Apparently, Starbucks has not been abiding by the provisions of California’s gift card law in effect since January 2008; they haven’t been redeeming balances below $10 on gift cards for cash on request. However, they now claim that they are taking steps to train staff appropriately and add a redemption button to their cash registers […]
Archive for the ‘Legal & Regulatory’ Category
This blog post in the Baltimore Sun is a great example of a concerned consumer researching the law related to gift cards in their state, verifying the law with the relevant authorities, and then contacting the issuer of the gift certificate to educate them on the law and make sure their gift certificate was treated as […]
According to this WSJ article, gift card industry is not happy about a the latest Treasury Department proposal for a US consumer watchdog agency. Specifically, they don’t like the proposed rule giving power to State’s laws in cases where they are more powerful than Federal laws. The new breed of gift card laws will hit the […]
Another article in Today’s Wall Street Journal (States Get More Power to Challenge National Banks) might effect gift cards in the future. The issue is a Supreme Court rulling on Monday that partially overturns Federal rules on Bank regulation, allowing States procecutors to go after Federally chartered banks for violating certain fair lending practices. With […]
I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal today and was going to write a piece on it when I came across such a bit from cato-at-liberty.org: Posted by Mark A. Calabria Little noticed in the recently enacted credit card bill was a provision prohibiting retailers and financial institutions from issuing gift cards that expired with […]
The Wall Street Journal has an article (WSJ – A Push to Regulate Prepaid Cards) about the risks associated with reloadable prepaid debit/gift cards, namely that they aren’t subject to the Credit Card Act of 2009 and such cards aren’t required to offer protections against fraud. If fraudulent charges appear on your reloadable prepaid debit card, […]
President Obama has signed the Credit Card Reform Act into law. For a breakdown of how it affects gift cards, see here and here. The new rules won’t take effect until February of 2010. One of the most overlooked features of the law is that the Federal Reserve now has jurisdiction over gift cards, meaning it can […]
As we reported below (4/30/09 story with updates), congress passed the credit card reform act which includes curbs on gift card expiration and fees. There is other legislation (not yet a bill) making its way through congress that deals with the interchange aspects of credit cards and includes even more possible gift card legislation. The […]
This article about how drug cartels just love gift cards points out something I never knew before: Gift cards are not covered by the law the prevents a person from taking more than $10,000 either into or out of the United States without reporting it.
How does Ticketmaster get around honoring an expired gift card even though California has a law that says gift cards can never expire? They call it a “discount card,” despite the fact that the card says “Gift Card” right on it. (story) We can undoubtedly expect more of these shenanigans as more gift card laws […]
According to this summary and this article of the proposed new Federal laws governing credit cards that are now working their way through the House(H.R. 627) and Senate (S.414), at least one of the proposed laws “protects gift cards from most inactivity fees.” How it does so doesn’t appear clear to me from the text of the […]
The Senate is considering a bill to tighten regulations on credit cards. Among the provisions is one that would prohibit gift cards from expiring in less than five years from the date of issue as well as significantly limit dormancy fees. This legilslation, introuced by Senators Charles Schumer and Mark Udall, is similar to legislation […]
Tennessee is considering a bill that would allow consumers cash back for gift cards worth $10 or less. (story) Sadly, no talk of including open-loop cards.
Some people like open-loop (Visa) gift cards because it affords them some privacy; the gift card is anonymous in that it is not associated with your name. Even if you are not a criminal, it can be disturbing to think how much information is collected about all of your spending habits, such as when you […]
Texas is considing a law that would ban gift card expiration dates. (article)
February 22, 2009 by Advocate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Fees & Breakage, Legal & Regulatory, Scams
Filed under: Fees & Breakage, Legal & Regulatory, Scams
This has to be the most blatant example of the government not “getting” gift cards and the ridiculous fees they charge. The governments in 30 states are essentially using reloadable gift cards issued by banks such as BofA, Chase, and US Bancorp to pay people their unemployment benefits. The problem is, the cards include all […]
More states are jumping on the bandwagon. Indiana has a bill (1529) before the State House that would ban fees and expiration dates. Like all other states, they specifically exclude open-loop gift cards. (article) For once I’d like to see a legislator state WHY they are excluding open-loop cards.
Today’s news is chock full of a few nice anecdotes about gift card laws. Maryland is considering a law that would allow the state to claim 70% of unused gift card balances. Hmmm, would that make them more or less likely to pass gift card laws that would benefit the consumer? One thing I found particular […]
Not sure why I never thought to do this before. The results for the search term “gift card” in Google are very telling. Six of the top 10 results are for open-loop gift cards, you know, the kind that come with all the fees, are hard to spend all the way to zero, and are […]
Here is a fairly straight forward analysis and explanation what happens with gift cards during the bankruptcy process
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