With the CARD Act, regulators have given their charges a raregift – compliance that leads to marketing magic. Thanks to the CARDAct, gift card providers now can tout how their gift cards have nofees for the first year and that the expiration dates are at leastfive years away.
GiftCardLab, a company that sells Visa-branded gift cards, madean announcement November 17 headlined “GiftCardLab EliminatesMonthly Fees for the First Year and Extends Card Life for ItsCustomized Visa Gift Card Program.” While the headline makes themove sound like it was an act of volition for GiftCardLab, thechanges are requirements of the CARD Act. To be fair, the companystates in its release that it has done this “to improve customersatisfaction and comply with new Federal Reserve regulations underthe CARD Act.”
But GiftCardLab is doing what all companies like it should do.It is letting consumers know that the changes have been made. Thechanges required by the CARD Act address many of the top concernsthat consumers identified they have about gift cards in MercatorAdvisory Group’s CustomerMonitor survey. Losing money to cardexpiration and fees were at the top of the issues that madeconsumers hesitate over buying gift cards. These concerns have beenaddressed by the CARD Act, so now companies should take advantageof that and work to increase consumer confidence with theirmarketing and turn what would otherwise be a burden into a chanceto make more sales.
