ALREADY USED. THIS IS A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM. WHEN HOLLYWOOD TAKES A FILM OR TV PRODUCTION ON THE ROAD, MANY TIMES ROCK-BOTTOM RENTALS IS ALONG FOR THE RIDE. HE AND HIS 30 OR SO EMPLOYEES PROVIDE COMMUNICATION GEAR. >> IT IS A BUSINESS THAT WE DO ENJOY. BEN: HE ALSO ENJOYS HANDING HIS EMPLOYEES $100 GIFT CARDS LIKE THESE AT THE END OF THE YEAR. >> WE GIVE OUT 50 TO 100 CARDS A YEAR. IN ADDITION TO GIVING THEM TO EMPLOYEES, WE GIVE THESE CARDS TO OUR VENDORS. JESSICA: THIS YEAR, HIS JOY TURNED INTO EMBARRASSMENT. >> PEOPLE CALLED ME AND SAID, THERE IS $.40 ON THIS CAR — CARD. BEN: AT LEAST 10 HAD THEIR BALANCES WIPED CLEAN, THE MONEY STOLEN BEFORE THE RECIPIENT COULD USE THEM. I HIT OF 970 FIVE DOLLARS WHICH HE REPLACED WITH CASH. >> THESE CARDS WERE IN AN ENVELOPE THAT WAS CLOSED AND SEALED. BEN: WE HEARD FROM TWO OTHER COMPANIES GIFTED THE SAME PROBLEM. 60 OUT OF 150 GIFT CARDS WERE EMPTY FOR ONE COMPANY, FOR A THOUSAND DOLLAR LOSS, AND A MAJOR UTILITY. IT IS AN AMPED UP VERSION OF THE PROBLEM WE FIRST SHOWED YOU IN THE FALL. >> THE GIFT CARD IS THE SAME AS CASH, THEY KEEP TELLING ME, BUT YOU DO NOT LOSE THE GIFT CARD. IT WAS NOT STOLEN. CLICKS SEVERAL CONSUMERS CAME TO US AFTER THEIR CARDS WERE DRAINED DESPITE THE CARDS NEVER LEAVING THEIR HANDS OR STILL BEING SEALED IN THE ORIGINAL PACKAGING. THE NUMBERS AND SECURITY CODES HIDDEN. THAT INCLUDED A MAN TRYING TO PAY FUEL EXPERIENCES — FUNERAL EXPENSES AFTER THE UNEXPECTED LOSS OF HIS FOUR-YEAR-OLD SON. >> I WAS GOING TO USE THAT TO PAY FOR MY SON’S GRAVESTONE. I WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THAT. >> SOME OF OUR VANILLA GIFT CARDS, WHILE OTHERS WERE AMERICAN EXPRESS. BUT THERE IS A LITTLE-KNOWN CONNECTION. AMERICAN EXPRESS AND MASTERCARD GIFT CARDS ARE DISTRIBUTED BY THE SAME COMPANY, INCOMM PAYMENTS. RON: THESE CARDS ARE OBVIOUSLY VULNERABLE TO BEING HACKED. JESSICA: — BEN: IT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SECURITY OF PREPAID CARDS. NEITHER INCOMM NOR AMERICAN EXPRESS WOULD ANSWER QUESTIONS. RON INITIALLY WENT TO AMERICAN EXPRESS FOR HELP. HE IS ALSO SITTING ON 27 MORE $100 GIFT CARDS THAT STILL HAVE VALUE THAT HE WANTS TO RETURN. pHE COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT AMEX TOLD HIM. >> WE WILL NOT BE REFUNDING YOU THE MONEY. WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE RESPONSIBLE. I AM SHOCKED. THIS IS AMERICAN EXPRESS. BEN: OTHERS FILED CLAIMS DIRECTLY WITH INCOMM, A MAZE OF PAPERWORK, EMAILS THAT BOUNCEBACK, AND NO RESOLUTIONS. RON SAYS THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION FOR HIM — NO MORE GIFT CARDS. AMERICAN EXPRESS AND INCOMM SENT US A JOINT STATEMENT SAYING THEY TAKE THESE CONCERNS SERIOUSLY AND ARE CONSTANTLY WORKING TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNIQUES TO MITIGATE FRAUD. THEY ENCOURAGE GIFT CARD CUSTOMERS TO CLOSELY INSPECT A CARD’S PACKAGING BEFORE IT’S PURCHASED. AND SAY THEY’LL WORK WITH RON ON A SOLUTION. HE DID HEAR FROM THEM, BUT NO RESOLUTION YET
Legally, can gift cards actually expire? We investigated the truth
Legally, can gift cards actually expire? We investigated the truth.
