I may get laughed out of the industry for this, and if I end up with egg on my face, it wouldn’t be the first, or last time, that it happens. But I came across this post on Bankrate a couple of weeks ago and it triggered an idea that I thought had some merit and potential, especially as collection operations look for new ways to get consumers to pay their debts. According to Bankrate, consumers are sitting on $27 billion of what is essentially a form of currency — unused gift cards.
The average consumer has $244 of unused gift cards in his or her possession, which is more than double that amount they had in their possession just three years ago. Looking at the different generations, younger consumers have significantly more in unused gift cards than older consumers.
- Millennials (ages 28-43): $332
- Generation X (44-59): $255
- Baby Boomers (60-78): $227
- Generation Z (18-27): $142
Why not accept gift cards as forms of payment? Companies use them all the time to hand out to employees as perks and rewards. And there are plenty of sites that will take unused gift cards and turn them into cash for you (for a fee).
More than 40% of consumers have at least one unused gift card, according to Bankrate. In a lot of cases, the money on that card never gets used. According to Bankrate: Over one-third of U.S. adults (34%) have lost money due to a gift card misstep such as letting a gift card expire (20%), losing a gift card (17%), or having a store go out of business before they used their gift card (12%). Millennials are more likely to have lost money due to gift card mistakes than other generations, at 41% versus 36% of Gen Zers, 35% of Gen Xers, and 26% of Baby Boomers.
Perhaps Ted Rossman of Bankrate said it best: “Gift cards represent real money.”
