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January 16 is National Use Your Gift Card Day. This is a special day organized by the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) to remind consumers to spend their unspent gift cards. Contrary to what some people still believe, retailers want their gift cards to be spent, and that’s why they’re promoting this national day.

Why Retailers Want You to Spend Your Gift Cards

There are good reasons why retailers want to encourage their customers to spend all their gift cards:

Retailers must keep outstanding gift card balances as a liability on their books which is something they try hard to avoid. So, it’s better for everyone that you use your gift cards.

Since most provincial laws do not allow for expiration dates on gift cards, sometimes these liabilities can extend many years, even decades. If you forget to spend a gift card, retailers must do something for you to remember to spend the money that is on the gift cards you purchased.

Retailers know that customers are spending more than the balance of their card, and therefore retailers benefit much more by having their cards used than sitting in a drawer somewhere. It’s really nice for customers that received gift cards as a gift, for example, and pay just the extra that is left. And for the retailer, it’s great to also get that little extra.

Spend Your Gift Cards

You can check your wallet and drawers for unused gift cards, but also don’t forget to check your FundScrip Wallet for any gift card balances that have not yet been spent. For the gift cards that are in your FundScrip Wallet, you can always check if you still have some money on your cards and which ones are not used – make sure to filter for "Spent" gift cards.

If you have any electronic gift cards , you can share them with your friends by email – see our blog post about how to do that.

You could also simply donate the unused cards to members of your group, friends or family, or to a local charity. It’s just as good as giving money, and the ones in need will benefit from it.

Or you could do something creative like collecting the unspent gift cards from your group and giving them to the person who raised the most for the group with FundScrip. Have fun and reward the people that work hard to raise funds in your group!

Any way that you decide to use your gift cards is a good thing, and that’s why we’re sharing National Use Your Gift Card day with you.