What Happens to Unspent Gift Card? (2024)

Gift cards are important assets for many in the world today. Despite this, they are unused due to some reasons by those who own them.

Gift cards are used as payment for goods and services, gifts for loved ones, and several other uses. Also known as gift vouchers or gift certificates, it will shock you that many of these gift cards become waste at times.

One way to prevent the wastage of gift vouchers is to redeem them. With this known fact, people still miss out on redeeming these gift cards. Billions of gift cards are unused by many people in the world and haven’t stopped to be that way.

What then happens to these unspent gift cards? This we will see in this article. Before then, let’s see why people don’t redeem their gift cards.

Why Do People Not Redeem Their Gift Cards?

In a world where many people list gift cards in their birthday/celebration wish list, it is quite unfortunate that some of these gift cards aren’t used by owners. People don’t redeem their gift cards for many reasons. They are discussed below:

1. Unwanted Brand– Many people fail to redeem their gift cards when they are gifted a brand they don’t like. Can you imagine giving an elderly person an Xbox gift card? This type of gift voucher is more likely not to be used by the holder.
2. Relocation– A gift voucher can be useless when one holds one that is particular to a place e.g. a UK Amazon gift card won’t work outside the UK. This means that person that holds this type of gift card will be unable to use it unless he/she returns to base.
3. Misplaced Gift Cards– There’s no way one could redeem a misplaced gift card. It is as simple as tagging the lost gift card ”irredeemable”. As someone can lose wallets and credit/debit cards, so it is with gift cards.

What Happens to Unspent Gift Cards?

Many people want to know what happens to gift cards that got expired when it still has some amount in them. Not to keep you guessing for long, these gift unspent gift cards are a benefit to the issuing company or brand.

The issuer gets more from the unused gift voucher. For example, if you are gifted a $250 Xbox gift card and you were only able to use $100 out of it, the company makes $400 on this voucher. This is known as gift card brokerage.

If there’s anyone who wants to purchase your gift certificates and doesn’t use them, once it expires, the issuer profits from them. It is pretty easy to say that unspent gift cards go back to the manufacturer.

What to Do With Unspent Gift Cards

There are things one could do with unspent gift cards than let the manufacturers acquire them at the end. Here are things you can do with these gift vouchers rather than make the rich brands richer.

1. Swap– There’s a high probability that you can have someone to swap your gift card with. If you don’t like it, you may get the one you like when you exchange it with someone else.
2. Regift– In most cases, unused gift vouchers are received as gifts. If you don’t know what to do with it or don’t like that particular brand, you can still give it out. You can always show someone else love by regifting it.
3. Donate– Gift cards are not excluded from the list of things one can donate. Instead of allowing gift vouchers to become a waste, it is better to donate to a charity where it’ll be appreciated.
4. Sell– This is by far the best option if you are looking for what to do with unspent vouchers. You can sell them to get cash or cryptocurrency in return. You will have more money at hand doing this rather than watering the ocean.

Where Can I sell My Gift Cards for Cash or Cryptocurrency?

Gift vouchers can be redeemed for cash or cryptocurrency in trading platforms. One of the best places for doing this is Prestmit.

Prestmit is a digital exchange platform which has a high resale value. On this platform, you can sell gift tokens of brands such as Amazon, AMEX, Google Play, Steam, Nordstrom, and so on and get cash or crypto in return.

The multiple payment options on this platform include the Nigerian Naira, Ghanaian Cedi, Bitcoin, and Tether (USDT). There are many users on this platform who have attested to enjoying an awesome trading experience. It will be better if you make a point of duty to create an account with Prestmit.

Closing Thoughts

Statistics have shown that many buy or receive gift cards which are used partially or unused due to different reasons. These unspent gift cards are always a plus to those who issued them and a loss to the owners.

The best option when dealing with unused gift cards is to sell them for profit. Trading platforms such as Prestmit sell gift cards and can pay you in cash or cryptocurrency.