Key figures
- $27 billion in gift cards, vouchers and store credit sits unused across the US
- 43% of US adults hold an unused gift card, voucher or store credit
- $244 is the average held by each person who has one
- $29.1 billion was the expected US holiday gift card spend for 2025
- $1.24 trillion was the global gift card market in 2025
- Two-thirds of working Americans now prefer a digital gift card to a physical one
- $233 million was reported lost through gift cards in 2025
Unused gift cards
43% of US adults hold an unused gift card. The average holder sits on $244; the median holder sits on $100. Nationally that is $27 billion — up from $23 billion in 2023.
- $27 billion sits unspent nationwide (August 2024). The figure is an estimate, built from the 43% incidence, the $244 average and the US adult population
- The median holder sits on $100 — less than half the $244 average. A minority of large balances pulls the average up (2024)
- 52% of US adults hold none, and 6% are unsure (August 2024). Vouchers and store credit count toward the total
- 55% of households earning $100,000 or more hold unused value, against 35% of households under $50,000 (August 2024)
- The middle brackets sit between the two: 47% at $80,000–$99,999 and 44% at $50,000–$79,999 (August 2024)
- Higher earners also hold more per person — $348 on average in the $100,000+ bracket, against $180 under $50,000 (August 2024)
- 34% of US adults have lost money through a gift card mistake (August 2024)
- Letting a card expire is the most common at 20%, then losing it at 17%, then the store closing at 12% (August 2024)
- 7% of US adults have resold an unused gift card (August 2024). A further 8% name regifting as a reason they gave one
Generations
Millennials sit on $332 in unused gift cards. No generation holds more. Gen Z holds $142. 41% of millennials have lost money on a card.
- 41% of millennials have lost money on a gift card mistake (August 2024)
- Gen Z follows at 36%, then Gen X at 35% and boomers at 26% (August 2024)
What discounted gift cards sell for
Restaurant gift cards resell at four times the discount of fuel cards. Entertainment discounts deepest, at 12.3% below face value. Gas cards trade closest to par, at 3.1%.
- Only 7% of US adults have ever resold a gift card (August 2024), against the 43% who hold one. The $27 billion sits still largely because almost nobody moves it
- These are buy-side prices: what a buyer pays below face value (July 2026). A seller receives less, typically 70–80% of face
According to Felix Day, gift cards for restaurants and entertainment resell at roughly four times the discount of fuel and convenience cards.
What Americans buy at Christmas
Americans expected to spend $29.1 billion on holiday gift cards in 2025, up from $28.6 billion the year before. Two in five shoppers planned to buy one, spending $171.32 across three or four cards. Restaurant cards are the most popular type.
- $29.1 billion was the expected US holiday gift card spend for 2025, against $28.6 billion in 2024 — a rise of 1.7% (November 2025)
- 43% of holiday shoppers planned to buy at least one gift card (November 2025)
- $171.32 was the planned spend per buyer, spread across three to four cards (November 2025)
- Restaurant cards lead at 27%, then bank-issued cards at 25%, department stores at 25% and coffee shops at 20% (November 2025)
- Shoppers aged 65 and over expect to spend $58 a card, about $5 more than the average shopper, and over half of them planned to buy one (November 2025)
- This is what people said they intended to spend in one season. It is not the size of the US gift card market, which is in Market size
Market size
The global gift card market hit $1.24 trillion in 2025. Growth runs at 13% a year, doubling the market roughly every 5.6 years. At the forecast rate the US market adds roughly $50 billion in its first year from the 2025 base.
- The US market was $447.05 billion in 2025 (July 2026)
- The same forecast reaches $1,292.02 billion by 2035, growing 11.20% a year (July 2026)
- The figure counts closed-loop and open-loop, physical and digital, consumer and corporate — not just retail gifting
- The Federal Reserve’s payments study measures all US prepaid debit card payments at $0.65 trillion for 2024 — private-label prepaid, the closest analogue to store gift cards, at $0.11 trillion (released July 2026). Market estimates count value issued, the Fed counts value spent; the distance between the two is why published figures disagree
- The $29.1 billion you will also see is a different measure entirely — NRF’s planned holiday gift card spending, a seasonal intention figure rather than the market’s size. It is in What Americans buy at Christmas
Digital against physical
Two-thirds of working Americans now prefer a digital gift card to a physical one. It is the first time digital has led in the twenty-two years the survey has run, and the reason people give is that it arrives at once.
