Millions of people bought, gave and received gift cards during the holiday season.  All of these gift cards will result in billions of wasted, lost and unused dollars.  Do you have a collection of gift cards?  Don’t let them go to waste.  Here are some tips to avoid losing and wasting your gift cards:

• Keep your cards together. Knowing you have the gift card and where it is is the first step toward being able to redeem the value.  Consider creating a file in your action filing system for Gift Cards or put your cards in a separate wallet so you can carry them around.
• Ditch the cards and go digital. Gyft is a fantastic app for both Android and iOS.  Easily upload your card information through your phone into your Gyft account and then let your phone become your gift card.  Now you don’t have to carry around your gift card collection to use them and your information is backed up and safely stored so you don’t have to worry about losing your gift cards.
• Alert yourself when you’re in a place where you can use a gift card.  A wonderful feature in Google Keep is location-based alerts.  For example, if you make a note that your have a gift card for a book store and you set the location of the bookstore in the note, then when you and your phone are in the bookstore your phone will send an alert to remind you that you are in a place for which you have a corresponding note.  Create notes and location reminders for your gift cards in Google Keep, carry your cards with you and enjoy having a reminder to use your card when you are in the store.  Apple users also have a location-based alert system built into the Reminders app.  There have been some problems with it since the launch of iOS 7.  
• Let go of gift card guilt and burden. Donate or re-gift cards you’re unlikely to use.  When it comes to gift-giving it really is the thought that counts.  The person who gave you the card didn’t intend for you to feel burdened by a gift you many not use.  Enjoy that someone was thinking of you and gave you a gift.  Hold on to that joy and then spread the joy to someone else who may have a better use for the gift card  

What do you do to make sure you use gift cards?