Gift Card Tips for the Holidays
December 23rd, 2009
by Guest Blogger
Listen to a radio PSA about gift cards.
Are you tired of guessing what your friends and family want for the holidays? I know I’ve given my Dad one too many sweaters that I’ve never seen him wear. Lots of folks like me are thinking of giving gift cards this year. I’m an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, and I’d like to share some tips for giving and receiving gift cards.
Giving Gift Cards
Buy from trusted sources. Steer clear of buying gift cards from online auction sites because the cards may be fake.
If you buy a card from a company that files for bankruptcy, the recipient may end up with a card they can’t use.
Check the expiration dates and fees for the card you’re considering. You’d hate to give a gift card only to find out that the fees ate up much of the value.
Don’t forget to give the receipt with the card in case the recipient loses the card.
Receiving Gift Cards
If you’ve received a gift card, use it quickly before you lose it or fees kick in. If your gift card is lost or stolen, you may be out the whole amount. Report it to the issuer right away.
Related Resources
Next holiday season, you’ll be able to give gift cards with even greater confidence. Additional protections will kick in to limit the ability of gift card issuers to impose fees and early expiration dates.
Check out more helpful tips on giving and receiving gift cards. Happy Holidays!
~Alysa
Tags: gift cards, holiday
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This was a very helpful topic. I look forward to reading more from this blogger! One thing that really gets me is the $5 activation fee – so you buy a $60 Macy’s gift card but have to pay to use it!
U.S. Treasury OCC Reminds Consumers To Read Fine Print on Gift Cards
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2009-146.htm
Considering the new laws that have just passed in 2010, is there any way to recover some of the lost expenses on visa gift cards? We have a stack of old visa gift cards that my wife had nothing but problems using. Most of the time the register clerks had no idea what to do with them. At a later date, we discovered that you needed to tell the clerk to process it as a credit card. If anyone has any other ideas please reply or post them on this NON-COMMERCIAL Blog so that other people won’t get burned like we did. Thanks
NEVER, EVER mail the receipt with the giftcard. If the giftcard doesn’t make it to the recipient, you’ve both lost out. If you insist on mailing the receipt, make a copy for yourself, just in case. Always mail giftcards in a padded envelope – never in a greeting card. The greeting card envelope is not stable enough to hold the giftcard once it goes through mail processing equipment. Thousands of giftcards get shredded every year because postal employees don’t know which giftcard goes in which greeting card. Always fill out the To/From with complete names and not nicknames, Mom, Dad, Sis, You know who, etc. This helps to identify which giftcard you’re looking for.
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the fantastic work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Thanks for the information, i’ve been trying to find for info in this all day. good post