Gift Cards Are a Popular Gift Option, But They Often Go Unused
Gift cards are one of the most popular gift options for many holidays and special occasions. Plus they are a useful option for those who look to generate credit card spend, or maximize credit card rewards.
If you are in the credit card rewards game, then you probably are very careful about keeping track of all your gift card purchases. But the majority of people who have gift cards, usually receive them as gifts, and about half of them have let them go unused.
The information comes from a Credit Summit report which is based on a December 2022 survey of 1,200 consumers aged 16 and older. The report said there is as much as $21 billion of unspent money tied up in unused and lost gift cards. Of those surveyed, a majority of respondents said their unredeemed cards were worth $200 or less.
A separate study on gift card usage found the average amount on unused gift cards last year was $175 per person, up from $116 in 2021.
Some of the main reasons that people don’t use gift cards are that they forget they have the cards, they lose them, or they are left with a small balance on the card.
The survey revealed that 50% of Americans have lost a gift card at least once, while 10% lose them regularly or frequently. Though 57% say they’ve never lost or misplaced a gift card, 43% have been unable to redeem them for several reasons: 25% because the cards were lost or misplaced, 5% because the cards were destroyed in a fire or other disaster, 10% kept them so long that they were no longer valid when they tried to redeem them and 3% couldn’t spend them because the store went out of business.
Other findings in the reports show that 83% of Americans regularly give gift cards for special occasions, while 10% dislike giving them out. Gift cards are most popular with millennials: 92% prefer to receive them, and 86% say they regularly give them.
There are federal protections for gift cards, so normally they don’t expire for at least 5 years. But you should check your specific brands and see if there are any penalties if they’re not used in a specific period of time. If you have no use for a gift card, you can still get some value out of it by selling on several websites.
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I take a photo of the number and PIN for any physical gift card I get INCLUDING those I give away. OR I do the gift cards as e-gift cards and send them to myself, and then forward them to whoever I Want to give them to. Then if it’s lost (and not used by somebody else) it can be used on-line with the info I have (or just reprinted if it’s a lost / unused e-gift card and used wherever.
I’ve never found an unused card (giving some time before checking it) but I have saved some lost cards.
Then I can check later to be sure they were used.