So much love it hurts

You see, the other day (don't tell anyone) I had been given a gift card that was meant for someone else. They received it, figured it was way too much of a hassle & gave it to me because of some work I had done outside of my job. In reality, I don't think you can call it a gift card at all. Hell, you aren't really given all of the money on the card, but it's one of those refillable credit cards.

American Express has them and are a rousing success. The one I got was sorta strange. To purchase, it costs $9.95, then you add whatever you want to put on the card, from $5 to $500. Well, its all said and good, until you start to realize that every month you don't use the card, you loose $4.95 a month to "keep the account open".

So, like I said, I got a gift card the other day. $25. I now have to spend it like quick, call their 1-800 number & stop the account before they take out the $4.95 to "keep the account open". However, I also have to keep some extra cash on the card because the 1-800 number isn't exactly free, its $.45 cents a minute to call & stop your account.

So, I was on the phone yesterday with the people at this card company for a total of 10 minutes. Of that 10 minutes, 6 of them were of me declining every single "special introductory offer" they had under the sun. This means when you call to stop your account - being charged $.45 cents a minute - you will need some extra cash on the card just to keep from being charged the minutes. So, your call to stop your account will cost you $4.50, on top of the $4.95 account maintenance fee, has drastically dropped your spend-able amount to $15.55 to spend on whatever you want.

Taking current prices, I cannot buy a full tank of gas. According to Monday's first time fill-up, with gas prices at $2.06 it takes $21 to fuel up the Neon. Most electronics stores that sell CD's sell them at $14.99, and DVD's, forget it. I suppose I could grab something from a convenience store, but their prices are always higher than retail stores.

Caveat Emptor.