I bet you thought 2010 was the year of the tiger, but we may actually have something else to celebrate this year. Last May President Obama signed the CARD act, a new bill that will take effect in August which aims to increase the fairness and transparency of credit card practices. In addition to credit cards, though, the new law also has several implications for gift cards and gift card users. Under the new law, gift cards cannot expire for five years unless the terms are clearly disclosed. So no more surprise gift card debacles when you go to cash in and find out your card is out of date. The new law also bans fees for gift card inactivity within the first year of purchase – limiting them to one per month thereafter – and requires that any fees be clearly stated. This means that your cash stays in the card and doesn’t trickle away slowly while you wait for the right time to use it. This makes gift cards an even better gift to give and to receive. So get ready for this fall because there may be another new year to celebrate – the year of the gift card.

UPDATE: Check out this interesting video that was posted after this article was written showing Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Credit.com, explaining some of the new rules and implications of the act.

Tags: america's favorite gift cards, gift card, gift cards

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 6:09 am and is filed under gift card industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.