Have you ever looked for your gift card to buy something and discovered you lost it?  Have you ever gone to use a gift card and found out it was expired?  Have you ever gone to a store with the intentions of using a gift card and discovered that there was nothing that you wanted?

I don’t know what it is about gift cards.  I have had some of the worst luck when it comes to gift cards.  My biggest problem is losing them.  I would be embarrassed to tell you the number of cards that I have misplaced.

I just recently found out that my assistant Amy has never used the last 2 or 3 gift cards that I have given her for Assistant’s Day because she never could find the time to go get a massage.  Of course, they expired.

Retailers love this about gift cards.  They love to sell them.  I was at a Best Buy just the other day and the lady that was keeping the lines orderly was trying to sell everyone gift cards.

Why do retailers love them so much?  Just like the credit industry, they depend upon human error.  There are 972 million reasons why retailers love gift cards.

One out of five consumers never used their gift cards last year.  The dollar value of those unused gift cards is 972 million dollars of pure profit for the retailing community.

What was the reason for such a big number?

• 50% couldn’t find the time
• 37% couldn’t find anything
• 14% lost the card – I was hoping that there were more in that category
• 12% let the card expire

So think about it for a moment.  Are you really doing anyone a favor by giving them a gift card?  If you are going to go that route, consider an American Express gift card that can be used anywhere.   Worst case scenario they can use it to buy gas or groceries.

There is one last thing that retailers don’t want you to know about gift cards.

You might get your balance stolen off of your card before you even have a chance to use it!

Now I am quite aware that this has been referred to as an urban legend. Urban legend or not, this happened to me. A company gave me a $250 for shooting a commercial.  What can I say, I am cheap labor!  I went to use it and there was nothing on the card.  Someone had used the card already.

This was the e-mail that was circulating around.  A recent fraud alert said:

“Well the crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance.  If you buy gift cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft.  Crooks are now jotting down the card numbers in the store and then wait a few days and call to see how much of a balance they have on the card.  Once they find the card is 'activated', they go online and start shopping.”

It is unknown if this should be taken seriously.  However, it is something to keep in mind about gift cards.

How about this for a solution?