Complementary Gift Cards get different rules

Complementary Gift Cards are different

No change needed to be given for gift cards from corporate

There are a few things that bother me about a recent story I read about a man wanting three dollars in change on a five dollar gift card. Where should we start. One, why is some restaurant sending $5 gift cards to its share holders every year. To me there is almost no value in a $5 gift card. The restaurant should either send a meaningful amount that could buy an entire meal. How about $40 or send nothing at all.

That being said, the recipients should use the entire card rather than trying to outsmart the system and get $3 in change back. The fact of the matter however, is that the restaurant employees who refused to give the man $3 in change did the right thing. This is a very fine line and the difference needs to be drawn out.

Recently almost all states have implemented rules to protect gift card buyers and recipients. One of these great laws stated that there is no minimum amount that a person can receive in change from a gift card. For example, in Washington, if I am given a $50 gift card from Itunes and buy $49.95 cents in music, iTunes is required to give me $.05 in change. The example works better with real world stores such as gift cards from Nordstorm but you get the point.

The reason that this restaurant was correct in not giving this man $3 in change is because he did not purchase this gift card - nor did anyone. Gift cards that are given to the recipients by the company are not subject to the 'give change' laws.