Yep. But places which issue expiring gift cards are equally greedy-- they get their money up front in today's dollars. Why should there be an expiration date at all? The issuers of these cards can sting the greedy politicians by making the expiration date 10 years or forever.
One good thing about California - gift cards cannot expire, except in a very few instances, such as if you buy one for "the mall" which covers any store in the place...I believe they can expire, or have service fees, for some reason.
"Yep. But places which issue expiring gift cards are equally greedy"
I agree, I'm having a hard time cheering for either side. In the end though, the gift card is a contract between the seller and purchaser and the gov has no business stepping in the middle. Therefore I hold my nose say the stores are in the right.
Sorry, but I do not agree they are greedy. It is not their fault that people do not take the 1-2 minutes to read the card.
Why should there be an expiration date at all?
Many places no longer have expiration dates. All it takes is a tiny bit of research.
The expire them because gift cards are a bookkeeping nightmare (trying to keep track of all the accounts and their balances), and more importantly a liability (you now owe product to somebody) and nobody wants to carry more liability than they have too. It's not greedy it's just sensible, any gift card that hasn't been used for two years (the standard time when the rot starts) was probably lost entirely and will never get used, dump the bookkeeping, dump the liability, and move on.
I believe that I'll continue to send either physical gifts or checks from now on. The advantage for the recipient is that the check spends anywhere, and it's value, though slowly reduced by inflation, does not expire.