Gift Cards Need Warning Labels

I finally used a gift card to Barnes and Noble that a friend gave me for Christmas..a year and a half ago! I half expected when I went to use it that it would have have expired, or the available balance would have been eaten up by fees. Fortunately, though, it was still good and worth the entire original value.

Not so with all gift cards. Expiration dates, fees for non-use and other "gotchas" that can suck up the value of your gift card -- pretty quickly. You'll find all kinds of gift card warnings online. A couple of years ago the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) warned about service fees as high as $2.50 a month! And New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer went after the nation's largest shopping mall chain after it allegedly violated the state's gift card law that prevents monthly fees until the 13th month, along with other disclosures. 

Even if the person buying a gift card reads the fine print, the person receiving it may have no idea what the terms are until they go to use it. Those hidden problems have prompted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to release guidelines for bank-issued gift cards. Among them:

Basic information that is most essential to a gift card recipient's decisions about when and how to use the card should be provided on the gift card itself, or on a sticker or tape affixed to the gift card. 

Disclosures should generally tell consumers:

* The expiration date of the card (which should appear on the front of the card);

* The amount or the existence of any monthly maintenance, dormancy, usage or similar fees;

* How to obtain additional information about their cards or other customer service (for example, by providing a toll free number or website address).

Also, issuers should not advertise a gift card as having no expiration date if there are fees that will eat up the balance if you don't use the card promptly.

The OCC guidelines aren't law, and they only apply to nationally chartered banks. Of course, it is really sad that the folks that create and sell gift cards don't just do the right thing by customers in the first place.

If you get a gift card, don't wait to use it like I did. Got a gift card you don't want? Or need the cash more than the card? Sell or trade your gift card on eBay (you'll pay a listing fee) or cardavenue (which is free).

This reminds me, I still have two more gift cards from my birthday that I need to use...