to mention doing their bit for the environment too. We are sending an estimated 2 billion cards per year in the UK, chopping down hundreds of thousands of trees in the process.

Founder Alex Furness developed the idea when he realised that we haven’t really had any other choice than to send overpriced cards in the past. “I started adding up the total cost of cards that we’re typically getting for each occasion and was amazed how much is collectively spent on what is essentially a bit of recycled pulp with a stock image on it, that gets binned just a few days later.”

"I realised that we’re all locked into this silly reciprocal obligation of sending cards – which have become massively overpriced for what they are – and we’ve had no real alternative online, until now."

Alex, an Exeter-based graphic designer, built the site in collaboration with Web-Engineer, an Exeter based web development firm. "We’ve created a way for people to easily tell friends and family they would prefer not to receive a card, and instead receive cash through the site. www.DontSendMeACard.com lets you put the collective cost of greeting cards to better use."

The fact that it is much easier to make a quick online payment from the comfort of your own home rather than go out and choose a card, write an inscription and post it on time, fits perfectly with today’s trends of online convenience and wanting to be much more environmentally friendly. It also has the added benefit of contributing to something that a loved one wants.

www.DontSendMeACard.com invites consumers to rethink how they’d like to celebrate their occasions – with piles of greeting cards or by putting their cost towards something worthwhile, such as an experience or supporting a good cause.

It’s free to sign up and easy to invite friends and family to contribute via social media.