This has got to be the most laughable report I have seen. The Gerson Lehman Group recently released a study that claims that prepaid cards are more cost effective than a checking account. They compare a checking account, at $300-$400 in annual fees to a prepaid card with $150-$250 per year in fees. I am […]
Archive for the ‘Fees & Breakage’ Category
Sometimes the fine print doesn’t even tell you the full story. Like this customer who received a $50 promotional gift card from Hollister for purchases she made there. The purchases were made on Dec 16 and when they tried to use the card the following February, they were told the card expired on Jan 31st. […]
Looks like JetBlue wins the award for worst gift card ever. One customer won a contest by American Express that allowed her to buy a $100 JetBlue gift card for $70. The reality of using the card however was a huge pain. She spent over 2 hours on the phone trying to redeem the card, dealt […]
Ok, this is sort of a good idea. An entrepreneur is working to create gift cards that have a customer selected expiration date. After that date, the remainder balance on the card is donated to a charity, minus (and here’s the hitch) a percentage of the remainder that the issuer gets to keep. Pretty smart way […]
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.
I’ve found this to be true with many problems. One couple was promised a gift card by ADT as a promotion for signing up for a security system, but despite months of waiting and many calls, it didn’t come. So they called their local news channels problem solver, they contacted ADT, and the gift card […]
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 […]
It seems that banks aren’t the only ones out to screw customers with the small details. This news story reports that many stores will gladly cancel a lost gift card but they won’t replace a lost gift card without the original receipt. I have never heard of anyone saving a gift card receipt.
Amex seems determined to provide the best gift card product. One customer reports their gift cards being lost in the mail, so Amex simply invalidated the old cards and send him new ones. (story)
As this Forbes article indicates, fees on bank gift cards are far from dead. While this will change somewhat when the new gift card laws take effect in 2010, banks seem to be trying to wring as much out of their gift card customers as they can right now. Worst offender? Bank of America’s gift card […]
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 […]
Here is a handy guide that compares gift cards on fees and other things.
GiftCards.com has jumped on the no-fee band wagon and now offers Visa gift cards with no expiration or maintenance fees. As far as I can tell, this applies to all the fees they previously had, including the monthly administrative fees, fee to close an account, fee to replace a lost or stolen card, balance inquiry […]
As reported in this story, and increasing trend is to give consumers gift cards instead of rebate checks for mail-in rebates. The retailer wins twice because (a) only about 40% of mail-in rebates are ever mailed in, and (b) most people don’t use up the full value of their gift cards; normally 10% of the value […]
An interesting article in the New York Times examines (reloadable) prepaid cards and their fees. Issuers of these cards tout them as an alternative to bank accounts and credit cards, especially for those who are unable to get either. Prepaid cards, it turns out, have even higher fees than non-reloadable open-loop gift cards. In one example, […]
Vendors that issue reloadable prepaid cards are crying foul over the legislation that will create the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They claim that it will make it impossible for anyone but banks to issue the cards. At the heart of their argument is their claim that they help millions of consumers that don’t use the […]
This is interesting. Here is an article that completely hammers what they call “rebate cards.” The claim is that companies make rebates incredibly hard to get and by issuing rebate cards instead of checks, they make them hard to spend too. They are so bad in fact that the Canadian government calls them deceptive and has […]
Virtual gift cards aren’t new, but this article in the Portland Press is very excited about a new virtual gift card offering by a local company. Bottom line: Virtual gift cards are a bad idea. If you think it is hard to remember to spend a gift card when you have it in your wallet, try […]
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