On Tuesday, March 23rd, the Federal Reserve finalized rules that will protect consumers from having their gift card balances trickle down or vanish. These new gift card rules, which take effect on August 22, 2010, state that the following guidelines will now apply to gift cards:
- Gift cards cannot expire earlier than five years after the date the card was first issued, or when money was last loaded onto the card (whichever is more recent).
- Gift cards are restricted from losing their value due to fees.
- All gift cards must come with terms and conditions that are clearly disclosed prior to purchase.
Keep in mind that there are exceptions to these new rules. Some of the exceptions include:
- Prepaid cards for long-distance telephone services, wireless telephone service and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) access time.
- Reloadable cards that are not marketed or labeled as gift cards or gift certificates, including payroll cards and flexible-spending account cards.
- Cards that are not available to the general public.
- Loyalty, award or promotional gift cards.
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