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A quotation from the article:
"Consumers need to buy gift cards with their eyes wide open."

Wrong. Consumers don't need to buy gift cards with their eyes open. They need to stop buying gift cards entirely. Seriously, what the hell is the point of gift cards? I'm not even asking in response to the problem presented in the article; even if companies theoretically never went bankrupt, what's the point? The purchaser has to spend time and gas money going to the store, and then spend even more money to buy it, only for the recipient to have to then spend even more gas money and time to actually get anything other than a plastic card from the deal, and it can only be at one chain. It's like real money, except it's less convenient and less flexible.

Anyway, the news from this article just serves to make what is in my mind a stupid practice even more stupid. So, apparently, when companies go bankrupt, they don't have to value the cards, because they're considered a loan, and thus a debt. So, we're paying them a loan, and when it comes to spending it, we don't get any interest, and we're not even getting the money back, we're just buying goods from them from which they've essentially already made a profit (the initial deposit)?

I don't think I've ever bought a gift card for anyone else, and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon.

Well, something that I should have mentioned is that I think buying gift cards for an online service of some kind, like itunes is okay. It's good if you want to give someone under the age of eighteen a gift, as they don't have to deal with credit card numbers. For that reason, it's more secure, too.

Another specific example of cards being better than other means of payment is Xbox live. Supposedly if you've subscribed to the service, but don't voluntarily cancel before it runs out, Microsoft automatically adds another year on, and charges to your credit card number automatically. Apparently, even if you call to cancel it before the subscription is over, you'll be met with a representative who'll persistently beg you to add on another year, and you'll be on the phone for a very long time. If you just get a subscription card, you don't have to give out your credit card number, and thus don't have to worry about that.