Electronic Gift Cards Gaining Popularity, Especially Among Millennials

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- 59% of gift cards are now offered electronically, up 18 percentage points from 2010, according to a new Bankrate.com RATE report. This is good news for millennials, since they're more than twice as likely to lose traditional plastic gift cards than older adults.

40% of 18-29 year-olds admit to losing a gift card. Electronic gift cards can be accessed through mobile apps and email applications; they are much harder to lose than traditional plastic cards. Mobile gift card usage among millennials is double that of older adults.

"There are lots of reasons why electronic gift cards appeal to customers," said Jeanine Skowronski, Bankrate.com credit card analyst. "For starters, they're a quick fix for anyone who needs a gift on the fly. Second, unlike their plastic counterparts, they don't take up excess real estate in your wallet. And, though it may seem counterintuitive, a digital gift card can be easily personalized."

While various age groups disagree on traditional versus electronic gift card usage, millennials, Generation X and boomers all prefer general-purpose gift cards over cards that must be used at a particular store. Unfortunately, general-purpose cards charge higher fees.

All seven of the widely-held general-purpose cards that Bankrate surveyed charge purchase fees ranging from $3.95 to $6.95, whereas only 7% of store-specific cards charge purchase fees.

A whopping 84% of Americans have received a gift card and 72% have given one. The most common value is between $25 and $50.

More information is available here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/compare-gift-cards.aspx

Bankrate.com analyzed the terms and conditions of 62 widely-held gift cards in October 2014.

In addition, Bankrate.com commissioned Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) to survey consumers regarding their gift card habits. PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,007 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline and cell phone from October 2-5, 2014. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com and InsuranceQuotes.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Caring.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Ted Rossman
Public Relations Manager
ted.rossman@bankrate.com   
(917) 368-8635

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SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.