Originally Posted by
wendySFO
Did some research and found multiple articles cited there is a new federal law created in 2009 to protect people buy and use gift cards. In this law (CARD act), the general rules for service fee are: (Quoted from
this article)
- There's been no activity on the card for one year
- Only one fee is charged per month
- Information about fees are on the card and the buyer was told about the fees when it was bought
Each state may have further requirements. For California, the service fee (limited to $1 per month) can be charged if the value of the card is less than $5 and the card has been inactive for 24 consecutive months.
Here is a link to consumer report for requirements by each state. (It should have no fee at all in Florida for
Happy's case).
http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/co...es/003889.html
Here is the link for California:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/l...des/s-11.shtml
Too late. I threw away that card already. It expired 1st half of last year so the card was issued in 2009.
The Act said it would go in effect Next Summer - meaning 2010. Therefore incentive cards issued in 2009 may not be covered.
It was $12 so I took it as lesson learned. I should simply use it shortly after getting it instead of throwing it in the drawer and totally forgetting about it until it was already 9 months old.
Florida's State Law:
Does not cover cards linked to bank accounts usable with multiple unaffiliated merchants.
I believe the Visa Debit Card I got fell into the above category because the card can be used with ANY merchants, the money was pre-loaded on the card and there was fine print at the back of the card about which bank was responsible for the card.
The store cards such as Best Buy and Macy's that I got from various incentive programs, do indeed have no expiration date nor fee.