MAYNARD, Mass—A prepaid gift card may be a popular holiday present--with more than half of U.S. consumers purchasing one this past season--but that doesn't mean they're used wisely, a new study shows.
About $3 billion in cards will go unredeemed this year alone, reports CBS News.
As much as 3% of gift card dollars are never redeemed, according to an estimate from the Mercator Advisory Group. In 2019, consumers spent about $98.6 loading up gift cards, which means almost $3 billion was left on the table, said CBS News.
"The biggest waste tends to be in your retailer gift cards that for some reason the recipient chooses not to spend," C. Sue Brown, director of Mercator’s prepaid advisory service, told CBS News. "I would say that cases where people aren't spending all the dollars are much less than in the past, but there is still a percentage — between 1 and 3% — of stores' sales that goes unused."