American consumers, use your gift cards. You are leaving billions of dollars on the table.

The National Retail Federation estimated that $30 billion in gift cards would be purchased during this past holiday season.

I received three gift cards as presents that are sitting on my kitchen counter, so I’m not likely to forget about them. Many people, however, stick gift cards in drawers and never use them. Or wait too long and the company goes bankrupt and shuts down.

According to a recent Bankrate survey, 47% of U.S. adults have at least one unused gift card, gift voucher or store credit.

How much money do different demographics have in unused gift cards?

The average value is $187 and the total unused value is $23 billion. There were interesting demographic differences when it comes to unused gift cards:

• Higher-income earners are the most likely to have unused gift cards, with people earning $100,000 or more having an average of $238.

• Gen Xers (age 43 to 58) have an average of $251 vs. Baby Boomers (69 to 77) with $145.

• Men have more than women - $213 vs. $163.

Federal rules provide some protection against expiration of gift cards and inactivity fees. They apply to retail gift cards, which can only be redeemed at the retailers and restaurants that sell them; and bank gift cards, which carry the logo of a payment card network like American Express or Visa and can be used wherever the brand is accepted:

• Money on a gift card cannot expire for at least five years from the date the card was purchased, or from the last date any additional money was loaded onto the card. If the expiration date listed on the card is earlier than these dates, the money can be transferred to a replacement card at no cost.

• Inactivity fees can be charged only after a card hasn’t been used for at least one year, and then only once per month. But fees may be charged to buy the card or to replace a lost or stolen card.

States have their own rules on gift cards

Individual states may mandate stronger protections.

In at least 19 states, retailers have to turn over the money from unused gift cards to state unclaimed property programs. But in others, the retailers can keep the funds. Starbucks reported $212 million in revenue in 2022 from “breakage,” which is the amount of gift card liability they estimate won’t be redeemed based on historical averages.

If you don’t plan to use a gift card, consider regifting it to someone else or using it to buy someone a present. Or sell it to an online gift card reseller at typically 70% to 80% of the value. But check them out with the BBB; some have bad ratings.

If you received a gift card you don’t plan to use immediately, at least inspect it to be sure it wasn’t tampered with before being purchased.

A fellow was arrested at a Target store in December after detectives saw him placing gift cards in his jacket and replacing them with seemingly identical cards.

He was scanning bar codes and looting the funds once the cards were activated. Police found more than 5,000 Target and Apple cards in his possession.

The crook was part of a nationwide ring. The sheriff’s office said, “These operations are very sophisticated and modifications to the gift cards are often virtually undetectable, even to the trained eye.”

Randy Hutchinson is president & CEO Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gift cards: Americans are leaving billions of dollars on the table