California is considering raising the amount of money consumers can demand in cash from a gift card from the current level of $10 to “under $20.”
Archive for the ‘Legal & Regulatory’ Category
New Jersey is the latest state to go after gift card funds under the authority of unclaimed property laws, with a twist; they want to actually take possession of the money spent on gift cards when the cards are first purchased, so that the State, and not the issuing company can benefit from the interest […]
A bill was introduced into the PEI legislature recently is similar to the new US Federal gift card laws under the credit card reform act of 2009, namely it limits expiration dates and severely limits fees.
A couple of items in this article are troubling: the claim that gift card laws are seldom enforced and the admission by the State of Louisianna (and probably by most States with gift card law) that complaints about gift cards are rare. Why is this? Just like with the proliferation of nickel and dime fees on […]
The Federal Reserve has apparently finalized its new rules for gift cards, which are scheduled to take effect August 22nd, 2010. At least one Senator wants them enacted earlier. At least one part of the rules is a little disappointing; inactivity fees are allowed after one year of no use, but only one fee can be […]
Heavy lobbying by shopping mall owners in 2007 convinced the government of Manitoba to exempt mall issued gift cards from the law they passed that prohibits expiration dates and fees on gift cards. Legislators of course are loath to advertise this fact and people are getting bitten by the disparity, expecting their mall gift cards to […]
In Canada’s Nova Scotia province new laws came into effect on Feb 1, 2010 that prevent gift cards from having expiration dates or inactivity fees of any kind. As a result of this, one chain of malls is crying foul and has suspended sales of their mall-endorsed Mastercard gift cards. They stated a campaign to get the […]
As always there will be loopholes to the protections offered by the Credit Card Act of 2009 that card issuers will try to exploit. One such loophole, chronicled here, is that reloadable cards that are not marketed as gift cards are exempt from the provisions of the regulations under that act, which makes no sense considering […]
As we’ve stated a number of times, there are many companies that either aren’t aware of the laws around gift cards, don’t train their staff properly, or just don’t care to obey them. So when company refuses to give you cash back for your gift card valued under $10 (in California), it may not be […]
Looks like there is a proposed bill SB885 in California which aims to raise the amount you can get cash back for on a gift card (close-loop only) from $10 to $20 and to do away with dormancy fees.
According to this Sacramento Bee article, the author had a lot of trouble getting cash back for gift cards that were valued under $10, which is clearly spelled out under a California gift card law that has been in force for over two years now. This is similar to the problems with trying to use […]
According to this story, getting a general purpose (Visa/MasterCard) gift card from a bank is a royal pain in the butt. I understand that banks have financial reporting regulations but do they really need to make you jump through all the paperwork hoops for a $50 gift card when you can buy one at CVS or […]
Does this lawsuit spell the end of the gift card party as retailers and card issuers know it? At issue is the remainder minutes on AT&T prepaid calling cards (breakage); there is often not enough left (pennies?) on a calling card to make an actual call, so the money is effectively lost. The lawsuit aims to […]
Here is an excellent summary of state gift card laws by the National Conference of State Legislators.
Right on the heels of Colorado’s announcement about pursuing gift card legislation next year, Wisconsin, which has no current gift card consumer protection laws, is discussing a gift card law outlawing service fees and expiration dates.
While the details of Colorado’s proposed gift card legislation (press release) have not been fully released, it sounds like is like a gift card law on steroids. It bans expiration dates and fees, including activation fees, monthly fees of any kind, fees for checking balances, etc. It also allows consumers to get cash back for balances […]
This article in the Chicago Tribune’s Consumer Help column tells us a couple of things anyone should know: First, contacting either a newspapers or TV stations consumer help guru is possibly the best way to get stubborn banks or other companies to change their minds and give you what they want. Almost every story I have […]
The Fed announced its new proposed rules for Gift Cards from the responsibility given to it by the Credit Card Accountability Act of 2009. The major change from rules on gift cards previously discussed is that rather than allowing monthly fees after 12 months, they will require that no fees be charged until 12 months of inactivity […]
As States started to realize that unclaimed gift cards were enriching companies bottom lines, many if not most of them passed laws that allowed them to drag that money into their own coffers via unclaimed property laws. Colorado has tried to legitimizes their efforts by allowing people to get that money back by looking up […]
In some ways Gift Cards have not been very well thought out. In particular, they are hard to distinguish from real credit cards, and this can cause problems for merchants. Well, it also causes problems with the governments efforts to fight against money laundering (link and link) because 1) it is not illegal under the current US […]
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