Gift cards make great stocking stuffers — just as long as you don’t stuff them in a drawer and forget about them after the holidays.

Americans are expected to spend nearly $30 billion on gift cards this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. Restaurant gift cards are the most popular, making up one-third of those sales.

Most of those gift cards will be redeemed. Paytronix, which tracks restaurant gift card sales, says around 70% of gift cards are used within six months.

But many cards — tens of billions of dollars’ worth — wind up forgotten or otherwise unused. That’s when the life of a gift card gets more complicated, with expiration dates or inactivity fees that can vary by state.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Holy shit the US has some consumer protection we don’t have over here (at least in the UK)

    A legally enforceable 5y minimum expiration for a gift card is a fucking great idea.

    • Slowy@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      In Canada they never expire unless the store goes out of business. There’s a few exceptions for things that are services rather than freely spent balance but yeah, to me it seems unfair that they would be able to just absorb that money.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago

      Uhm, don’t have a concrete source here but AFAIK in the EU gift cards that have been bought by paying money into them are not allowed to expire, and I would have thought the UK has similar laws.

      Coupons from magazines are not something anyone spent money on so they can have expiry dates.