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Gift cards are the quintessential easy gift idea. Everybody uses them, and they avoid questions like “Will this fit her?” or “Will he similar to this?” Gift cards and gift certificates are available from a variety of stores, including the mundane like grocery stores and drug stores to more specialized businesses like spas and travel agencies. No matter where you get or be given a card from, however, it is very important to guard yourself as a consumer and be familiar along with your rights surrounding gift card use. After all, they’re used as type of currency and should be treated as frugally as one would treat cash.

Exactly what do I do with a present card I don’t want?

There are certainly a lot of choices for putting gift cards you don’t wish to good use. You will find websites that exist for the only real intent behind buying and selling gift cards. Gift Card Granny, for instance, will purchase your card for 60%-80% of its value. You can even sell your card on a web site like Craigslist or eBay. Other websites like Gift Card Swapping allow you to trade your gift card for one you’ll actually use.

In 2009, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act [gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ24/pdf/PLAW-111publ24.pdf] passed into federal law. The act covers lots of ground surrounding the protection of credit cardholders, but it addittionally created some federal standards for gift card issuers which are designed to protect consumers. These generally include requiring that cards, with a few exceptions, expire no less than five years after issuance and that dormancy fees can only just be charged after one year of inactivity and only when these fees are fully disclosed to consumers. Based on the CARD Act, stores are allowed to start charging dormancy fees – meaning, a charge to help keep the card active when it hasn’t been used after a quantity of time – after one year of inactivity, and no multiple charge per month. Eventually, these charges may deplete the worth of the card. This is a significant way stores and major card issuers like American Express make money. However, some states have introduced additional, and sometimes contradictory, legislation surrounding gift card law.

Like, New York law allows stores to start charging monthly dormancy fees after just one year of inactivity. It is also legal for stores to charge an upgraded fee for lost  buy itunes gift card cards, and they don’t require stores to provide cash back for small balances on cards. Additionally, after five years cards are deemed “abandoned” and the balance of the card is forfeited to the state. Other states, like New Jersey, establish abandonment after as low as couple of years of inactivity. (In New Jersey’s case, this policy has been deemed unconstitutional, so their state remains in flux between enforcing the overturned state standard and the federal standard.) Such provisions, which eliminate the profit for card sellers that is included with unused cards, have caused major issuers like American Express to pull out of grocery and convenience stores in certain states.

For comparison, California grants gift card users with protection beyond the federal standard. Cards are never allowed to expire, despite five years, and dormancy fees can only just be charged after couple of years of inactivity and only when the balance on the card is less than $5.

What if there’s just a little money left on my card?

Maybe you are able to really get your balance in cash. Beneath the CARD Act, most businesses are needed to provide cash for the residual balance on a card if the balance is less than $5. (In some states, this minimum value is higher.) Obviously, businesses often fail to train their front-of-the-line staff on this law, so you may want to escalate through the ranks to locate someone actually informed of the law.

What should I learn about online gift cards?

Online “gift certificate” sites that provide deals like Groupon and LivingSocial fall into a significantly gray section of the law. Generally, they’re treated as coupons as opposed to gift cards, meaning they can generally set their own terms as it pertains to expiration dates and redemption policies. Groupon, for instance, requires that stores honor the worth a person paid for a package after the deal has expired, but only as a store credit.

Virtual cards, including the popular Amazon or iTunes cards which are often sent via email, don’t usually expire. Sometimes they may be redeemed only online and not at brick-and-mortar stores, so read the terms of the card carefully. Otherwise, they’re susceptible to the same laws as tangible cards; for instance, Amazon includes the mandatory language to indicate that cash refunds are just available where “required by applicable state law,” although it generally does not give information on how best to begin claiming small balances in cash.