no, it makes no sense at all - what is the inactivity time?

Wow! I recently bought one of these for my brother's birthday present, but I thought they didn't charge these fees until it had been one year from date of purchase/activation? I better give him a call to make sure he used it!

OMG - I have $600 in Amex gift cards that I haven't used in 2 years!!!! They're probably worth ZERO!

Sneaky sneaky! Thats so uncool that they would take money from you (even though its already paid!). I swear its just easier/safer to give cash (although maybe a little more tacky. I don't know why but i feel like theres a big difference between giving a gift card and cash. I'm starting to favor cash though, at least people can't take fees off of that).

Almost all gift cards do that, though [at least all the ones I've gotten anyway]. It's fairly common practice.

It doesn't make any sense, and it's not fair, but it's an easy way for the companies to get more money out of the transaction. You buy a certain amount, and then you don't use it, they lock some of it so that the money goes ONLY to them.

This is why I'm wary of gift cards. If you want me to go buy something at my favorite store, just give me CASH or a CHECK - not a gift card!

i HATE when they do that. my mom had received a few as gifts from her students since she's a teacher and she had given me 3 $100 cards. by the time i got them and went to use them, 2 were worth some where around $75 each, and the 3rd said that it was expired. (WHAT CRAP!). so i had to argue with the amex people about the 'expired' one and got them to reinstate it...but it's just horrible that we lost over $50 in value because of these dumb fees.

It doesn't make any sense at all, but I know they do it and it's such a pain. My husband gets Visa cards from work sometimes as a reward for giving tests to interviewees and he always has to remember to spend them right away so they don't go down in value. I don't think EVERY gift card goes down in value though; you have to ask and find out if the particular card you've got has an inactivity fee.

What is the point! We should just give cash for a gift instead. I was given an Amex gift card and they charge you a fee just to use it! Its crazy so you loose money!

A few provinces in Canada (Manitoba, Ontario, BC) have banned fees/expiration dates associated with gift cards. I'm not sure if credit card gift cards are affected by these new regulations (I think they are, but I'm not confident to assert this as fact).

Here's a link to the rules/regulations for Ontario: http://www.gov.on.ca/mgs/en/ConsProt/133716.html

(I know, most of you guys are south of the border, but it's a good basis from which to start lobbying!)

i'm pretty sure that's illegal in california. i know that its illegal for gift cards to expire in california, and that seems like a similar issue.

so glad this kind of thing is illegal in ontario. i make sure to tell people this all the time, don't get fooled into purchasing gift cards with an expiry, its not legal!

it's illegal in Michigan too.

I'm sure it will be illegal everywhere soon, that seems to be the trend.

So wrong!!

After I read this post, I looked at the back of some of my gift cards. In the fine print, several say "a service fee of $1.50 each month will be deducted from the remaining balance after 24 months of non-use."

Sure seems like a scam to me.

As unfriendly as it seems, there is actually a good reason for it. The money on that card is yours, not Visa's. If the card goes inactive for too long, and there is no parasitic drain to run the balance to zero, they have to give the money back to you. This is usually done by giving it to the state you lived in as unclaimed property. The law is known as escheat, and it would be very expensive and difficult for them to manage all the unclaimed property and escheat laws of all the different states, so they get around it with the parasitic drain.