Check Gift Card Terms *Before* Buying

We wrote this spring about restaurant giant Darden (Olive Garden and Red Lobster parent company) and its huge settlement with the FTC over gift card expiration dates.

Now comes a good reminder and a caveat from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (pictured). The Illionois AG says that gift cards sold in Illinois must disclose their expiration date. Cards sold after January 1, 2008 in Illinois must retain their value for 5 years.

As states attempt to regulate this issue at their level, we also remind all consumers during this holiday season that gift cards (especially gift charge cards bearing a Visa or MasterCard logo) may have excessive activation fees. In our testing earlier this year, we found multiple cards for sale in denominations as low as $25 that had activation fees of up to $5.95. Spending just under one-quarter of the value of a card for activation is a horrible business practice.

Don't fall for it.

Read the entire instructions on the card. If the card does not disclose the expiration date and explicitly state there is no activation fee, you may want to look elsewhere for that special gift. Sometimes The Grinch comes dressed up as an excessive fee.

Labels: Darden, gift card, illinois, madigan

posted by George Bounacos at 2:30 PM |