Watching Your Wallet: Don’t forget about gift cards you received over the holidays – WILX

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – It’s time to start double checking your purses and wallets. If you got a gift card over the holidays, there’s a chance it could still be hanging around waiting to be spent.

You likely got a gift card or two over the holidays. If you haven’t used it yet, you are not alone.

The Mercator Advisory Group said 1-2% percent of all gift cards go unused each year — that’s billions of dollars. Don’t let this happen to you, get out all your gift cards and pledge to use them by a certain date.

Put a reminder on your smartphone, so you don’t forget.

Not every gift card is right for you — if it’s to a store you’ll never visit, you can re-gift it to someone who will. You could even donate it to charity or hand it to a first responder as a thank you for what they’ve done during the pandemic.

You could also trade it or sell it. Just be careful of selling online, scams are everywhere. Avoid selling it to a stranger or through Craigslist or Facebook.

If you want to use an online site, make sure it has a post-transaction money-back guarantee.

If you plan to use your gift card, know this, under the federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, gift cards can’t expire for five years — although issuers can charge inactivity fees if the card hasn’t been used within 12 months.

More: Watching Your Wallet

Copyright 2022 WILX. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/1tED3GH
via IFTTT