Pick the right gift card for your holiday shopping

The Office of Consumer Affairs of Montgomery County, MD, just released its fifth annual gift card survey, and the results won't surprise anyone who has kept track of our reporting on gift cards. The agency recommended 18 of the 22 retailer gift cards it reviewed from late October to November.

But the Consumer Affairs office said all of the 30 bank-issued cards it examined continue to have purchase and processing fees, expiration dates and other gotchas, some of which were not properly detailed despite disclosure-related lawsuits brought by the Federal Trade Commission and 2006 guidance issued by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The report’s criticism of gift cards, particularly those issued by banks, mirror many of the problems we identified in our recent gift card report. Bank-issued cards bear a major credit logo and, unlike retailer cards, can be used at most merchants that accept that brand of credit card.

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Comments

[Shasta M.]

I experienced something frustrating this summer in reference to Visa gift cards. I wanted to let my three step-daughters experience a little of what using a credit card is like, and also teach them to budget their own money. So we purchased a Visa gift card for each of them to use for souveneirs and such.

We ran into places that required ID to use the cards, mostly wanting driver's licenses as a form of ID. When a kid is 11 years old, that isn't going to happen! One clerk was particularly difficult and even insinuated that our daughter may have stolen the card, never mind the fact she had two parents with her!! We had to provide our IDs (not a problem) and luckily we were still carrying the receipt from when we purchased the gift cards. It was a major frustration!!

So, if you plan on giving a gift card to a kid who is under the age of 16 and doesn't have a legal form of ID, you may want to research a bit to see if using the card will present any problems for the kid!!

Shasta M.
Denver, CO