Mobile Device Enablement of Universal Prepaid Cards

An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, from a mobile device, representations of a gift card request, a first amount, and a merchant;
• debiting, an account associated with the mobile device by a second amount, wherein the second amount is less than the first amount;
• transmitting, to the mobile device, a digital gift card branded by the merchant, wherein the digital gift card is for the first amount and is associated with a code;
• receiving, from a scanning device associated with the merchant, a request to validate the code;
• transmitting, to the scanning device, validation of the code;
• and
• providing a universal prepaid card for a third amount to an account associated with the merchant, wherein the third amount is less than the first amount.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by an application operating on a mobile device, selection of a merchant and a first amount;
• transmitting, by the application and to a 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;
• 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 a scanning 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.