Why can't mahalo dollars equal real dollars? For example why does it "cost" $44 mahalo dollars to get a $25 gift card?

Mahalo gives their answer to this question in the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of the Mahalo Store. I do not necessarily like the answer but they have given it.. so here it is. Q: "Why is there a difference between the value of a product and its price in Mahalo Dollars?"

A: "For example, you might notice that the $25 Zappos Gift Card is priced at M$44 (44 Mahalo Dollars). There are a few reasons for this. First, a Mahalo Dollar is worth $0.75 USD, so M$44 is worth $33.

Thus you are really only paying $33 for the $25 Zappos Card, and that includes the Shipping costs. But the real incentive is that there is no waiting period. If you want to redeem your Mahalo Dollars for cash, then you have to reach M$150 in order to cash out.

But, if you want to buy something from the Mahalo Store, you can buy it immediately as long as you have the Mahalo Dollars in your account. " I know in a couple of days the part about getting value out of your Mahalo Dollars without having to save to M$150.00 is going to be null but for the time up until the end of cash out it still is true and after the cashing out ends we will have to just accept that "Shipping and Handling" or in some cases just "Processing" are the reasons we get the exchange rate we do in the Mahalo Store. After the cash out deadline Mahalo Dollars will still have ..oddly enough.. adjustable exchange rates depending on how we want to spend them.

Example the iPad is an even 1 for 1 exchange but the Amazon Gift Card is sold a a big loss of value to us because the Amazon Gift Card is emailed to us but we can still claim some very limited control of the rate we want our Mahalo Dollars to be exchanged at. Hopefully if and or when the Mahalo store evolves in the coming weeks after the cash outs end we will get additional options for getting the take home value out of or Mahalo dollars ..we will just have to wait and see.

I asked the same question in hope that Mahalo staff would provide an actual answer on why the exchange rate isn't the same as $M to real dollars, no luck. mahalo.com/answers/why-do-m-44-only-get-....

Like any form of currency there is an exchange rate. Mahalo dollars are worth 75 cents. This is the fixed exchange rate that Mahalo has elected to use.

But can change that amount at any time if they so chose. It is more of a matter that they want to get more for their money which is their right.

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