Black Friday is around the corner, and so are the fun and headaches of gift giving. Does Uncle Bart want another tie? What size is Elle – you know how she fluctuates. Well, in recent years, we’ve been picking up gift cards. If you know Aunt Myrtle likes books, she gets a gift card from Books a Million or Barnes & Noble. Uncle Bubba may get one from Beer of the Month Club. Not sure what your loved one is into? Just get a general mall gift card, or better yet one from American Express.

Better make sure that you don’t give a card to Harry, who never gets round to taking care of anything.  Gift card sellers fail to disclose that the issuer may not honor the gift cards after a certain period of time. Or there may be a monthly inactivity fee after 6-12 months, which drastically reduces the value of the card by the time Harry gets round to using it. Seriously?

Help is on the way thanks to the Credit Card act of 2009; however the gift card provisions will not go into effect in time for this holiday season. After August 2010, the gift cards will be required to remain active for five years after activation and disclose any expiration date. Issuers may not impose an inactivity fee unless there has been 12 months of inactivity and any such fees must be disclosed.

In the meantime, check out this gift card buying guide put out by the Consumer Federation of America to help you with the gift card.  Bankrate.com has done most of the legwork for you by putting together the results of its 2009 gift card survey

Happy shopping holidays! Keep us posted if you have additional information that will help the savvy shopper.