IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO REDEEM EXPIRED GIFT CARDS

Illinois residents who received gift cards from previous holiday seasons may be able to cheap rings them for cash even once the gift cards expire, according to the Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

Giannoulias' office is holding more than $5 million in unused gift card balances for Illinois residents. According to state law, gift cards can not expire for five years and businesses are prohibited from charging fees that diminish their value.

"Allowing for longer usage and bans on fees mean that gift cards won't stop giving and deters businesses from using them as sales gimmicks," Giannoulias said. "Even when gift cards expire, consumers are entitled to the monetary worth of the gift card and can recover their money from the state."

Even if a name isn't listed, the state may still cheap tiffany a consumer's unused balance. Most gift card retailers do not record the name or contact information for the purchaser or recipient. As a result, the unredeemed balances come to the state marked as "owner unknown." In order to receive a refund for the unused balance, the purchaser or recipient must file a claim with the Treasurer's Office using the serial number on the expired gift card.

Not all retailers that do business in Illinois send unclaimed gift card balances to the Illinois Treasurer's Office. Unused gift card balances are sometimes remitted to the state where the retailer is incorporated.

The sum of those balances can add up. According to research firm TowerGroup, an estimated $5 billion in gift cards went unused in the U.S. in 2009. Similarly, a Consumer Reports National Research Center survey found that 27 percent of adults who received gift cards during the 2006 holiday season had not used one or more of them nearly a year later. That is an increase from 2005, when 19 percent of consumers had one or more unused gift cards.

More than one-third of the survey's respondents said they didn't use the cards silver bracelets they either forgot about them, lost them, or the cards had expired, according to Consumer Reports. More often, consumers responded they didn't have time to shop or couldn't find anything to buy.