![]() The key with gift cards appears to be to use them soon – and act quickly if you run into trouble. Amazon is the most popular gift card, followed by Target, gift cards for a variety of restaurants, Walmart, and then credit-card-style gift cards, like those with Visa and Mastercard brand logos.ĭon't wait on returns: Many stores will have a stricter return policy this holiday season How can I avoid gift card scams? Other top gifts: Clothing and accessories (bought by 50%) toys (31%) books, video games and other media (24%) food and candy (23%), and electronics (23%).Ībout 60% of gift shoppers plan to buy a gift card, according to data from Numerator, a market research company. Holiday shoppers plan to buy three to four gift cards and spend around $50 a card on average.įrom Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, gift cards were among the top gifts purchased and were bought by 27% of those surveyed, according to the National Retail Federation. Total spending on gift cards is expected to reach $28.6 billion in 2022, compared with $28.1 billion in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation. Gift cards remain a popular and often quick-and-easy gift. Holiday shoppers plan to buy three to four gift cards and spend an around $50 a card on average. See what you need to do to register the card – and look for any problems so you complain as early as possible. Now, she'd tell anyone who gets a gift card to check out the balance quickly. And so were two other gift cards her brother bought for another family member. Oddly, the $200 on the second gift card was fine. "It had been done in the wee early hours of the morning." The store wasn't in Michigan, she recalled. The online information for viewing transactions on the Vanilla brand Visa card showed that one purchase was made at an supply store. "There was a dollar left on it – out of $200 that should have been on it," Pfeiffer said. She woke up her son who was still sleeping to ask him if he had already spent the money on that Visa card. She couldn't believe it when she spotted the balance on one card. The next day, she decided to go online to review any rules or restrictions. This past summer, Dina Pfeiffer was overwhelmed by her brother's generosity when he handed her son Niall two Visa gift cards with $200 each on them for his graduation from Clawson High School. While most gift cards work fine, some consumers are astounded when they go out to dinner or try to buy a new pair of running shoes only to see their gift card declined because of a zero balance after crooks mysteriously drained money off the card. ![]() That's up from 21% from a similar survey last year.ĭon't wait on returns: Many stores will have a stricter return policy this holiday seasonĬhristmas travel mess: Holiday travelers scramble to get home ahead of a winter storm with blizzard conditions How do scammers use gift cards? ![]() Who would imagine that a gift card that you just received suddenly had little or no value? How could a gift card have been redeemed when it was sitting inside a holiday card or little gift card tin covered with bouncy penguins?Ībout 26% of people reported being surprised to learn that they gave away or received a gift card with a zero balance, zip, not a dollar left on it, according to an AARP survey. It's another way that criminals who run elaborate fraud rings steal dollars from consumers. Unfortunately, that's what's happening too often during the holidays and other times of the year for those who hand over gift cards. Would you ever dream of buying a beautiful gift, maybe a cashmere sweater or a diamond necklace, and have it gift-wrapped at the store, only to watch your special someone open the box and discover it was empty? ![]()
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