Check your junk drawers: There’s a chance you have almost $200 sitting somewhere in your home that you may have forgotten about.
Bankrate found that nearly half of U.S. adults have at least one unused gift card, voucher or store credit.
Senior industry analyst Ted Rossman said 47% of Americans have unused money in those forms, and he said now is good time to plan on using them.
“This is really a good inflation buster I think,” said Rossman.
In the survey, Rossman said Bankrate discovered the average value of available gift card money is $187. Considering how many Americans may have that much sitting around, the total adds up to $23 billion.
“We can be our own worst enemies, sometimes where we forget about it, it’s out of sight out of mind, we lose it, the store goes out of business, a lot of people lose value, unfortunately,” Rossman said.
Most likely to have gift cards go unused are Millennials (52%) and Gen Zers (47%.) Gen Xers (45%) and Baby Boomers (47%) are not far behind, according to Rossman.
When it comes to how much a person makes, it seems those who make more are less likely to use their gift cards. Sixty-two percent of households that make $100,000 or more per year say they have unused cards, 59% for households bringing in between $80,000 and $99,999, then 49% for those making between $50,000 and $79,999.
Rossman said 37% of people who make $50,000 or less a year don’t use their gift cards.
“Those people with unused gift cards are still sitting on almost $200,” he said. “So you might even say it’s more meaningful at lower income thresholds because those dollars are important.”
Rossman said the findings this year surprised him, especially since last year, 45% of those surveyed planned to use their cards before this July.
“I think a lot of people maybe had better intentions than the reality,” Rossman said.
This year, 39% of those surveyed said they have been trying to use that money, with young Americans saying economic concerns have them turning to their gift cards and credits.
Rossman said a common occurrence is those gift cards will have a small remaining balance on them, so people don’t know what to do with it.
“One idea is to top it off, you can reload a lot of gift cards and maybe give that as a gift,” Rossman said.
He said you could also use it to buy a gift for someone, and it will feel like you’re getting a discount.
Other options include exchanging or selling gift cards on sites such as CardCash and Raise.
Whatever your plan, Rossman said you should make a plan to use that money, especially since some credits and vouchers have expiration dates. Just stashing it puts you at risk of losing its value and “it’s just a missed opportunity,” Rossman said.
