I received a mailing from Verizon yesterday offering me 100 free
minutes, which I can claim by phone or at their website and accepting
their "offer". Now, "offer" is a legal term that implies a contract is
being created, and a contract implies that the thing being offered is in
exchange for something. Yet they don't say what it is I'm agreeing to in
exchange for the 100 free minutes. Do any of you know whether there's
some hidden catch, or are they just using the word "offer" incorrectly?

I *can* see why they might make customers affirmatively accept a *gift*
of 100 free minutes--because they want to make them available for 60
days only, after which they disappear after they aren't used. So this
enables Verizon to run the 60 days starting with the moment the customer
accepts them.