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.
No, but also yes.
5 years is an annoyingly long time to track gift cards because you can’t spend that money until it’s no longer a liability on your books. 1 year is way too short, there needs to be a compromise somewhere, 5 years is probably fair.
Oh noo, my business has thousands of dollars bearing interest for half a decade whatever will I do
Starbucks makes nearly as much off interest from their gift card accounts as they do actually selling products. It accounts for 155m of revenue annually.
Do they actually? I didn’t know that.