Mar 8, 2008

Worthless Gift CardsBy Tim GehretWCBD.com

Buyer beware!

If you’ve been saving an old gift card for a rainy day, you may have a rude awakening at the register.

Experts say millions of dollars in gift cards may soon be declined.

The National Retail Federation says shoppers spent close to $30 billion on gift cards this past holiday season.

Many who passed them along, may as well have written a bad check.

The amount of worthless prepaid plastic is estimated to be around $75 million.

Leveragecard.com allows you to buy gift cards and manage the balances through their site. The recent news prompted the site to implement a bankruptcy policy allowing you to transfer worthless cards to another store.

Not all gift cards are worthless.

Experts say the more risky cards are those bought at local mom and pop stores. But they say that’s not an absolute either. Sharper Image a major retailer that closed it’s doors last year in downtown Charleston has received a lot of heat for not accepting gift cards.

If you have one of their gift cards, you can use it as a 25% off coupon at it’s competitor– Brookstone located in the shops at Charleston Place.

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