Australians may have as much as A$1.4 billion sitting in unused gift cards, comparison site Finder says.
Finder surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and found that 35 per cent have at least one unused gift card and 24 per cent have two. The average value on these cards is $198.
Eighteen per cent said they had had gift card that expired before they could use it. Since November 2019, gift cards and vouchers must be sold with a minimum three-year expiry period and must display the expiry date.
Another change introduced at the time was a ban on post-purchase fees, such as activation fees, account keeping fees and balance inquiry fees.
Five per cent of respondents to the Finder survey said they had lost gift cards, and 1 per cent said they couldn’t use a gift card because the company that issued it went out of business.
Finder’s personal finance expert Sarah Megginson said there were online marketplaces where gift cards are sold, and consumers could use these if they had cards they were unlikely to use.