21B Worth of Unspent Gift Cards Will Be Given to Americans: Get To Know How To Turn Yours into Cash

Approximately 76% of consumers aged 16 and older who participated in the survey of 1,200 consumers reported making an intentional decision not to use a gift card. These include waiting until you need something specific from a retailer (36%), saving them for a special occasion (36%), shopping somewhere you don’t typically go (11%), finding it difficult to redeem them (4%), or forgetting about them (2%).

According to an article published by GO Banking Rates on March 05, 2023, gift cards that have been lost are another major reason why they aren’t used. Gift cards with low balances are occasionally only partially used before being discarded.

On their unused cards, more than half of the respondents have less than $200. The majority of young people with unused gift cards are between the ages of 18 and 24, with 84% of them reporting having at least one card in their possession.

More expenses than just letting gift cards expire and be wasted can result from keeping them for too long. In some cases, inactivity fees are assessed after a predetermined period of time, which results in value loss.

Spending your gift cards while they are still valid and before you might involve fees or penalties is the best way to make sure you get the full value out of them. There are options available if you can’t decide how to use them or simply want to exchange them for cash.