You're standing there, staring at a gorgeous hand-painted midi skirt or a pair of perfectly tailored high-waisted trousers on the ModCloth website. You know you have a gift card tucked away somewhere. Or maybe it’s just a digital code buried in the depths of your "Promotions" folder in Gmail. You think you have fifty bucks left. Or is it twenty? Honestly, trying to find a mod gift card balance shouldn't feel like a digital scavenger hunt, but with the way retail websites shift their layouts every six months, it often does.
It’s frustrating.
Retail is weird now. Since ModCloth has moved through different ownership hands over the last decade—transitioning from an indie darling to being owned by Jet.com (Walmart) and then eventually being acquired by Go Global Retail—the backend systems for how they handle credits and gift cards have occasionally been... temperamental. If you have an old card from 2018, it might not play nice with the current checkout system. That’s just the reality of legacy data in the e-commerce world.
The Most Direct Way to See Your Credits
The simplest way to check is usually the one people skip because they don't want to log in. Go to the official site. Look for the "Gift Card" link usually tucked away in the footer—that’s the very bottom of the page for the less tech-savvy. Most people expect a giant "Check Balance" button on the homepage, but retailers rarely make it that prominent. They want you to shop, not manage your budget.
📖 Related: Interior Door Cat Flap: Why Your Cat Hates Your Closed Doors (And How to Fix It)
Once you find the gift card page, you’ll typically see a field to enter the 16-digit code and the PIN. If the card is digital, the PIN is right there in the email. If it's a physical card from years ago, you might have to scratch off that silver coating. Don't use a kitchen knife. Seriously. You’ll ruin the numbers. Use a coin.
If the online portal gives you an error, don't panic. It doesn't mean the money is gone. It usually means the system is having a "moment" or your card predates the current platform migration. In those cases, the only real fix is reaching out to their customer care team. They can manually look up the ID in their database. It takes longer, but it's better than losing forty dollars because of a database glitch.
Why Your Balance Might Look Different Than You Remember
Ever noticed how you swear you had a specific amount, but the mod gift card balance shows zero? This happens a lot with "Store Credits" versus "Gift Cards." They aren't the same thing, even though we use the terms interchangeably in conversation.
If you returned an item and they gave you a "merchandise credit," that is often tied strictly to your email address and account. You won't find a 16-digit number for that. You have to log into your account, go to "Account Settings," and look for a tab labeled "Store Credit" or "Credits." If you aren't logged in, that money basically doesn't exist to the checkout script.
Another weird quirk? Expiration dates. Now, federal law in the U.S. (the CARD Act) generally prevents gift cards from expiring for at least five years. However, "promotional" cards—the ones you get for free as part of a "Buy $100, Get $20" deal—are a totally different legal animal. Those can expire much faster, sometimes in as little as 30 or 90 days. If your balance is missing and it was a "bonus" card, check the fine print of the original email. You might have missed the window.
Shopping Safely on Secondary Markets
Let's talk about Raise, CardCash, or those random people on Reddit offering to sell you a ModCloth credit for 50% off. It sounds like a steal.
It's usually a trap.
While legitimate secondary markets exist, "modding" or "hacking" gift card balances is a common term in darker corners of the internet. When you see someone offering a "modded" balance, they are usually talking about fraudulent activity or card-not-present theft. There is no legitimate software that "mods" a gift card to increase its value. If you buy one of these, the retailer will eventually flag the transaction, void the card, and you'll be out your cash with no recourse. Stick to the official channels. Saving ten dollars isn't worth getting your IP address flagged by a fraud prevention system like Signifyd or Riskified, which many major retailers use to shadow-ban suspicious accounts.
🔗 Read more: Why Go The Unforgettable Party Is Still The Gold Standard For Event Planning
Troubleshooting the Checkout Glitch
Sometimes you have the balance, you see it, but the website won't let you apply it. This is a classic e-commerce headache.
- Clear your cache. It sounds like tech support 101, but old "cookies" from a previous session can prevent a new gift card code from "sticking" in the cart.
- Check for spaces. When you copy and paste a code from an email, you often accidentally grab a space at the beginning or end. The system reads " 1234" as an invalid code because of that tiny invisible character.
- The "Credit Card Required" Wall. Some systems won't let you apply a gift card if the balance doesn't cover the tax or shipping, and they might require a "backup" payment method on file before they even let you hit the "Apply" button. It’s annoying, but try adding a credit card first, then applying the gift card. It usually recalculates the total correctly.
Historical Context of the Brand
ModCloth has had a rocky road. Founded in a college dorm by Susan Gregg Koger and Eric Koger in 2002, it was the gold standard for indie fashion. When Walmart's subsidiary bought them in 2017, the community had a meltdown. Then, in 2019, Go Global Retail stepped in. Every time a company changes hands, the digital infrastructure—including how gift cards are stored in the "cloud"—gets moved.
If you have a very old card, like something from the early 2010s, it’s worth noting that the company has tried to honor these through various transitions, but the "Check Balance" tool on the site today might not be looking at the same server where your old card lives.
Actionable Steps to Secure Your Funds
If you’re currently holding a balance, don't just leave it sitting there. E-commerce is volatile.
- Take a Screenshot: If you have a digital gift card, screenshot the code and the current balance page. If the site goes down for maintenance or the company undergoes another merger, you have proof of what you’re owed.
- Merge Your Credits: If you have three cards with tiny balances, contact customer support. Often, they can consolidate those into one single code for you, making it much easier to use on a single big purchase.
- Check the "Gift Card" vs "Discount Code" box: This is the #1 mistake. Gift cards are a form of payment. Discount codes are "promotions." If you try to put your gift card code into the "Promo Code" box at checkout, it will say "Invalid." Look for the specific "Payment Method" section instead.
The best thing you can do right now is log in, verify that your account email matches the one where you received the gift card, and if you see a discrepancy, use the "Chat" feature on the site immediately. Live chat agents usually have more power to "push" a gift card through than the automated checkout does.
Don't let your money sit as a line item on a corporate balance sheet. Use it or track it.