Don't make hasty decisions - soon you will have up to three years to use your gift cards.
Don't make hasty decisions - soon you will have up to three years to use your gift cards.
Consumers will soon have at least three years to use their gift cards after Parliament supported a bill legislating a minimum expiry date.
The legislation prohibits businesses selling gift cards with an expiry date of less than three years after the initial sale date. It passed its third reading in the House on Wednesday night.
It was first pulled from the members’ bills ballot in 2022 in the name of Melissa Lee. When Lee became a minister, it was transferred to National’s Northcote MP Dan Bidois. Ministers aren’t able to contribute their own bills.
Speaking in the House on Wednesday evening during the bill’s third reading, Bidois said it was a “good day” for both consumers and businesses.
“It’s a good day for consumers who will have clarity to know when they get a gift card they are able to realise the full value of that gift card [and a] “good day for businesses who have clarity on their liability when they issue gift cards.”
He framed it as “cost of living relief” as the legislation enabled consumers to make sure their gift cards “are fully realised in the economy”.
Bidois said he was “quick to spend the full value of gift cards within a matter of days”, but he acknowledged others had gift cards expire while sitting in their wallet.
“I take a week to spend a gift card but New Zealanders will have up to three years.”
Gift cards will soon need a minimum three-year expiry. Photo / Dean Purcell
He said the measure, which will come into effect in 18 months, applied whether the gift card was in a physical or digital form.
However, some cards and vouchers are excluded, including those sold to raise funds for charitable purposes, those supplied as part of a customer loyalty programme, and any redeemable at a time-limited event.
It would be an offence for businesses not to comply with the law, Bidois said.
The bill has been supported through the parliamentary process by all parties, excluding Act. In a select committee report, Act said it believed the legislation would “create an unnecessary burden” on businesses and they should be free to decide the length of gift cards.
Act MP Parmjeet Parmar said in the House the bill “was taking up the House, which is just not needed”.
She cautioned that the legislation could lead to a slippery slope, with politicians in the future deciding that three years wasn’t long enough.
“There will be some people... who will not use their gift card within three years and complain the three years time period was not enough.”
She added there was “no personal responsibility component” to the bill.
When Lee introduced the bill, she cited data that showed one in five recipients of gift cards “lose out when they don’t redeem the full value before the card expires” and that “shoppers could be losing $10 million a year on cards before they can be redeemed”.
“We’ve all had those instances where a gift card has been misplaced and later found to be expired, or where children treasure their gift cards and spend months deciding how best to spend their present, only to find they’ve left it too late.”
Consumer NZ’s head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen wrote in February that it often hears complaints from members about the expiry dates of gift cards.
“We’re told far too many stories of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars being lost because of stingy gift card expiry periods. When this happens, the business pockets the money. Conservative estimates put revenue from expired gift cards in the millions, every [year].”
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