Updated: 11:19 PM EDT Mar 15, 2023
Video above: Receive a gift card over the holidays? Check the balanceNostalgia for the 90s may be in full swing, but a viral TikTok suggests that one Target store’s customer service received a throwback nobody could have expected.A TikTok from @probablycrimson shows a $25 Target gift certificate (as in, paper certificate, mind you) taped to a sign at the customer service desk. Their onscreen text tells the story: “One time someone came into the store trying to use a gift certificate from 1994 and now we have it on display at our returns and exchanges desk,” while adding in their caption, “Before you ask, no, it didn’t work.” The gift certificate saga, recently featured on Daily Dot, sparked some fun, vintage gift-related reflections from commenters, with one person sharing, “My aunt offered to pay for my wedding dress (in 2010) on the condition that I use her Nordstrom gift certificate (from 1993).” Another remarked that “My mother returned a dress she’d never worn and still had the receipt from the 90s and I’m still surprised they honored it.”The bulk of commenters, though, expressed a similar sentiment, in varying degrees of outrage: that the paper gift certificate, from 1994, should still be honored. The primary argument for why this paper slip should still be accepted as valid currency, according to commenters? “There’s a federal law that gift cards can’t expire!”Of course, that’s not necessarily the case. Since this is the internet, it’s a general rule that when someone says, “it’s the law” in a comment, they might just be going off of nothing. But it’s possible commenters are referring to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure, or CARD Act, of 2009. Put forward by the 111th Congress as H.R. 627, this primarily credit card-focused legislation did indeed have a provision pertaining to gift cards and their expirations. But it’s not nearly as broad as TikTok commenters might suggest. Prior to the CARD Act, it was relatively common for gift certificates to have expiration dates, often printed on the certificate itself, which could have been the case with the Target certificate in this TikTok. But in response to deceptive business practices, ranging from inconsistent application of expirations, unfair timeframes and exorbitant “dormancy fees” for unused cards, the CARD Act set some regulations on what businesses could or could not do with gift cards and certificates going forward.Particularly of interest to those TikTok commenters would be a clause on the “prohibition on sale of gift cards with expiration dates,” which states that “it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or issue a gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card that is subject to an expiration date.” However, the clause does carve out an exception if “the expiration date is not earlier than 5 years after the date on which the gift certificate was issued.” When you crunch the numbers and double-check the math, it does, in fact, appear that the year 2023 is more than five years after 1994.Interestingly, something else that’s also more than five years after 1994 is the passage of the CARD Act itself, which went into effect in 2010. This likely means its prohibition on expiration dates would not retroactively apply to a gift certificate issued when Ace of Base’s “The Sign” was topping the charts and “The Lion King” was premiering in theaters.
Video above: Receive a gift card over the holidays? Check the balance
Nostalgia for the 90s may be in full swing, but a viral TikTok suggests that one Target store’s customer service received a throwback nobody could have expected.
A TikTok from @probablycrimson shows a $25 Target gift certificate (as in, paper certificate, mind you) taped to a sign at the customer service desk. Their onscreen text tells the story: “One time someone came into the store trying to use a gift certificate from 1994 and now we have it on display at our returns and exchanges desk,” while adding in their caption, “Before you ask, no, it didn’t work.”
The gift certificate saga, recently featured on Daily Dot, sparked some fun, vintage gift-related reflections from commenters, with one person sharing, “My aunt offered to pay for my wedding dress (in 2010) on the condition that I use her Nordstrom gift certificate (from 1993).” Another remarked that “My mother returned a dress she’d never worn and still had the receipt from the 90s and I’m still surprised they honored it.”
The bulk of commenters, though, expressed a similar sentiment, in varying degrees of outrage: that the paper gift certificate, from 1994, should still be honored. The primary argument for why this paper slip should still be accepted as valid currency, according to commenters? “There’s a federal law that gift cards can’t expire!”
Of course, that’s not necessarily the case. Since this is the internet, it’s a general rule that when someone says, “it’s the law” in a comment, they might just be going off of nothing. But it’s possible commenters are referring to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure, or CARD Act, of 2009.
Put forward by the 111th Congress as H.R. 627, this primarily credit card-focused legislation did indeed have a provision pertaining to gift cards and their expirations. But it’s not nearly as broad as TikTok commenters might suggest.
Prior to the CARD Act, it was relatively common for gift certificates to have expiration dates, often printed on the certificate itself, which could have been the case with the Target certificate in this TikTok.
But in response to deceptive business practices, ranging from inconsistent application of expirations, unfair timeframes and exorbitant “dormancy fees” for unused cards, the CARD Act set some regulations on what businesses could or could not do with gift cards and certificates going forward.
Particularly of interest to those TikTok commenters would be a clause on the “prohibition on sale of gift cards with expiration dates,” which states that “it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or issue a gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card that is subject to an expiration date.” However, the clause does carve out an exception if “the expiration date is not earlier than 5 years after the date on which the gift certificate was issued.” When you crunch the numbers and double-check the math, it does, in fact, appear that the year 2023 is more than five years after 1994.
Interestingly, something else that’s also more than five years after 1994 is the passage of the CARD Act itself, which went into effect in 2010. This likely means its prohibition on expiration dates would not retroactively apply to a gift certificate issued when Ace of Base’s “The Sign” was topping the charts and “The Lion King” was premiering in theaters.
