Sunday, September 18, 2022

Lack of organization is expensive

I went through a long pre-COVID streak of buying gift cards on Raise.com for future travel. Works well in theory, but when I was sitting on a ton of travel credit & not traveling, I realized it wasn't worth it. We still do buy gift cards - right in advance of a trip. As I'm about to book, I look for good options. Or, for our preferred airline (Alaska), I always take advantage of the Costco $500 gift cards for $450. I then immediately upload them into my Alaska "wallet", which is easy to pay with when you check out. No fuss, no keeping track of gift cards, etc. 

We are working out options for a travel tournament for Nick in a month or so, and I remembered buying a Delta gift card way back pre-COVID on Raise. I went down the rabbit hole this morning of trying to find that gift card, and check the balance. It turns out, that wasn't one gift card, it was a bunch of small gift cards. Which, added up to $600. I'm so irritated with myself. This was money we could have used on other travel (ironically, Delta dropped the flight route we would have used it on, post COVID). And, had I not thought of it this morning, I would have been out the money - erasing years of gift card savings. 

I normally track all gift card purchases by printing them out, and keeping them with my other gift cards. I've been using this method successfully for a while now. A few years ago, I kept them all in a spreadsheet, but the spreadsheet was corrupted in some way, and erased all of the gift card info. That's where these Delta gift cards were stored & then subsequently lost. What should I have done? Gone back into Raise, and find each gift card, checking the balance, and then tracking anything remaining. I've since done that this morning, and have a very clear picture of everything left, and also marked all zero gift cards as such, for future tracking. 

On the positive, I've discovered $600 of travel gift cards that I didn't know existed. On the down side, discovering them this morning was a fluke, and I should think twice about what the "breakage" rate is on all future gift card sales, and avoid them unless we have an immediate need. 

I'm off to go to a workout class, and then get people to soccer games & driving lessons, & all of the teen things. Any frugal fails to share? 

12 comments:

  1. Word of warning - I entered a restaurants gift cards on their app, then they “updated” the app and their inside payment methods, and I still can not access my gift cards months later. I saved two of them physically, and was able to use them in the restaurant. Just trying to figure out how to use the others uploaded on the app. And thank you for sharing your life via this blog, I so enjoy visiting with you. Deana from Ohio

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    1. I have a few tried & true (Starbucks, Uber) that have a very easy system. I hadn't thought of restaurants & the like changing their app. Good call!

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    2. Oh, & thank you! I appreciate your comment :-)

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  2. I hear the good and the bad of gift card sales. We're terrible at remembering we have them.

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    1. Same! I just remembered that we have an Ace gift card, and used it for ant traps. Better than sitting forever in my wallet, and we need those traps. But, remembering before you go out, and then paying & tracking...not worth it, I"m discovering, unless it's a super easy system.

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  3. I’m glad you figured out you have the $600 gift cards. 😊

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  4. I am glad you found these. What is "breakage?"

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    1. Breakage is the gift card term for those that never get redeemed, for whatever reasons. The average is ~4%. I've always assumed I wouldn't lose any, but ...clearly not!

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  5. I have had cards expire on me as I just don't have the brain for this kind of thing. So, I am a little leery of any saving strategy that involves them. But I think it is great that others can benefit.

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