Mobile device enablement of universal prepaid cards

A method comprising:

• transmitting, by an application operating on a mobile device and to a computing system, a representation of a location of the mobile device as provided by way of global positioning system (GPS) hardware of the mobile device;
• receiving and displaying on a user interface, by the application, representations of one or more merchants with physical presence within a given radius of the location;
• receiving, by the application, selection of a merchant and a first amount, wherein the merchant was selected from the one or more merchants by way of the user interface;
• transmitting, by the application and to the computing system, a representation of a gift card request, the merchant, and the first amount;
• receiving, by the application and from the computing system, a digital gift card branded by the merchant, wherein the digital gift card is for the first amount and is associated with a code;
• displaying, by the application, the code for scanning by a point-of-sale device of the merchant;
• and
• receiving, by the application and from the computing system, an indication that the merchant has been paid, wherein transmission of the indication was caused by the computing system receiving a representation of the code as scanned by the point-of-sale device, wherein a second amount is credited to an account associated with the merchant as a universal prepaid card, and wherein the second amount is less than the first amount.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a computing system and from a mobile device, a representation of a location of the mobile device as provided by way of global positioning system (GPS) hardware of the mobile device;
• transmitting, by the computing system and to the mobile device, representations of one or more merchants with physical presence within a given radius of the location;
• receiving, by the computing system and from the mobile device, representations of a gift card request, a first amount, and a merchant, wherein the merchant was selected from the one or more merchants by way of a user interface of the mobile device;
• debiting, by the computing system, an account associated with the mobile device by a second amount, wherein the second amount is less than the first amount;
• allocating, by the computing system, a universal prepaid card for the first amount to the mobile device;
• exchanging, by the computing system, the universal prepaid card with a digital gift card branded by the merchant;
• transmitting, by the computing system and to the mobile device, the digital gift card, wherein the digital gift card is for the first amount and is associated with a code;
• receiving, by the computing system and from the mobile device, an instruction to pay the merchant from the digital gift card;
• and
• transmitting, by the computing system and to a point-of-sale device associated with the merchant, validation that the merchant was paid a third amount, wherein the third amount is less than the first amount.