You may have hundreds of dollars sitting in your drawer just gathering dust.

News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz looked at how to make sure your money doesn’t go to waste.

Cindy Purtee and Margo Cotterman have their fair share of gift cards lying around.

“They’re usually for the grandkids,” Purtee said.

They are far from alone, a recent survey from Bankrate found nearly half of all Americans have gift cards lying around unused.

“One of the biggest problems is just out of sight, out of mind,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate said.

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He said the unused gift card problem is just getting worse.

“The average value is $244 per person. That’s more than doubled in the past three years. That’s very surprising to me,” Rossman said.

He said there are two issues.

First, people need to be better about using the gift cards we are given.

“Use it for yourself. Use it for a friend or family member. You could gift the card, or you could buy merchandise with the card,” Rossman said.

With $27 billion just gathering dust.

Bankrate keeps track of unused gift cards.

It says over a third of U.S. adults have lost money due to gift card missteps.

That includes letting a gift card expire, losing a gift car, or having a store go out of business before a gift card can be used.

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