How can I test using gift certificates?

Normally after setting up a product, I like to test the entire purchase cycle (but without using real money). So I do this by setting the payment module to COD.

This works on regular products, but for some reason when I create a gift certificate product, I keep getting the error saying "Sorry, we are not accepting payments from your region at this time."

Is there a good way for me to test how gift certificates work without using real money?

Gift Certificates and Virtual Products cannot be purchased with COD ... how would the delivery person deliver them? :unsure:

Try testing with Check/Money Order for now, but be sure you test will all Payment Modules before going live ...

Thanks, setting to check/money order worked great.

So now I'm testing with real money with PayPal Express checkout.

Now I have a problem. I buy a gift certificate, everything goes fine (no error messages). I got my gift certificate credit and was able to use the gift certificate. I got an ZenCart order confirmation saying that I purchased $1 in gift certificate. And I see the order in the ZenCart customer -> orders. But the problem is that the status shows "Pending" and not "Processing" as expected. And the purchaser did not get an a PayPal confirmation notice saying that they paid via paypal. And when purchaser logs into PayPal account, there is no record seen about him paying the $1 for the purchase of the gift certificate.

Seem like PayPal did not collect the purchaser's money for the gift certificate.

I have "queue purchases" in "modules -> order total" set to false.

Be aware when testing ... if the site is Down for Maintenance ... only you can get to the site ... not anything else that needed to come back, such as PayPal ... :unsure:

Okay, I've figured out my problem. It turned out to be the adverse side-effects of some functional customization of a highly customized ZenCart shop.