- Two-thirds of US adults in full-time employment prefer digital gift cards to physical ones (n=1,000, November 2024). It is the first time digital has led in the survey’s 22 editions
- 70% of those choosing digital name instant delivery (n=1,000, November 2024)
- 51% name ease of sharing, and 49% ease of purchasing (n=1,000, November 2024)
- The sample is full-time employed adults only, so it excludes retirees and part-time workers. It is a working-age preference, not a national one
- Digital cards are also the ones people buy for themselves — 66% of digital purchases against 40% of physical (n=3,389, March 2019). The full ladder is in Who gift cards are bought for
Who gift cards are bought for
Most gift cards are bought as gifts — 71% of purchases. Self-use climbs with the cards that suit it: 42% of open-loop cards, and 66% of digital cards in the last study to measure it.
- 71% of gift card shoppers said the cards they bought were for someone else, and 29% bought for themselves (n=6,400+, 2024)
- 42% of open-loop gift card purchases were intended for self-use (n=6,475, 2023) — a narrower base and an earlier year than the 29% above
- 66% of the digital gift cards US consumers buy are for their own use (n=3,389, March 2019)
- 40% of the physical gift cards US consumers buy are for their own use (n=3,389, March 2019)
- Self-use rises as the card gets more flexible or more immediate — 29% of all purchases, 42% of open-loop, 66% of digital. The three come from different studies and different years, and are not one series
- $51.93 is the average value of a card bought for self-use, against $47.91 for one bought as a gift (n=3,389, March 2019)
- 34% of digital gift card buyers name self-use as the occasion, the largest single occasion (n=3,389, March 2019)
- 37% of digital gift card buyers name themselves as the recipient (n=3,389, March 2019)
- 41% of Gen Z bought a gift card for personal use in the past 12 months (n=3,389, March 2019)
- Blackhawk Network records self-use cards concentrating in family restaurants and mass merchandisers, and reports that 76% of US consumers see a gift card as an excuse to treat themselves — a separate measure from the 76% who use a card up inside a month (n=3,389, March 2019)
Who gives gift cards, and why
84% of US adults have given a gift card. 32% of givers did not know what else to get. 23% of US adults have received a card for a store they do not like.
- Gift cards top the list of gifts people want to receive — 50%, ahead of clothing at 46% (October 2025). Among gifts people plan to give they rank second, behind clothing (November 2025)
- 48% of givers say they knew the person could use it (August 2024)
- 42% picked a store the recipient likes, and 37% call a gift card practical (August 2024)
- 32% of givers did not know what else to get (August 2024)
- 16% ran out of time, and 8% regifted a card they already had (August 2024)
- 24% of US adults have received a card for an inconvenient store (August 2024)
- 81% of workers would like a gift card from their employer; only 41% have received one (n=1,002, February 2026)
Where gift cards can be spent
64% of gift cards are for one specific store. 21% work at multiple retailers. 15% work anywhere, like a Visa card.
- 64% of gift cards received are for one specific merchant (March 2019)
- 21% are usable at multiple retailers, and 15% work anywhere a card network is accepted (March 2019)
- Employer and business cards skew wider: 50% store-specific against 26% usable anywhere (March 2019)
- 86% of people spend gift cards at retailers they have shopped before (March 2019). Among boomers it is 93%
- 23% of Gen Z try somewhere new with a gift card, against 7% of boomers (March 2019)
Spending past the card
44% of US consumers say they typically spend past a gift card’s value. Willingness runs higher: 58% would spend beyond the card, by $73 on average. On a $10 card, 74% would.
