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.
I disagree, but only to the extent that you know the person well enough to know they’ll use it or they explicitly ask you for it. To me, gift cards are a way to alleviate the paralysis of choice and guilt for spending money in certain ways. It’s like “I know you couldn’t mentally justify spending a $100 bill on a high quality set of sheets, so I’m giving you money specifically earmarked for that purpose.”
It’s also sometimes handy if you want to give someone money for everyday needs and know they’d feel guilty or embarrassed about receiving money directly. A gift card for a store you know they go to a lot can be a fairly tasteful gift. Again, though, it’s only worth it if you know they’ll actually use it.
And don’t get those prepaid general purpose gift cards, those things are straight up scams.
That’s what I never understood about the taboo of cash as gifts. Whats weirder to me is it’s pretty common to get straight cash money as a gift for graduating from highschool, but not for christmas or birthdays?
I personally dislike feeling the obligation to buy something from a specific store because of the gift cards. Getting cash (or not spending money on gifts) gives me more flexibility. And if I ever need the cash I don’t feel obligated to lose money in a transaction having to sell some item off. Whether it be the item I bought with the gift card, or some other item I bought so I can keep that other item.
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It’s an interest-free loan to a giant corporation in return for obliging someone to keep it somewhere safe, and remember to take it with them when they want to spend it, with no choice as to where to spend it, and a high chance that they never will get around to spending it.
Cash is better in every conceivable way.