Maryland Gift Card Law: Fees, Disclosures, and Penalties

Maryland gift card law splits into two statutes that treat cards very differently depending on where the card can be spent. A store-specific gift certificate cannot carry any expiration date or any fee for the first four years after purchase. A Visa, Mastercard, or other network-branded gift card can carry both fees and an expiration date, but only if the terms are disclosed in the way the statute requires. Federal law then sets a floor underneath both, and violations are treated as unfair or deceptive trade practices.

Two Statutes, Two Sets of Rules

The category your card falls into decides what protection you have. Maryland Commercial Law § 14-1319 governs “gift certificates,” which the statute defines as paper or plastic cards sold for a cash value and redeemable for goods or services at a specific business. Ordinary store gift cards sold at the checkout counter fall here, and so do store credits issued for returned merchandise.¹

Section 14-1320 governs “gift cards” in a narrower sense: cards processed through a national credit or debit card network that can be used at multiple unrelated sellers. The Visa and Mastercard gift cards sold at grocery stores and pharmacies are the typical example.²

Before assuming what your rights are, look at the card. If it only works at one retailer or chain, you have the stronger protections. If it carries a network logo and works anywhere that brand is accepted, the rules are different.

Store-Specific Gift Certificates: No Fees, No Expiration for Four Years

For four years after purchase, a store-specific gift certificate cannot have any expiration date and cannot carry any fee. That means no inactivity fees, no maintenance fees, and no service charges of any kind during that window.¹

After four years, a business can start applying an expiration date or fees, but only if those terms were printed clearly in at least 10-point type on the front or back of the certificate, on a permanently affixed sticker, or on the envelope it came in. Fine print buried elsewhere does not count.¹

Once the card is sold, the business cannot change any term unless the change helps the consumer. Shortening an expiration window or adding a fee later is not allowed. The statute also builds in its own remedy: if a certificate is sold in violation of these rules, the certificate is automatically valid with no expiration date and no fees.¹

Network-Branded Gift Cards: Fees Allowed, But Only With Disclosure

Visa, Mastercard, and other network-branded gift cards can carry expiration dates and a range of fees under § 14-1320, including service, dormancy, maintenance, replacement, activation, and reactivation fees. What the statute requires in exchange is proper disclosure of every one of those terms.²

The disclosures must be printed in at least 10-point type on the front or back of the card and must include:

The exact expiration date
The dollar amount of each fee
The circumstances that trigger each fee
How often the fee can be assessed
Whether the fee is triggered by not using the card

If packaging hides those disclosures, the seller has to provide a separate written statement before completing the sale. Terms cannot be changed after purchase unless the change benefits the consumer.²

The Federal Floor

Federal law sets a minimum under both Maryland statutes. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act covers gift certificates, store gift cards, and general-use prepaid cards nationwide, and Maryland businesses have to meet whichever standard is stronger.³

Under the federal rule, a card cannot expire earlier than five years after issuance or the last time funds were loaded. That five-year minimum stretches Maryland’s four-year fee-free window on store certificates for practical purposes. Dormancy or inactivity fees can only be charged after 12 consecutive months of no activity, and no more than one such fee per month.³

Regulation E also requires that any card carrying an expiration date include a toll-free phone number, and a website if one exists, where you can get a replacement card after the printed card expires, as long as the underlying funds haven’t expired.⁴

In practice, a Maryland consumer holding a store-specific certificate gets Maryland’s blanket four-year ban on fees, which is stricter than the federal 12-month inactivity rule. A consumer holding a network-branded card gets the federal five-year expiration floor and inactivity fee limits, which Maryland’s own gift card statute does not independently require.

What These Rules Do Not Cover

Not every prepaid or plastic card is a gift certificate under the statute. The § 14-1319 protections do not apply to:¹

Prepaid telephone calling cards
Prepaid technical support cards
Prepaid Internet service cards
Discount coupons
Promotional, loyalty, or awards program cards where the recipient did not pay anything for the card

The last exemption catches a lot of people off guard. A $10 rewards card a store gives you for spending a certain amount is not a purchased gift certificate, so the business has more room to attach restrictions on when and how you use it. Federal law contains a similar carve-out for promotional and loyalty cards distributed without payment.³

Unused Balances Do Not Go to the State

In many states, an unused gift card balance can be claimed by the state as unclaimed property after a certain period. Maryland changed course on this. Under legislation enacted in 2025, both gift certificates under § 14-1319 and gift cards under § 14-1320 are excluded from the definition of personal property subject to Maryland’s abandoned property laws. The state will not take the balance no matter how long the card sits unused.

Maryland does not, however, require retailers to redeem small remaining balances for cash. Some states force a cash refund below a certain threshold; Maryland does not. Whether you can walk out with $1.37 in cash on a nearly empty card depends on the retailer’s policy.

Penalties and How Violations Get Fixed

Both § 14-1319 and § 14-1320 classify any violation as an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act. A business that misses required disclosures, charges illegal fees on a store certificate, or changes terms after the sale faces the same enforcement machinery as any other consumer fraud violation.¹²

Civil penalties can reach up to $10,000 per violation for a first offense and up to $25,000 per violation for repeat offenders, recoverable by the state through civil action or administrative cease-and-desist proceedings. Businesses can also be ordered to pay restitution to affected consumers.⁵

For store-specific certificates, the strongest remedy is written into the statute itself. A certificate sold in violation of § 14-1319 is automatically valid with no expiration and no fees, so if a retailer tries to enforce an unlawful term, the certificate stands as if the term were never there.¹

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Commercial Law 14-1319 – Gift Certificates
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Commercial Law 14-1320 – Gift Card
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693l-1 – General-Use Prepaid Cards, Gift Certificates, and Store Gift Cards
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation E – 1005.20 Requirements for Gift Cards and Gift Certificates
5
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Commercial Law 13-410