Gift cards have been a popular gift for the winter holidays for several years now, but there is some question if they are a safe choice this year.

There is an email currently making the rounds that suggests it is unsafe to buy gift cards from numerous retailers this year due to their financial status. Though it does say the accuracy can’t be vouched for, there is a mixture of accurate and inaccurate comments about companies on the list. We have reprinted the email in full below, but we do not recommend you pay attention to it at this time, we just want you to see what we are discussing.

Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankrupcy [sic] Planning). Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

The list includes (I cannot verify the accuracy of this as this list was forwarded to me. Please feel free to clarify in the comments if there are additions or deletions to be made):

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores mo re to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stor~s
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard’s to close some stores

Personally, I think this is a deceptive practice by these companies. I suppose, if you’re in bankruptcy with little options to come out of it, you’re not worried about customer loyalty. I can imagine a huge uproar as folks drop by on Jan. 1 and find their cards worthless.

While this email is partially correct, you need to do research on your own about each company.  KSL TV 5 out of Utah has tackled this email and shown some of the mistakes made in the email already.

The problem with emails such as this is that they come off as false and can end up masking real problems that do exist.  Alina Tugend of the New York Times addresses some of the real dangers that exist with gift cards from stores that are going bankrupt at this tough financial juncture.  If you do plan to buy cards, there are some good resources out there such as Leveragecards.com and giftcardrescue.com that will allow you to trade out cards you bought from them for other cards if the chain you bought them for should go bankrupt.

The most prudent thing to do with gift cards is just to make sure you use them as soon as you get them so matters don’t change with the company.  The second thing is avoid them if at all possible, and that may be the safest course for right now as companies sort themselves out.