No nice nails for Linda Hall as gift voucher expires in just six months. Photo /NZME
No nice nails for Linda Hall as gift voucher expires in just six months. Photo /NZME
OPINION: The best things in life might be free . . . but once you have paid over your hard-earned cash to treat someone, it’s bitterly disappointing when the recipient misses out.
And it seems New Zealanders are missing out on millions of dollars a year on unspent gift cards.
Consumer NZ research estimates we are “collectively losing in excess of $10 million per year on unspent gift cards.”
That’s a lot of money.
Last year I contributed to this sum. In 2021, I was given a $100 nail and beauty voucher from a Havelock North salon.
I didn’t for a minute think the expiry date would be just six months.
Interestingly Consumer NZ’s research looked into expiry dates reviewing 61 gift cards. It found only 14 didn’t have an expiry date, a few had five-year expiry dates, however, the majority had one to two years.
Then there was this statement: “Consumer’s investigation also found 14 of the 61 cards only last for a year, but it has received complaints about other organisations with shorter expiry dates, such as beauty salons which often only give six months. Once that time has lapsed, any unspent credit usually stays in the retailer’s coffers.”
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Warren Buckland
That’s exactly where my gift money landed. In their bank account. Basically, they got $100 for nothing.
So if you got a gift card this year check the expiry date. Don’t be like me and assume (I know, assumption is the mother of all mistakes) that the expiry date would be at least a year.
In November I had a day off coming up so grabbed the voucher to phone for an appointment. When I looked at the expiry date and saw it was only six months from the purchase date I still thought they would honour it. How wrong I was. I phoned and explained I had only just realised it expired in six months — they would not budge and because they were in their rights I didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Why was the expiry date so short?
Maybe this from the Consumer report explains it.
Consumer said that it “understands some retailers calculate gift card income on the assumption a percentage of shoppers will never spend all the money on their gift card.
“Of the few retailers who publish non-redemption information, they calculate non-redemption rates between 5 and 10 per cent. Across a multimillion-dollar industry, this adds up to a nice little earner for retailers.”
Even if it’s not a multimillion-dollar industry it still means they get money for jam.
