I always just use the Visa prepaid card for my regular purchases, such as groceries etc anywhere that accepts Visa. The fees for the gift card were paid by the purchaser when they bought the card - i.e. a $100 card they paid $105 or so, and most stores don't charge you an added fee to use a credit card/gift gard.
Anymore, when you get down to the end of the card's balance the cashier can usually swipe the card and see the remaining balance. We did this recently at home depot. We knew the card had about $1 left on it, so I asked the cashier if she could tell how much was left on the card and charge that to it and I'd pay the rest cash. It wasn't a problem at all. She swiped the card, told me the balance, and used it up.
Two three years back, using the small leftover balances was a problem at some stores, but I haven't had an issue with that in at least 2 years, probably due to system updates.