Daily Record

A recently proposed bill seeks to create a new revenue stream for the state — unused money from gift certificates, gift cards and even prepaid calling cards.

HB 126 would classify any gift card, prepaid credit card, gift certificate or prepaid calling card to be abandoned property if it is not redeemed in full four years after it was issued. The state would get 70 percent of the abandoned balances.

Del. Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, introduced the bill last week to amend the state’s policy on escheat — the legal provision that determines what properties revert to the state if deemed abandoned. Maryland is actually in the minority of states that do not have laws on the books categorizing gift cards as abandoned property under certain circumstances.

Under the Pena-Melnyk’s bill, retailers would have to compile the number and value of gift cards and certificates along with the remaining balances and submit the information annually to the comptroller’s office. By March 1, 70 percent of the balance on anything deemed abandoned would be turned over to the comptroller, who would in turn distribute the money to the general fund.

The four-year limit only applies when cards are inactive. After four years, the card would only be considered abandoned if unused for one year after the last activity.

“As long as you keep using it, it will never expire,” Pena-Melnyk said.

Changing the state’s approach toward gift cards has drawn criticism from retailers, who have widely dropped the practice of instituting expiration dates and fees on gift cards and see this as the state imposing its own expiration date to the detriment of consumers and retailers.