Design Crafters

Yesterday in our photo Christmas cards blog I mentioned that some states have a law that gift cards don’t expire (but can have inactive fees). There are some other things you need to understand when it comes to gift cards.

A promotional gift card is completely different than a regular gift card. Promotional gift cards act more as coupons and will have an expiration date on them. They don’t fall under the same guidelines as regular gift cards. The laws refer to gift cards that you have actually put your own money on. With promotional gift cards, the store is basically giving you free money ( a coupon).

Here is an example of a promotional gift card:
Last Christmas Toys R Us gave away a $20 promo gift card when you purchased the Leapster/LeapMax system. You could then use the $20 card on any future purchase by the specific expiration date printed on the card.

I was inspired to look up this so-called law when last Christmas I got stuck behind a lady who was freaking out at the cashier because she claimed it was illegal for them to reject her promo gift card that expired almost two years ago. The poor cashier didn’t know what to say as the lady spewed off, made threats and held up the already long line. The lady apparently heard it on the news but obviously didn’t get all the specifics. Now that you know, hopefully you won’t become this lady or this cashier.

An interesting article I ran across on CBSNews.com regarding gift cards, sparked the topic of today’s blog. Although the article was bad news (which I’ll go into in a moment), I wanted to share some good news first.

Did you know you can make not only photo Christmas cards, but photo gift cards as well?! Two years ago my son received a Toys R Us gift card with a picture of him and his Auntie on it. She apparently went online, ordered the gift card and uploaded the desired picture she wanted on it. Talk about a great idea! That made the gift card so much more special to him. Of course once he used it up, he kept the card even though there’s no money left on it. - Just a fun thought for you.

Going back to today’s article….
It turns out that Sharper Image gift cards are currently worthless. The company apparently filed bankruptcy and announced they are temporarily suspending the acceptance of gift cards. But don’t throw them out yet, just incase they start accepting them again (which has been known to happen with other companies).

That brings up a good point though. If you have gift cards, it may be in your best interest to use them right away, just in case company goes out of business. Also, if you buy a gift card for someone, make sure it’s a store that doesn’t show signs of going out of business.

You can see the full article at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/03/business/main3902646.shtml