- 44% say they typically spend more than the card’s value; 48% spend roughly the value (n=1,002, February 2026)
- 58% are willing to spend beyond the card, by $73 on average — and willingness rises as the card shrinks: 74% on a $10 card (n=2,138, January 2026)
- The two differ because the questions differ: “typically spend” measures habit, “would spend” measures intention, and intention runs higher
- Older studies: $59 average overspend — First Data’s own headline figure (n=2,003, October 2018); $31.75 at 61% spending past the card (March 2019)
- More than 80% of fine dining and drug store card holders spend past the value (October 2018)
- Supermarket cards draw the top overspend at $56, with a 94% redemption rate (October 2018)
- 76% use a card up within a month of receiving it; 60% spend it in a single visit (March 2019)
- 47% cite card expiration as their top barrier to buying gift cards (March 2019)
Fraud and scams
Reported gift card fraud losses rose to $233 million in 2025. Gift cards are no longer the payment method scam victims report most.
- $233 million was reported lost through gift cards in 2025, across 35,321 reports (as at 30 June 2026)
- Losses rose from $212 million in 2024 to $233 million in 2025 . It is the first annual rise since 2021
- Gift cards ranked 7th of 10 payment methods by report count in 2025, down from 4th at their 2021 peak
- Across all fraud, US consumers reported losing $16.1 billion in 2025 — the highest on record, up from $12.5 billion in 2024 (2025 data)
- 26.6% of people reporting a fraud loss paid through a gift card (January 2018 to September 2021). It was the most-reported method in that window
- Target was the most-reported gift card brand in scam losses, ahead of Google Play, Apple, eBay and Walmart (2021 data)
- More on how these scams work, who is targeted and what to do: Gift Card Scam & Fraud Statistics (2026)
Sources
- Bankrate, Gift Card Survey — YouGov Plc, 2,373 US adults (1,010 holding unused cards), fielded 19–21 August 2024
- Bankrate, Over 2 in 5 U.S. Adults Have at Least One Unused Gift Card, Totaling About $27 Billion — press release (PDF), 23 September 2024
- Precedence Research, Gift Cards Market — updated 6 July 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, Scammers prefer gift cards, but not just any card will do — Data Spotlight, December 2021
- Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book — annual editions 2022 through 2024, payment-method tables; 2025 figures from the FTC fraud dashboards, as at 30 June 2026
- Federal Reserve Payments Study, national payment volumes CY2015–24 — released 1 July 2026
- The Strawhecker Group and Bank of America, gift card consumer survey — n=1,002, fielded 5–10 February 2026, published 6 April 2026
- Blackhawk Network, global gift card study — n=2,138 US adults, fielded January 2026, published 8 June 2026
- NRF / Prosper Insights — October 2025 survey (n=8,247, fielded 1–7 October) and November 2025 survey (n=8,000, fielded 31 October–6 November)
- AARP Research, Consumers Want Protection from Fraud During the Holiday Season — n=1,849, fielded 11–20 August 2025, published 18 November 2025
- First Data (now Fiserv), Prepaid Consumer Insights Study — 2,003 US adults, October 2018
- National Retail Federation — annual winter holiday surveys, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics; 2025 edition fielded 31 October to 6 November 2025, n=8,000
- Blackhawk Network, Consumer Gift Card State of the Union — conducted by Murphy Research, 3,389 US consumers aged 18–75, March 2019
- Felix Day, US secondary-market pricing — 590 in-stock listings, 24 July 2026
- Fiserv, 22nd Annual Prepaid Consumer Insights Survey — n=1,000 US adults in full-time employment, fielded November 2024, ±3.11pp
- InComm Payments, 2024 Gift Card Year in Review — more than 6,400 gift card shoppers surveyed across 2024, published 29 April 2025
- InComm Payments, Consumers are Buying Gift Cards for Themselves — n=6,475 gift card shoppers, 2023 data, published 6 August 2024
Felix Day is a US gift card comparison service. We publish this research because we maintain the underlying catalogue and pricing data anyway. If you believe a figure here is wrong, we would rather know.