Why Gift Cards Are Still Allowed to Expire?

SaberX on 07/04/2023 - 16:05

Just more a whinge/musing - but after digging out a 2018-19 catch gift card i've been stashing with my remaining $20 balance, i've realised it's now 'expired' and my $20 has disappeared. THankfully i used all the other gift cards back then (was for buying wedding gifts).

Anyway, It got me thinking: why on earth do retailers let gift cards expire? I mean i know obviously for their POV why it's a great thing financially (money up front, people forget to use them, free money in the bank), but morally your cash would never expire, you're doing them a favour by buying or giving them your cash to hold and earn interest/deploy, and yet they have the ability to 'expire' it after 3 years?

Thankfully many of the gift cards that seem to come via the shopback app and other retailers these days i.e. the big woolies, coles etc. all have near infinite lives, so we're heading in the right direction, but I've just checked and noted that the minimum by law is only 3 years.

I now buy gift cards for discount to use immediately e.g. shopback, but I try to avoid them as a 'gift' that hasn't been thought out.

Has anyone ever managed to get a gift card i.e. catch group, reinstated after the 3 years out of curiousity? presume it's dead.

Financial Gift Card

Comments

  • jv on 07/04/2023 - 16:15
    +14

    Why Gift Cards Are Still Allowed to Expire?

    Because they are liabilities on the balance sheet that can't stay there forever.

    • orangetrain on 07/04/2023 - 16:23
      +16

      liabilities on the balance sheet

    • KangaDrew on 07/04/2023 - 18:37

      Who are you and what have you done with jv?

    • Stopback on 07/04/2023 - 18:38

      Credit liabilities goods

      Debit cash

  • orangetrain on 07/04/2023 - 16:21

    They are temporary company cash cards. Gift cards is a marketing gimmick.

    DO NOT buy gift cards as gifts over cash. Its very insulting. I'm not gonna say no though but i aint gonna spend the full amount (and more to use full value) that you gift me with one of these cards.

  • WookieMonster on 07/04/2023 - 16:27

    I've just checked and noted that the minimum by law is only 3 years.

    I hope you realise there is actually a laundry list of exclusions to this law, so not all gift cards in Australia are actually required to have a 3 year minimum validity.

    Has anyone ever managed to get a gift card i.e. catch group, reinstated after the 3 years out of curiousity? presume it's dead.

    A few people managed to get Coles Group to reactivate gift cards issued by Coles Group that were past their expiry date.

    With other gift card issuers though (e.g. Myer), I wish you luck. I think Catch gift cards are not issued by Coles Group (even though Coles Group issues gift cards for a lot of Wesfarmers' other retail businesses, including Kmart, Target and Officeworks), so my guess is that Catch would not be as lenient as Coles Group.

  • AngoraFish on 07/04/2023 - 16:32
    +1

    From a companies perspective unused gift cards just sit there on the balance sheet hanging around for years. It drives accountants potty.

    I used to manage a system where companies left bonds with us in case of non-performance on their contract. There were still bonds floating around in my system from 30 years ago that the original depositors had forgotten about, or the companies had gone bankrupt in the interim, and either way never returned to collect. Part of my job was to go back through the old bonds occasionally to try to give the money back. Unfortunately most of those were companies that had long ago ceased trading, or the owners had died, or whatever.

    Most of the older bonds I was managing are still going to be there in 100 years, so long as the place I was working at is still trading, taking up room in the company's books as a liability that might one day be called upon and that is therefore unable to be spent, legally. You can't just take money given for a specific purpose and return it to your regular transaction accounts.

    If the amount gets big enough it can start looking like the company has a huge loan on their books, which can also mislead investors into thinking that the company has too much debt.

    Hence, expiry dates.

    • Guybrush57 on 08/04/2023 - 20:27

      Money should be returned to the original gift card purchaser instead of expiring.

  • Neoika on 07/04/2023 - 17:51

    The next task is to dig further to find if any other hidden gems.

  • p1 ama on 07/04/2023 - 19:31

    Gift cards are stupid. If you really care about someone, buy them a proper, thoughtful gift. Otherwise, just give them cash, or if that's too awkward, give them a prepaid Visa card.

    • lachhelix on 08/04/2023 - 20:34

      I'm with you on this, I'd absolutely rather cash instead of a gift card for a store I'm never going to go to

    • leiiv on 09/04/2023 - 20:47
      +1

      Prepaid Visa card can expire too.

      • p1 ama on 12/04/2023 - 00:15

        Yes, but I can just use it for petrol / groceries which I'm spending money on weekly anyway.

  • Wiadro on 08/04/2023 - 00:06
    -1

    If anyone has any gift cards to donate I’ll happily take them.

  • Yola on 26/04/2023 - 08:33

    Thankfully many of the gift cards that seem to come via the shopback app and other retailers these days i.e. the big woolies, coles etc.

    Coles is 3 years but the Coles Myer Group GC is 4 years. I believe if you have a swap card eg. Prezzee its valid for 3 years but when you swap it to say Coles you will get another 3 years.

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