Gift Cards to Avoid

Gift cards are always my backup plan when it comes to gift giving.  I do not like to give gift cards because they usually cost me more than a gift of similar value.  But for that hard to shop for person they are a God send.  That being said in order to truly bless someone with a gift it is important to know that gift cards can expire and that in the case of corporate bankruptcies a store does not have to accept a gift card.  This means that if you give a gift card to someone for Linens N Things that store may or may not accept that gift card.  You are very safe giving away cards to stores such as Wal-Mart or the Apple Store since those companies are in good financial shape.  Gift cards I wold avoid giving are (in no particular order) Circuit City, Radio Shack, Pier 1, Rite Aid, and the aforementioned Linens N Things.  

If you do not know the financial status of the stores in your area I would suggest giving cash.  For some reason we have an aversion to giving cash in our society.  Apparently it is now considered a "thoughtless" gift, but gift cards are really the same thing, you just had to go to a store to turn your cash into a less usable form of currency.  I think of cash as the gift card you can use anywhere!