$6.4 billion dollars worth of gift cards went unused in 2008. Photo: Pat Wellenbach, AP
According to consulting firm TowerGroup, Americans spent $88.4 billion on gift cards in 2008 yet a whopping $6.4 billion went unused. And that's an improvement from the previous year, when $97 billion in gift cards were purchased but $8 billion weren't redeemed, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Currently, gift card issuers are largely unregulated with various fees and expiration dates, but with the Federal Reserve's new regulations proposed yesterday, this might not be the case for long.
The central banking system noted in its report that 95 percent of Americans have received or purchased a gift card at some point, and that the proposed new rules would limit the fees retailers and issuers like MasterCard or Visa would be allowed to impose on card holders.
Under the proposed laws, retailers and credit card companies can charge no more than one service or dormancy fee a month per gift card and will be required to extend expiration dates to a minimum of five years.
If the regulations are finalized, the laws will be part of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 but won't go into effect until August 2010.
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