Technobabble

Gift Cards – Use 'em or Lose 'em

Posted by on Dec 18, 2006 | 2 Comments

A wild report on gift cards hit the wire this weekend – one that’s sure to raise your blood pressure.

It seems that a great many folks forget about their gift cards. They get tucked in a drawer, lost in a wallet or purse, or what have you … The end result? Those big retailers make big big bucks from unused gift cards. Tens of millions of dollars. The report pegs Best Buy’s gain from unredeemed gift cards at a whopping $43 million in 2006.

That’s nuts in a fancy wrapper!

Lets start a campaign this holiday season.

Don’t let your gift cards collect dust.

If you get a gift card, use it. If you give a gift card, make sure it gets used.

[tags]gift card[/tags]

  • Jo Will

    Change your state’s laws. In New Hampshire it’s illegal for gift cards to have an expiration date. However, the state attorney genetal did recently lose a lawsuit with MC or Visa from the local mall for their gift cards. The defense claimed since they were a national credit card company they couldn’t be bothered with local (state) laws- or something like that. I will therefore never get another mall gift card if it has a MC or Visa logo on it.

  • http://ntsed101comcast.net Sarah Danks

    K-Mart is replacing many of theirs because there was a period when they didn’t tell buyers about the monthly finance charge on dormant cards. (Only after they lost a case with the FTC, of course.) So if you lost one to dormancy charges and still have it around, you can contact them here for a refund: http://www.kmartcorp.com/corp/giftcard/index.stm
    You will need the card because they want the numbers from it.
    I kept mine because it made me so mad, but they sent me a replacement card and I used it at once. Now I NEVER buy cards with expirations.