Robbie Ward

rward2@greenvillenews.com

Beverly Schmidt's family embodies and embraces the gift-card culture.

She and and her husband dined together the day after Christmas using a Cracker Barrel gift card received from his brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Both Schmidt and her daughter received Amazon Kindle gift cards.

"You can't really do a good job of picking up reading material for another person," Schmidt, a Moonville resident, said of her daughter and herself. "Men, I'm sorry, you're difficult to shop for, but you do like to eat."

An estimated four in five people age 18 or older planned to buy gift cards this holiday season, making odds high for many people to receive or give the license to shop for whatever he or she wants. Data from the National Retail Federation's 2014 annual survey showed gift cards as the most requested gift item for eight consecutive years.

People spent an estimated $28.8 billion this holiday season on online or plastic gift cards, according to the survey. The average person buying gift cards during the holidays planned to spend $172.74 on them, averaging just under 50 bucks each.

However, the ease of giving and spending with gift cards doesn't mean people shouldn't ready the fine print associated them. Some cards charge fees whenever used, so fewer purchases may be more desirable. Some cards charge an activation fee, and others even deduct from the balance if not used within 12 months.

John Kiernan, a senior editor at CardHub, said people who buy and receive gift cards should pay attention to important details to maximize their spending power, such as the expiration date.

Lots of gift cards expire with cash remaining.

This year, gift cards will expire with roughly $1 billion in unused money. Since 2005, consumers have left about $44 billion unused on expired gift cards, according to financial services data from CEB TowerGroup.

Kiernan said people should try to total balances on the cards as soon as possible to avoid losing or forgetting about the cards.

So much unspent cash on the cards led to a federal law four years ago to prohibit gift cards from expiring for at least five years. The same law also safeguards against fees charged on gift cards used within a year.

"The best strategy would be to think about how you want to spend these gift cards right away, to make a plan for spending the value of the card and also recognize which cards from a particular retailer you don't want to use," Kiernan said.

Companies such as CardHub offer websites to allow people exchange or even sell gift cards they have received but have no interest in using.

Schmidt, a voracious reader, said the key to gift cards involves matching the person who will receive the card with a store, restaurant or other business offering what he or she likes. She plans to use her Kindle gift card in early January to purchase a new book.

She has a good idea for the first purchase she'll make with the $50 gift card.

"I've got a wish list about eight miles long," she said. "It will be one of the books on that."