Gift Cards Have New Rules

There are some new rules regarding gift cards which take effect today. These new rules are part of the Credit Card Act and apply to gift cards from MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover and retail gift cards too.

From now on, when you purchase a gift card, the balance cannot expire for five years from the date of purchase, or from the last date that you added funds to the gift card.

There are also some changes on the inactivity fees that we get dinged with. You won’t be charged an inactivity fee for at least a year. Gift card buyers can still be charged a fee to purchase a card or to replace a card. For all the details on the new gift card rules, go to the Federal Reserve site here:

Thank you to Jonelle Marte and the Wall St. Journal  for the heads up on this useful information. 

Did you know that you can buy gift cards for less than face value or sell or trade your unwanted gift cards? You can read my prior article about Plastic Jungle HERE.



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