The gift card guide / One in three adults has already lost money on a gift card.
One in three adults has already lost money on a gift card.
Expired, lost, or the store closed first. Two of the three are preventable, and the third has a warning sign.
Share of US adults, 2024. Some people lost money more than one way. Bankrate, 2024 gift card survey.
Most of this money was still legally theirs. An expired printed date isn't an expired balance.
Go deeper: the numbers
Bankrate's 2024 survey found that 34% of US adults had lost money to a gift card misstep: 20% let one expire, 17% lost the card and 12% saw the store close first.
By federal law, the money on a purchased gift card lasts at least five years from purchase or last load, whatever the plastic says, so most of the expired group could have asked for a replacement. A lost card can often be replaced if you kept the receipt or the card number. A closing store is the one case the law doesn't cover: spend the card before the last day in the closure notice.
Drawers do this to money. CardCue Pro doesn't.
CardCue Pro keeps every card's balance, expiration and barcode in one place, and chirps when you're near a store where you have a card. Free for 3 cards. iPhone, with an Apple Watch app on every plan.
Not a bank or card issuer. It never holds, funds or guarantees a balance.
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