How To Avoid Wasting Your Holiday Gift Cards in Utah

I received $100 in gift cards this Christmas. They are great because I can go buy whatever I want with them. They also can be a problem because I may forget I have them or leave them on the nightstand with my other junk and they get tossed.  

CBS News reported that Americans would spend billions on gift cards: 

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. 

However, billions of dollars in those gift cards would go unused. Lost or forgotten, those cards will go unspent. What is the solution? Go spend them right now before you forget. Make a second list to Santa and go pick up some new gifts for yourself.  

Stores would like you to use them. They even have established a "national use your gift card day" the last few years to encourage you to use them. Retailers would like to see more spending in January and have picked out Saturday January 20th for the day to spend them. 

I don’t know if I’m going to redeem my $100 in cards on that day, but I do think it is a good idea. We could certainly give a boost to businesses in Utah at a slow time of the year while making sure we don’t leave all that gift card money sitting in some dumpster.