--- title: Americans Love to Give Gift Cards, But Hate to Get Them description: Half of consumers plan to give a gift card this holiday season, but less than a third hope to receive them. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2016-11-10T15:36:24.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T04:33:05.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - 2016 holidays - consumer - gift cards - pubdesk word_count: 285 canonical: https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Inside J Sainsbury Plc Flagship Store Following Their Acquisition Of Home Retail Group](https://img.money.com/2016/11/gettyimages-613935822.jpg) Half of consumers plan to give a gift card this holiday season, but less than a third hope to receive them, according to a new survey. [Bankrate.com](http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/2016-gift-card-survey.aspx) polled 1,000 adults about their holiday gift-giving habits, and found that a majority of respondents from all age groups will buy a gift card for a friend, family member or coworker this holiday season. Yet just 27% of those respondents prefer receiving gift cards over a tangible gift. Younger millennials (age 18-25) view gift cards most unfavorably — 57% said they prefer tangible presents. Older baby boomers, 62-70 year olds, were the least likely to prefer an actual gift (44%). That group, though, is less likely to give a gift card as a present — 49% of Americans ages 62 to 70 and 37% of those 71 and older say they plan to give a gift card to a loved on this holiday season. ***Read More: Faceoff: Are Gift Cards the Ideal Present or a Crime Against Christmas?*** It's a contentious topic to be sure — and one two [Money](https://money.com/gift-cards-worst-gift/) [writers](https://money.com/gift-cards-best-gift/?iid=sr-link1) debated in 2014, when [37% of consumers](http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/10/29/most-of-us-dont-want-a-gift-card-this-year/) said they were hoping to get a gift card over the holidays. (In 2012, that statistic was a considerably higher 45%). But not all gift cards are created equal, WalletHub notes. In a [report released Thursday](https://wallethub.com/edu/best-gift-cards/27133/), the site ranked gift cards by popularity, average discount, average resale value, retailer appeal, and shipping fees. Target and Netflix gift cards came in first and second, respectively. Zara and Etsy got the poorest rankings. Last year, gift cards were the most popular type of present for the ninth year in a row. Even more stunning? About $1 billion of the money on them went unused. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Life Advice", "item": "https://money.com/life-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Americans Love to Give Gift Cards, But Hate to Get Them" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/", "name": "Americans Love to Give Gift Cards, But Hate to Get Them", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-11-10T15:36:24.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gift-cards-love-hate/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T04:33:05.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Americans Love to Give Gift Cards, But Hate to Get Them", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/11/gettyimages-613935822.jpg", "width": 4000, "height": 2667, "caption": "Inside J Sainsbury Plc Flagship Store Following Their Acquisition Of Home Retail Group" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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