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The Beginning of an Issue
Expiring gift cards have been on the rise in Ohio. Companies often absorbed consumers money off of unused gift cards that would expire in one year after purchase. As electronic banking was also expanding, Ohio's legislature began taking interest in protecting Ohioan consumers. -
Protection for All
Ohio officially enacted the Gift Card Act. The gift card act prohibits company gift cards from expiring or beginning to charge inactive fees for up to 2 years after the initial card purchase. Bank, or credit gift cards must remain valid up to 5 years. This was placed to protect consumers of money loss from unused gift cards. -
Why Was This My Choice?
I chose the Gift card act, because as a teenager I receive a plethora of gift cards for Christmas, and birthdays. Until recently I never knew gift cards could expire (Probably because I spent them too fast). This act seemed very applicable to my everyday life unlike other Ohio laws that would otherwise not concern me as a consumer until later in my adult life. -
How it Protects Me
About two years ago my sister and I had a Quincenera celebration. As a result of the rather large birthday I had numerous gift cards that I couldn't spend all at once. Still to this day I have two gift cards that have survived the party and are expired. This law protected the money the cards were purchased with until a few month ago. That provided me the ability to use as much money as I could until there was a couple cents left on the card. -