Store Gift card decreasing in value over time...

I saw a segment on the news the other day that said that store gift cards do decrease in value over time. Something like $2.50 a month. Stores supposedly cannot report a sale until you use your card so this is their way of making you use your card right away. If they really wanted you to use it right away, they would make this fact a little more clear instead of us having to hear about it on the news, they just want to make a buck.

Has anyone else heard about this or has any one gone to the store to find out that their card isn't worth as much as they thought?

Consumerism.

[Edited on Dec 27, 2003 by franandzooey]

I think most cards are all good for 12 months, and after that they depreciate by a set rate (most of the ones I've seen it's $1.00) every month after that.

This is new to me. Where I work we sell giftcards, and the only catch to them is that they have to be used at least once every two years or they can be cancelled by the company that runs the system behind them. I think what you saw on the news was there because it was exceptional and rather irksome--something to chew on around the water cooler.

A friend of mine used a gift card the other day that he had for quite some time. I usually use mine right away because I am always anxious to get new stuff.

Just a warning for peeps who hold on to theirs for too long, that it may go down in value by the time you do get around to using it.

Ah...just gimme the money.

I'm not sure this is legal. Having managed restaurants at least...it was illegal for gift certificates to expire or change value.

Really? That is good to know 'cuz I have these free passes to the movies but have been embarassed to go use them because I have had 'em for like 2 years.

Anyone wanna' go to the movies? hehe.

I heard the same thing, that it is actually illegal for gift certificates to expire or lower in value. The are considered the same as cash, so they can't. Some will try to tell you that so you go in and buy something right away, but everything I have heard tells me they cannot expire or depreciate.
Free passes that were given away or not paid for i the first place are different, cause they aren't considered cash, so I don't know about them.

Wasn't someone bitching about this in another thread?

A friend of mine who's an accountant tells me the same thing. It's illegal for gift certificates to expire or lose value over time.

State of mass just changed the law to 7 years. A gift certificate (and i'm 90% certain that gift cards count in this category) are valid for 7 fucking years!! If you still have a gift certificate after 5years you probably don't want to use it anymore! Obscene i tell you.

Said thread: I'm back, which is probably akin to "you left??" or "who are you??"... but anyways, it's obligatory. Bank woes and whatnot...

Blockbuster gift card, oh my creative parents, a "stocking stuffer", 5 bucks, whoops, didn't use it soon enough (and oh do I need to because I owe Stardust (winterpark fl) probably 90 dollars), blockbuster in all their infinite evil decides that if you don't use the card after 24 months, they invalidate it by deduction 2 dollars each month thereafter.

Thats like giving someone a book whose pages disapear if you don't read them quick enough.

I think saying blockbuster is evil is a moot point, but I thought better of a company who wont stock the unrated version of Bad Llieutenant, or The Last Temptation of Christ, yet makes no bones about stocking their shelves with the likes of things variously named Night Passion, Hot Stalkers, Turning up the Heat, all invariously about some sort of police woman / insatiable vixen.

That wasn't part of the deal blockbuster, that... wasn't... part!

Nope. Sounds like an anti-Blockbuster thread to me.



[Edited on Dec 28, 2003 by franandzooey]

I used to work for Home Depot, and our gift cards started to depreciate after the first year, but only if they had been unused.
Its interesting to find they have more than one nationwide policy that is less than legal...


*this has been an unadulterated anti-ex-employer burst of hatefulness*

Atually if you read what they wrote, they said that they didn't use their Giftcard fast enough, so Blockbuster started deduction $ from it, which is exactly what THIS thread is about.

That thread is
actually about a lot of things having to do with hating blockbuster besides just the gift cards. FYI, My purpose for posting this thread was to inform people and not to "bitch" about anything.

Should I assume you won't be going to the movies with me?

some of you might be familiar with simon malls and their visa gift cards. the great thing is that they can be used ANYWHERE visa is accepted. the downside is that you only have SIX MONTHS to use them, before a fee is deducted each month. i believe it's $2.50, but don't quote me on that. also, you can only check the amount left on the card for a certain time period before they start charging you. AND there is a $1.50 service fee for every gift card you purchase...which they don't tell you until they give you the total. it's ridiculous. there were so many complaints about that service fee at my local mall that simon employees were giving away bath and body works gifts to complainers.

Sorry, I didn't mean that YOU were bitching, I meant that the person who started the thread I linked was bitching. Meh. My bad.

So are we on for the movies? I am confused?

hehe. A toast to misunderstandings. Sorry too...

Whatever you want to see is A-Ok with me.

Any popular romantic movies right now?