Gift cards themselves are a popular idea – the necessary need to gift money, and the ability to give a gift that isn’t something that could be wrong or not actually wanted goes out the window with a ‘shop here’ voucher that replaces an actual present.

The idea is so popular that Australians have collectively spent $2 billion a year on the retail cash cards, according to the Australian Retail Associations’ research from the end of last year.

Consumer Group Choice has also estimated that the figure is closer to $2.5b per year.

Economists love a cash gift because it has the same value for both the giver and the recipient.

Cash avoids that wastage, and gift cards are the next best thing. Many Australians feel gift cards are a more thoughtful, personal gift than cash, and one that implicitly encourages the recipient to spend it on something nice for themselves, rather than on the weekly groceries.

The problem with gift cards?

It’s not cash, or money in a banking app, so the card gets forgot. Unlike the money in your pocket, or in your bank account, this gift cash can expire, and regularly does.

A survey in 2005 people found almost one in six people have let funds expire on gift cards in the past two years. On average that’s $54 in unspent credit on gift cards – effectively donating $142 million back to the retailers over the past two years.

On average, men are more wasteful, leaving $68 on the card on average, while women leave $45, the Finder website reveals.

In the past three years three out of five respondents to the Choice survey experienced a problem with a gift card such as being caught out by expiry, while one in three had lost the full value of at least one gift card in the previous three years.

Expiration is the major cause of problem, so dust off your gift cards and go treat yourself to something nice with that retail cash card that only has a few weeks left on it!