State Senator Joseph Griffo today announced that new legislation he supported will now help prevent New Yorkers from losing money on their unused gift cards due to hidden costs and fees.
The new consumer protections signed into law this week (S4771E) will increase the minimum time before gift cards are charged a user fee, as well as place additional restrictions on those fees and expand the expiration dates of gift cards.
Under this new law, no monthly user fees can be drawn from the gift card until the 25th month of not being used – slightly more than 2 years, up from 13 months. Any monthly fees that are applied after this time must then be waived if the consumer uses the gift card within 3
years of the issue date. In addition, this law will require the gift card’s terms and conditions to describe exactly what the procedure is to replace a missing card. Finally, no gift card may expire sooner than 5 years from the date of issuance.
“Whenever consumers put money on a gift card for a friend, family or themselves, that money should not be drained away little by little due to outrageous fees because the cardholder didn’t spend the money fast enough,” said State Senator Joseph Griffo, R-Rome. “This card was already bought and paid for, and the recipient should be able to use the gift card whenever they want within a number of years. I am pleased to have supported these new measures to give consumers more time to spend their gift cards, so that the card balance doesn’t dwindle away to nothing over just few months simply because the card wasn’t being used.”