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Clark Howard's Tips

Sept. 16, 2008

Clark has a special warning as we approach the holiday season about avoiding having your money blown to smithereens on gift cards.

The danger is that more and more retailers and restaurants are going to face extinction in a tight economy. That means a gift card you buy today may be fool's gold tomorrow. And let's not even mention "breakage," which is a term that denotes the huge profits made when a gift card goes unredeemed.

Not sure what to give someone if you're not going the gift card route? Try cash. It's not as crass and unsentimental as it sounds.

Learn this in the school of Clark Smarts before you learn it in the school of financial hard knocks!

Consumer advice courtesy of