OT "Gift Cards" A legal Scam?

[vze28h54 at verizon.net (Chris)]

With the holidays approaching beware of giving or getting "gift cards".  A 
replacement for gift certificates, etc, these bank and merchant issued 
cards often have fees which render the cards valueless or of much lesser 
value if not used within a certain time period or with a certain 
frequency.  How about a $50 card that expires after 6 mos - then is charged 
a service fee of $10/mo after the expiration date.  Oh, for a service fee 
of $10 you can file for a refund of the balance, if any. The "gotchas" are 
not readily apparent.  In addition to that, a fee of about $8-$12 or so may 
be charged to get the gift card.

See: 
http://www.consumerreports.org/main/content/display_report.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=519061&bmUID=1100711013734 


If there were two classes of stealing, a) legal stealing, and b) illegal 
stealing; I guess this would be an example of legal stealing.

For some scam artist on the street hustling people for a few dollars here 
and there it would probably be a crime.  For big business it is not.

Don't waste dollars that could be used on the Scirroco to fill some 
banker's/merchant's pocket with hidden fees.

Chris