OT "Gift Cards" A legal Scam?

[mabatzis at gmail.com (Michael Abatzis)]

not to mention that when you buy a gift card you are, in effect,
giving the merchant an interest free loan. they have your money, and
until that card is cashed, they're making money on your money.


On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:29:20 -0500, Chris <vze28h54@verizon.net> wrote:
> With the holidays approaching beware of giving or getting "gift cards".  A
> replacement for gift certificates, etc, these bank and merchant issued
> cards often have fees which render the cards valueless or of much lesser
> value if not used within a certain time period or with a certain
> frequency.  How about a $50 card that expires after 6 mos - then is charged
> a service fee of $10/mo after the expiration date.  Oh, for a service fee
> of $10 you can file for a refund of the balance, if any. The "gotchas" are
> not readily apparent.  In addition to that, a fee of about $8-$12 or so may
> be charged to get the gift card.
> 
> See:
> http://www.consumerreports.org/main/content/display_report.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=519061&bmUID=1100711013734
> 
> If there were two classes of stealing, a) legal stealing, and b) illegal
> stealing; I guess this would be an example of legal stealing.
> 
> For some scam artist on the street hustling people for a few dollars here
> and there it would probably be a crime.  For big business it is not.
> 
> Don't waste dollars that could be used on the Scirroco to fill some
> banker's/merchant's pocket with hidden fees.
> 
> Chris
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> 


-- 
-Michael Abatzis
New Orleans!
'88 2.0L Scirocco (RIP)
'87 2.0L Scirocco...