Majority of the issues with large dataset are on the operational side. As example, we had corrupt block in index of a "hot" part of the table, and the larger the dataset, the longer it takes to rebuild it (and longer the outage). Then there's government (e.g IRS) which asks for data where visibility into it isn't indexed; so you have get it by joining tables with billion rows in them. So instead of simple SQL it turns into a project of kicking the data around the warehouse just to have it processed.

But, on the positive side - for some it's job security ;-)

@SatisfriedCrustomer: I've never understood why people are unhappy with plain ol' cash. Because then I can take it and actually buy what I want! Or put it toward bills! I mean, someone is giving you money, for whatever reason: sweet!!!

What we really need on consumer side with regard to fine print, is a requirement similar to the fine print on cigarette packs: health-related warnings can not use be smaller than X% of largest font used on the pack. There a color and contrast requirements as well.

Something like this would put a big dent on the issue. As consumer becomes better aware of fee schedule, it will spark more productive competition.

Speaking of Fed's regulations, allowing monthly fees to kick in after a year of inactivity sounds reasonable to me. If I had any say, I would also add that those fees should not exceed, say, 2-3% of the face value of the card per month.

Yes, it is trivial. Heck, you could implement it as a stored procedure. But, the fact remains that the database itself becoming "overloaded" is not a good excuse for expiring cards. Removing the old entries takes more effort (however little it might be) than leaving them there. Overall, the effect of expiring cards is to increase the workload.

Now, I suppose you could be storing a lot of data with each record, but... why? And, for an unused card, if you've done proper rationalization, it still shouldn't be taking more than a few bytes of space even if you store a lot of details about its use.

Just my 2 cents. :)

I think that is the whole idea of those types of gift cards. They are paid upfront for the gift card including an extra fee. They also even get more from the transaction they are used on, people don't realize that.

The store gift cards are another thing. They should never have any fees or ever be able to expire, period. The bank issued gift cards in my opinion, shouldn't be able to either. If they take your money and that gift card isn't spent for 5 years, they earn 5 years of interest. Keeping it "on" the books, isn't a complicated task in the age of computers.

We need an after-market clearing house for gift cards, like Cash4GiftCards.com. Do you have dozens of old gift cards? Turn them into CASH with Cash4GiftCards.com! Simply place your old cards into the insured envelope , and in 2-6 short years you'll receive cold hard cash in the mail!

Once a month, for EVERY item in the database. And, if the card doesn't specify a date, once a month per card, which means running through 1/28th of the entire database every day on one month.

A decent database server would just leave untouched data on disk and only cache the index in RAM. That would leave plenty of room for billions of gift cards, more than any store will ever deal with. But, unless you more than double your index space, as you're now storing not only a simple serial, you're also storing a complex renewal date as indexes, and that will, obviously, require a lot more overhead.

Or, you're not indexing on the date and therefore have a slow, terrible system when it comes to expiring cards--or you have a quick, simple system because you don't need to index any dates.

A well designed database with even access (shudder!) as the underlying server simply would not have any problem with not expiring records like these.

The devaluing transaction is most likely completely automated and minor compared to what goes on in that database. Once a month is nothing when you are doing millions or billions of transactions a day.

1. 365 days to use after activation with no fees.
2. 365 days after activation, monthly fees can be injected until balance is drained to 0.
3. 1 year as total time limit for an inactive card before it is automatically activated.

How hard was that? BTW, I just got a stupid Toys R Us gift card instead of a discount on some items I purchased and the gift card expires at the end of year. Somehow, I need to use it up before Jan 1, 2010???

Gift cards are paid for with cash at your establishment and should be considered as such. This is easily my biggest complaint about gift cards.

@SatisfriedCrustomer: Strange, because I'm always open to getting gift cards since a Christmas ornament for a guy who doesn't celebrate is really a waste of money.

@bhr: If I'm not mistaken, several of the banks in the market are claiming the states don't have jurisdiction on these instruments since they are federally-chartered banks. Thus, someone at the Federal level needs to be involved to keep the fight from going 51+ jurisdictions.

We need to form a non profit to promote cash giving. It used to be ok, but somehow all the marketers pushed that as being to impersonal. The setup the flimsy foundation gift cards ride on.

As a child I would often ask for cash, so I could pool it and buy something big. I would shop for the best price when I got ready to buy, so it was a good thing I didn't get locked into a store.

I was hoping for rules like "Gift cards cannot be given as birthday presents, and in the case that one is given instead of a real present, the recipient is not required to say Thank you."

It's nothing more than an act. They're a board of bankers. Like they care if we get ripped off.

Disney, though, showed that the vast majority of the time if the five day pass isn't used within the first WEEK, they are never used. Therefore, there is no real liability. FASB and the SEC agreed with the reasoning and its part of GAAP now.

The same thing applies to gift cards. But I believe their write-off to revenue is something like two years.

The fees need to be tied into something, such as no more than apercentage of the balance. I don't see a cap on the amount of fees they can impose (only the frequency) which is troubling.

@katstermonster:
Thanks, Richard Bluementhal!
Now we need to work on the liquor store thing.

The very fact that you argue the cannot have these on the books indefinitely is actually an argument FOR clearly revealing the fees and expiration dates up-front, at point of purchase. And, by "clearly" I mean plain english in 10pt type on the card itself. Not buried in 5pt compressed legalize along with all the other legal disclaimers, copyright notices, etc.

And your system doesn't slow down every day while it processes every single card to find those it needs to devalue?

Seems to me a database record written once and never touched again sits on disk and never causes a problem, whereas a database record read daily and changed monthly does.

@Shaggy: Good point. Maybe. Are we talking about store gift cards or the CC issuer gift cards? I'm pretty sure that the store gift cards (e.g. the stuff you get when you return a purchase for store credit) you get are issued by the store, not a bank.

Hey Chris - If you have some inside sources, can you find out what gift cards are they talking about?

@azzie: All valid points, but look at some of the fees on a Visa gift card-activation fee, monthly fees, usage fees, non-usage fees, balance check fees. That is excessive.

I've got a gift card now that I've been sitting on for a few months. It won't start losing value for a year, at which point it will be another year or so before it is consumed by fees. I'm fine with that-no need for the company to keep track of that $30 until 2025 if I'm too lazy to use it. But if there was a $5 activation fee and $3/month fee, it would already have lost over a third of its value.

(I run a system with half a billion accounts in it)

@CaptZ:
Can you please make this comment with some substance to back it up? Please include some comparative analysis of how the private sector has performed!

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter:

Ever hear of contract law?

@azzie:
"The primary goal is to get rid of inactive accounts. Making money is secondary."

Boy are you full of shit, who are you a shill for?

By the way, what happened to the comments system? It's all shoved over to the left.

To avoid dealing with these issues, businesses implement maintenance fees and/or expiration dates. The primary goal is to get rid of inactive accounts. Making money is secondary.

I agree, Fed should saty out of this busimess. Fed seems to do nothing but screw things up.

I dont think the federal reserve should have any say on giftcards. They are a contract between a store and a consumer, and other than that there should be no outside interfearance. This is like the gov. telling a store howmuch to charge for something.

Welcome to Connecticut...our liquor stores are closed on Sundays, but there are no expiration dates (or fees, that I'm aware of) on gift cards!

I'm all for customer protection on gift cards, they are a scam and a half in most cases (I know I have about $250 worth in my wallet right now I havent used) but why the fudge is the FED getting involved?