Bah humbug: gift cards that stop giving.(Up front: news / trends / advice)

Jake and Kendal Martin, ages 8 and 10, of Edmond, Okla., were thrilled by their Uncle Jack's birthday present: $25 Visa gift cards they could use to buy merchandise wherever Visa cards are accepted. Nearly a year later, as the cards were to expire, the kids went shopping. The experience was "somewhat traumatic," their mother, Kacy Beamish, recalled: At the register, they discovered that their cards had lost $15 of their value.

Beamish learned that the Bank of America, which issued the cards, levies a $2.50 monthly "maintenance fee" after six months. The bank made good on the kids' cards, but only after Beamish complained to the Better Business Bureau. Along with the refund, she told us, she received a letter from the bank saying that she should have read the fine print.

Americans are giving and getting more and more of these plastic gift certificates. Gift-card sales could break $45 billion this year, up at least 15 percent from 2002, according to Bain & Company, a Boston consulting firm. Banks issue Visa or MasterCard gift cards at branches and online, and Visa-brand "mall" cards are sold at most of the 175 malls in 36 states that are owned by the Simon Property Group. In addition, stores from Starbucks and Barnes & Noble to Home Depot, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart sell their own gift cards.

Retailers say gift cards are easier and less expensive to handle than paper certificates, and harder to counterfeit. Consumers find them convenient, too--a magnetic strip tracks the balance, allowing shoppers to use the same card on several occasions. Some cards can be "reloaded" with more cash.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Pay attention to gift-card ground rules if you intend to give a card this season, or if you've received one. Details about fees and such are usually on the card itself, on an accompanying sleeve, or on the store's or bank's Web site. Keep the receipt you get when you order the card, and write down the card's ID number.

Above all, make sure the card is used. Consumers ...