Don’t give retailers a free ride by forgetting or wasting gift cards. Source: News Corp Australia

Buried in a drawer or among a pile of presents, gift cards are easy to forget, can expire before you know it, and if you don’t use them you’re giving retailers money for nothing.

You can also get a bigger bang for your gift card bucks by spending them now during the post-Christmas sales.

Research last month by consumer group Choice found gift cards were the number one present people planned to give last Christmas, at 41 per cent. This was ahead of toys (35 per cent), clothes (33 per cent) and chocolate (32 per cent).

“They’re phenomenally popular,” says Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey.

“But there are some pretty big pitfalls. If you don’t redeem it, you are effectively dropping cash at a retailer’s doorstep and getting nothing in return. It’s crazy.”

Check the expiry date on any gift cards you have. Many last for one year but others may expire in just three or six months.

“Anything less than 12 months is pretty poor value. Only one card, from our research, has no expiry date — that’s the Bunnings card,” Godfrey says.

It’s a good idea to check your cards’ terms and conditions on the retailers’ websites, and beware of retailers who may impose an activation fee.

If you think you are unlikely to use a gift card, perhaps offer it at a discounted price to a friend or family member who will.

Queensland Consumers Association spokesman Ian Jarratt says using gift cards now reduces the chances of them being forgotten, lost, stolen or unusable.

And with most retailers offering big discounts in their post Christmas sales your gift card will stretch further.

“If a business goes into administration, liquidation or receivership, gift cards are unlikely to be usable as planned and the holder may become an unsecured creditor — right down the bottom of the pile.”

Jarratt says the longer a gift card sits idle, the greater their chance of never being used. He says there are no official figures about the number of cards that are never used or are only used partially, but it has been estimated at more than 10 per cent.

“They become a gift for the issuer — not the receiver.”

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