Moonpig Reviews

Moonpig.com is simply the best greeting card site in this category even though pigs may not actually fly, even to the moon. A great range of cards, easy to use card editor and competitive pricing make it the hands-down winner against some pretty stiff opposition. It's also a very well designed site, allowing you to navigate easily.

From the colourful and uncluttered homepage you'll see a number of conspicuous tabs that link to different card types. It wouldn't be feasible to browse all cards, as there are simply too many, running into thousands. So, to make your life easier, the tabs will take you to browsable lists arranged in different ways (e.g. theme, occasion, popular). Down the left-hand side of the homepage you can link to a specific occasion (e.g. Christmas, Halloween, New Year). You'll find more occasions covered here than on any other site, including cards for non-Christian festivals and occasions (e.g. Diwali, Eid, Jewish celebrations).

Altogether, there are 37 occasion categories for you to browse containing the best choice of cards within each that you'll find in this category. If you decide to browse by occasion (which most customers are likely to do) you can filter the cards in your chosen category even further, helping you to get to the cards you need. e.g. if you click on 'birthday cards' you can narrow down by theme (e.g. general and blank), by age, belated and recipient. This makes life a lot easier seeing as there are around 1000 cards altogether in the birthday category alone.

Other, perhaps less popular occasions often fall a little short of this in terms of number of cards (let's face it, we all have a birthday); whilst this is common to all sites, Moonpig.com still has more cards per category than its competitors. To give you some idea, at the time of this review there were 9 Eid cards, 49 Jewish celebration cards (incorporating Hanukkah, Bar/Mat-Mitzvah, Passover and Rosh Hashanah), 41 cards to wish people 'bon-voyage', 29 cards sending congratulations on passing a driving test, 67 wishing luck in a new home and 52 for new job.

WIth reference to more specialist cards, you'll find 69 photo upload crads that allow you to add your own images. A number of card types stand out; spoof humour cards feature magazine covers (sports, lifestyle, travel), newspapers,  and 'bottoms up' (wine and beer themed cards) that you can personalise and add photos. Kids are well catered for too. You'll find WInnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Hannah Montana, Phineas & Ferb, Flower Fairies and Little Creatures all here and more.

There's also a particularly good selection of wedding-related cards and invitations. You'll find cards to send to the lucky couple (wedding and engagement cards, invitation acceptance and regret cards) and from the couple (engagement/wedding invitations, save the date cards, civil ceremony invitations, thank you cards). A lot of these cards can only be found here; whilst you might go to a site (e.g. Bonusprint.co.uk) and create your own card, it's probably easier and more convenient to just pick one from the range on offer here. The cards are also great value and are basically the same as the ones you'd find on the high street, only better because they can be personalised.

 
  The card editor is one of the easiest to use that you'll find, and you are given prompts to help you through each stage of the process.  

Once you've chosen your card from the thumbnail list you are given a preview of the card on all sides (front/inside/back) and a description of the card including the card stock and finish. For greeting cards you can select a size (small, standard or large-see price list above for card sizes). You can also purchase some cards in a postcard or square card format. Whilst you can buy folded cards in single form, postcards have to be bought in sets of 8, whilst square cards come in 4s.

The card editor is one of the easiest to use that you'll find, and you are given prompts to help you through each stage of the process. The editor allows you to view each side of the card and add your own text, change the font size, font style, color and text alignment and upload photos (if a photo-upload card is chosen). It's a very smooth system and you really can't go wrong. You can also save a card and come back to it later to finish off.

Once you've created your card you need to register a few details, so make sure you have a valid email address. It only takes a minute to do this. It's possible to mail cards back to you (blank envelopes are included) or have the card mailed directly to the recipient. You also get to select from a range of mailing options (first-class, special delivery, Saturday special delivery), however, not all of these will apply outside of the UK. It's also great that you can schedule delivery of the card up to several months in advance, which means that you can arrange to send your card and not have to time it to coincide with the date it needs to arrive. You can also choose to receive an annual reminder, say if it's a birthday.

You can also specify how far in advance of the occasion that you wish to receive the reminder. It's the little touches that make Moonpig.com stand out. When it comes to paying for your order, you'll find a range of payment options available. PrePay is a great way of saving. You simply add credit to your account in advance of any purchase. You get an additional 20% off the cost of your order if you use FreePay. In addition, top up by at least £19.85 and receive an additional 25% of the amount for free. You can also pay by credit card or offline using PayCash at your nearest PayPoint outlet. 

In terms of other features, once you've registered with the site you can manage your account, track orders, create a favourites list, address book and set up reminders. You can also purchase gifts to accompany your card order. For example, there is a selection of 20 flower arrangements to choose from (delivered by mail or courier), which are pricey, but convenient. Alternatively, there's a range of hundreds of gift mugs carrying different themes (e.g. humour, tv, movies) that can be personalised with text and photos. The heat and reveal mugs change colour when filled to reveal a photo or message.

There's also a great range of themed and photo-upload t-shirts to choose from. Kids' sizes start at 3 up to 14 years of age, whilst adult sizes run from small to XXL. Finally, you can also send personalised wine and spirit gifts, including champagne, single malt whisky, port and beer, for those who enjoy a tipple. Whilst you may find them convenient, the best thing about Moonpig.com is the cards, and that's why it's our number one. If you have any queries or questions about the site, there's a great help section with FAQs, email support and a customer help line (Monday-Friday 8.30am-9.00pm GMT).

Moonpig.com is the deserved winner in this category. With such an extensive range of cards, great prices and thoughtful features it's the number one place to come for greeting cards.

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