Examples of similar fees include a Pizza Hut card that said a $1 a month dormancy fee is charged after 12 months of non-use, a Toys "R" Us card that said a $2 a month dormancy fee is charged after 24 months, and a Kohl's card that said a $1.50 a month fee is charged after 24 months.

Cards for Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants also said maintenance fees are charged. But their parent corporation, Darden Restaurants, recently rescinded all such fees, according to its Web site.

Darden reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year after the FTC charged it had engaged in deceptive practices for not adequately disclosing dormancy fees. Darden agreed to to restore fees it had deducted from cards and to disclose fees and expiration dates in future gift-card sales.

The FTC this year also reached a similar settlement with Kmart for such practices.

The Utah Legislature this year passed a bill by Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, to require any fees or expiration dates to be prominently displayed on cards. If cards fail to list fees, the fees now cannot be legally deducted from the balance of the card. If the companies fail to list expiration dates, the cards never expire, by law.

Bank cards

Maintenance fees are especially common with bank-issued gift cards, which are good at almost any store and carry such logos as Visa, American Express or Discover Card.

The Morning News looked at five such bank gift cards, and all had maintenance or dormancy fees. The most expensive was the All-Access Visa Card, sold locally at many grocery and retail stores. The card carries a $4.95 a month maintenance fee beginning six months after the purchase of the card.

Other bank-issued gift cards with maintenance or dormancy fees included the US Bank Visa Gift Card, the Discover Gift Card, the Wells Fargo Visa Gift Card and the American Express Gift Card.

The Montgomery County, Md., Office of Consumer Affairs — which issues an annual report-card on gift cards, and which the FTC said helped lead to action against Darden Restaurants and Kmart — looked at 20 bank-issued cards this year, and all 20 of them had maintenance fees.

Expiration or other fees

Bank-issued cards also tend to have a variety of other potential pitfalls. All bank gift cards examined had expiration dates listed. Some American Express gift cards sold in local stores expired as soon as next year — and expiration dates could vary by months or years among the cards hanging together on racks.

However, the American Express Web site says the company will issue free replacements for cards whose expiration date has passed. If owners want a check for the unused amount, that will cost them $10.