Gift Cards Remain Popular Choice for Holidays

Holiday lists are complete with gift cards as consumers head out to shop this season. According to a pre-holiday survey by First Data Corp., a global leader in electronic commerce and payment services, three out of four consumers (77 percent) are extremely, very likely or somewhat likely to buy gift cards for family and friends this holiday season.

The study, which polled 1,046 adults aged 18 years or older, indicates that gift cards continue to be popular presents during the holidays. The majority of survey participants (66 percent) plan to buy the same number of gift cards again this holiday season with 19 percent planning to purchase more. The mean number of gift cards consumers plan to purchase is five.

Immediate family members will be the primary recipients of gift cards this holiday season with 33 percent planning to purchase for a brother/sister; 29 percent planning to purchase for a son/daughter; and 25 percent planning to purchase for a parent. Nearly half of respondents (45 percent) intend to spend more than $100 on gift cards and 22 percent plan to purchase an open-loop gift card that can be used at numerous merchant locations.

“It’s no surprise that consumers plan to purchase gift cards for family and friends again this holiday season,” said Mark Herrington, President of First Data Prepaid Services. “Recipients continue to include gift cards on their wish lists because they can buy that item they may have been putting off and gift givers enjoy allowing them to buy whatever they want.”

Discount stores (42 percent) and specialty retail stores (33 percent) are the top locations where gift cards purchases are planned for this holiday season. More households with incomes under $50K (55 percent) plan to purchase from discount stores while more purchases will be made at specialty stores by households with income over $50K (38 percent). In addition, 38 percent of consumers plan on purchasing a gift card from either a fast food, fast casual or fine dining establishment.

Data for the First Data Adult Pre-Holiday Survey was collected through an online survey in November 2007 by Ipsos-NA. The sample of 1,046 adults aged 18 years or over was weighted to represent the U.S. Census population.

About First Data

First Data Corp. is a leading provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses worldwide. With operations in 38 countries, First Data serves over 5 million merchant locations, 1,900 card issuers and their customers. It powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses around the world to buy goods and services using virtually any form of payment. The company's portfolio of services and solutions includes merchant transaction processing services; credit, debit, private-label, gift, payroll and other prepaid card offerings; fraud protection and authentication solutions; receivables management solutions; electronic check acceptance services through TeleCheck; as well as Internet commerce and mobile payment solutions. The company's STAR Network offers PIN-secured debit acceptance at 2.1 million ATM and retail locations

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For more information visit www.firstdata.com.

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