Beware the Gift (card)

Read this article before you give a gift card this year. Consumers lost $60 million to the Sharper Image bankruptcy. I myself know the pain of losing to a restaurant closing.  Three weeks after a gift certificate was purchased for our wedding, so went the value. Luckily, the restaurant reopened and accepted the gift certificate at 50% value.  

"Just this year, consumers lost about $100 million in gift cards that they could not use when major retailers went out of business."  NY TIMES

"But of the 62 percent who received gift cards in 2007, some 25 percent said they were still sitting in drawers somewhere, unredeemed. And of that 25 percent, more than half have two or more gift cards."  NY TIMES

This is an online site you might want to check out:

LeverageCard "instituted a policy allowing customers who had bought gift cards from its Web site to trade them in for another retailer’s card, said Jennifer Mathe, chief operating officer and co-founder of the year-old site." NY TIMES
"Customers must notify Leveragecard.com within 30 days of a company’s bankruptcy that they want to make the exchange and must do it within 60 days of the retailer’s filing for bankruptcy and only if the company stops selling gift cards." NY TIMES

It's a tough decision but the original green might be the way to go this year if you aren't sure of a gift to buy.  Or how about a purchased gift with the gift receipt attached.