For selection and ease of use, American Greetings online greeting card site, is the clear winner of our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award. If you want the instant gratification of ecards and evites, or enjoy paper craft projects with professional results, consider an annual membership. American Greetings calendar feature won’t let you forget your parents’ anniversary or a colleague’s birthday, and the evite tracking system is flawless. Yes, there’s a card here for every occasion, and you’ll never have an excuse for forgetting a big day.
Pricing
Three types of membership plans are available for the American Greetings online greeting card service. You can pay $3.99 a month for a monthly plan or you can buy a one-year plan for $19.99. There is also a two-year plan available for $29.99. A free trial period precedes all plans.
Features
Easy navigation includes simple tabs spanning the top of this online greeting card site: ecards, printables, apps & more, in stores and search.
- Ecards: Here you can search by occasion, AG collection, recommendations, or specific words that describe the cards you seek. The card preview includes animation, music and the area available for your message. This site makes it fairly easy to find the right card by breaking down the card categories into logical subcategories. Birthdays, for instance, are broken down into Anyone, Family, Friend, Funny and All.
- Printables: This is where you can find printable online greeting cards for every occasion – weddings, graduations, baby showers, anniversaries, birthdays and more. All projects can be personalized and then produced using your printer at home. The selection is pretty impressive. Remember, the key to success is the paper you use to print.
- Apps & More: Believe it or not there’s an app for that – American Greetings ecards, that is. You can personalize and send cards to friends and family right from your phone. This feature also houses the American Greetings birthday calendar feature, which reminds you of important dates through Facebook, a desktop calendar or through AmericanGreetings.com. The Apps & More tab is also where you’ll find American Greetings wallpapers and screensavers, as well as invitations. These are electronic invitations, commonly called evites. Choose by occasion and then customize for your event. Once you’ve set up your American Greetings Address Book, the guest list is a breeze. AG will notify you when guests reply, send you a list of those who have not replied, and send a reminder to all of your guests.
- In Stores: For the latest on American Greetings trends and releases, check out this tab.
Bonus Features
- A selection of free items is available in each category.
- Mobile ecards: Ecards may be sent direct to a mobile phone. Check recipient’s carrier to be sure it can receive AG ecards.
- Holiday Dates: Wondering when Easter falls next year? Just click on holidays and each has a date.
- Gift Cards: American Greetings online greeting card service makes attaching a gift to your ecard really easy. You are just a couple of clicks away from sending not just a card but a lovely gift as well.
Security
American Greetings online greeting card service has an exceptional privacy policy—they will not sell personal information or information from your AG address book. They use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt personal information, including name, address, and credit card number. When you send an ecard, your recipient will receive a notification from American Greetings and a link to the site where he can view your card. The security message in the email sucks the thrill out of the notification, but once the link is clicked, the card begins its animation. A smile is sure to follow.
The American Greetings online greeting card service website is extremely easy to use. The menus are so easy to negotiate. The search feature found us the rare card we could not find using the menus. This site also offers good online help, complete with logically-organized FAQs.
This site had the most extensive list of occasions, themes and styles we reviewed. Every holiday imaginable was represented. For St. Patrick’s Day alone there were wide selections under each subcategory – Anyone, Funny, Cute, Heartfelt, Religious, Facebook and Mobile. We found cards for Tax Day, the Ides of March, Baisakhi, Bastille Day, Earth Day, April Fools’ Day and Administrative Professionals Day, among others.
Special collections have been organized for specific artists, including pianist Jim Brickman. You can have Brickman serenade your friends for their birthdays, holidays or any day that is special. Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift also has an American Greetings line of greeting cards for your perusal.
American Greetings online greeting card service design is good, ranging from traditional to contemporary. Greetings are just what you’d expect from this company. Lengthy sentiment? Short and sweet? It’s all here. The music selection is generic, but a reasonable range of styles is available. Animation is excellent.
American Greetings online greeting card service has an extensive help section and trouble–shooting guide. You can contact them through email mail or telephone for other questions.
American Greetings is the most comprehensive site for online do-it-yourself greeting cards whether electronic or paper. We appreciated the selection, the site’s layout and the help features. It’s easy and fun: definitely a do.
