Amex Ditches Monthly Gift Card Fees, Keeps Upfront Charges
Consumer advocates have long been critical of gift cards that carry hefty fees and expire without warning, leaving you with a worthless hunk of plastic when you find a card in your sock drawer two years after receiving it. American Express, until now a culprit when it comes to fees, has just ditched the $2 monthly charge recipients had to pay for the privilege of keeping a card for more than a year. Unfortunately, buyers of Amex gift cards will still be saddled with upfront fees ranging from $2.95 to $5.95 per card.
Amex's move puts it ahead of competitors for now, though most card issuers will have to offer similar policies by next year, when the gift card provisions of the credit card act go into effect. That law will still allow card issuers to charge "dormancy" fees, but only after a card has been unused for 12 months.
Amex, not surprisingly, is touting the consumer benefits of its new policy and downplaying the regulatory aspects:
"We think this is great for the consumer. It's great for the industry. It's right for the times," said Amex's Alpesh Chokshi. "It's not being driven by Washington. "What we're doing here is going far, far beyond that and saying there will never be monthly fees."
Chokshi didn't have much to say about buyers of gift cards, who will still have to pay upfront fees. But at least if you receive an Amex gift card and find it in the sock drawer five years from now, you'll still be able to use it.
American Express Drops Fees on Gift Cards [Washington Post]
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Comments:
@cabjf: No idea. My cousins gave me an Amex gift card for my graduation and it cost them like $5 in upfront fees. Why they would even consider a gift card like that when most are free (and cash or check is always free!), I don't know.
California did away with all of that 'gift card charge' BS.
/Have a gift certificate for godiva chocolate that's still technically good (since they don't expire ever in CA), however, I would have to go into the store to use it as it's so old their online system doesn't recognize it.
@linkura: I think a lot of people don't know/think about the fees and just think it's something nice and handy. A lot of people are also opposed to giving cash because it seems "cheap" or something.
I like giftcards like this if they can be used for online shopping. Gift cards help me keep "my money" from gifts from being sucked into our normal household money. When I get checks or cash I don't seem to be able to spend it on myself.
@squinko: Yeah, apparently it looks like "you did not put much thought into the gift". As opposed to paying fees on a gift card that can only be used in a limited number of places. Yes. Totally.
@MostlyHarmless: Oh hey here's money in another form, look at all the thought I put into that! And you get less now because I had to pay to do this. Aren't I thoughtful?
Meh, not ahead of anyone over here in Washington - they put the kibosh on that bullshit a while ago.
@cabjf: I think in most cases, people give gift cards so they won't remind themselves that if they give you cash, you'll probably buy gas or pay bills. People want to give things that have meaning, even though being able to pay off my car loan is pretty meaningful to me and I'd love it if I got cash instead of the umpteenth sweater.
When it comes to the general Visa/AmEx cards, I'm not sure if you can use those at gas stations or to pay bills.
Unless I know someone wants something specific, they get cash for all special occasions (birthdays, holidays, etc.) Now my Christmas shopping takes me all of one hour to complete.
Why give these companies an INSTANT 2.95 - 5.95% return on money plus fees and breakage when banks pay me scheiße.
This is why I give the gift of small pocket sized portraits of past presidents in black & green.
I tell my family that they should under no circumstances buy me a gift card. I made the mistake a few years ago of buying something for $4 and some change off a $25 card. The next time I used it, I wanted to spend the rest, but the computer couldn't read the amount, so I had to guess. Granted, I only lost a few cents, but it was irritating that I'd have to spend $1.50 to find out how much I had left.
If my family feels the need to buy one of those cards, they go to TD Bank which at least doesn't charge members for activation fees.
Now if only one of Amex's big competitors in gift cards, RBS Citizens/WorldPay, would quit blocking browsers other than Internet Explorer from accessing their gift card balance and registration site. Being a Mac user, I got saddled with one of their gift cards once and had to reboot into a Windows partition. (I later found that changing Safari's user agent string to IE6 or IE7 works, but I can bet that 99% of Americans don't know that.)
Come on... this isn't 2003 when IE had some 92% market share. And RBS's IE-only policy might have lead to their big 1.5-million-card gift card data breach in the first place.
@cabjf: You can use it online. I guess it's more convenient than giving someone cash or a check and having them deposit it to use their own card online.
"leaving you with a worthless hunk of plastic when you find a card in your sock drawer two years after receiving it"
It's irresponsibility and there should not be a law supporting your bad behavior.
Im still trying to figure out why on earth anyone would even keep a gift card for more than a year. Im lucky if mine lasts a week before I spend it when Im given one. Why not use it right away?
These cards are better than cash because they can be recovered if lost or stolen. Sometimes there's a fee for this service but it's better than being out the whole gift card balance.
And while I don't really understand American Express' decision, as a seller of these gift cards, I'm very pleased with this news.
Yes, there will always be an "activation" or "upfront" charge (actually ranging from 2-6 dollars, depending) but the card is versatile and easy to use.
Lastly, while I may never understand this, people often wait years to spend gift cards. I've even seen people try to redeem paper gift certificates from 1991. This year. Go fig!
@linkura: Amex has, at least in the recent past, run promotions by which cardmembers can purchase fee-free gift cards. There might be a small shipping charge attached, but it could be a good deal if you're buying a lot of them.
The original purchaser also gets whatever cash-back or points benefit they derive from the transaction.
@MFfan310: Yeah, that is pretty inane. It's basically saying that their developers can't be bothered to test on more than one major browser. Even if this is true, they should leave it unlocked as it would probably work anyway.
Why give the gift of a credit card with strings attached when either check or cash would work just as well without such strings attached?