I recently ran across an article in the Washington Post from February of 2006. The article talks about how difficult it is to use up small amounts left on Visa and MasterCard Gift Cards. A couple of quotes from the article caught my eye:

“Visa spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz said the company was unaware of the problem of split transactions until The Washington Post raised the issue. “Now we’ll be looking into it,” Bentz said.”

“MasterCard and American Express officials said they have been slowly rolling out new technology to make it easier for merchants and gift card users to know a card’s balance so it can be used with cash or another credit card to buy something for more than the card’s value.”

Very very few merchants allow you to check the balance of your gift card. Visa’s site lists about 15, while MasterCard’s site lists none, but says “some” can. Split transactions have not gotten any easier in the last two an a half years either.

If these companies are working on fixes to these problems, global warming appears to be melting glaciers faster.