ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reminds New Yorkers to spend the gift cards they got for the holidays. If a gift card isn't used within five years of getting it, retailers may turn the balances over to the Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds (OUF).
The comptroller's office said it recovered over $21 million from gift cards in 2024. This was more than three times the amount from 2014, which was $5.8 million.
DiNapoli's office reported the following amounts of unclaimed funds from gift cards, separated by region:
The state comptroller's office can return unclaimed business funds and works with retailers to find the owners who purchased the gift cards. DiNapoli's office said it returns an average of $1.5 million in unclaimed funds every business day.
Retailers provide the OUF with the name registered on the gift card, if they were issued a refund, or if the card was bought with a store account. If the retailer doesn't know the person's information it can report card details and then the gift card owner can claim the balance from the OUF.
The comptroller's office said it has more than $19 billion in unclaimed funds.
