Gift Cards

Here is some helpful info regarding what stores are closing, etc:

AVOID GIFT CARDS FOR THE HOLIDAYS, UNLESS IT'S WALMART

Really good information, it was worth passing on!!

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards
around the holidays; you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankruptcy Planning'. Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11).
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing.
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherine's to close 150 stores
nationwide.
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January.
Cache will close all stores.
Talbots closing down specialty stores.
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots).
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots).
GAP closing 85 stores.
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close aft er January.
Wickes Furniture closing down.
Levitz closing down remaining stores.
Bombay closing remaining stores.
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January..
Whitehall closing all stores.
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores.
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January..
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick ).
Macys to close 9 stores after January.
Linens and Things closing all stores.
Movie Galley closing all stores.
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores.
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores.
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January.
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores.
Sharper Image closing down all stores.
K B Toys closing 356 stores.
Loews to close down some stores.
Dillard's to close some stores.

I checked this out on snopes.com.

Only partly true - per YOUR snopes link, only some of the store closings listed are correct. :roll:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp

Only partly true - per YOUR snopes link, only some of the store closings listed are correct. :roll:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp

Thanks for checking it out. I copied and pasted the info from an email I received from a friend. I didn't actually get a chance to check it out myself.

It is always better to give CASH. I've never understood the fascination of giving a gift card. It doesn't show that the giver put more thought into the gift, and it greatly limits the recipient's choice of how to spend it. I'm still sitting on a gift card (if I haven't lost it) for Lowe's from last Christmas. I think they start charging my card a monthly penalty fee after one year. CASH rocks!

Oh, and a friend of mine recently received one of those VISA gift cards for $100. He called in the 800 number to activate it, and tried to spend $90 on it. --X-- REJECTED! After an extensive phone call with the gift card representative, located in India, she learned that she was limited to spending a maximum of 80% of the card amount at any given purchase. The card company takes out something like $4 per transaction, and this is their way of making you have several transactions, and end up with a balance to small to spend on anything worthy. That is a crock of pooh.

Cash is green.

Thanks for checking it out. I copied and pasted the info from an email I received from a friend. I didn't actually get a chance to check it out myself.

They have started including a snopes link in these false emails to give them credibility, even when the snopes link says they're a crock - because noone checks them. :roll:

My aunt treats them as the gospel if they have a snopes link (usually saying the crazy email is false) and forwards them to everyone in her address book - drives me absolutely nuts!