Think twice before forking out for a gift card
Aged relatives may be fond of gift vouchers but they can come with some expensive small print, warns Jane Bradley
They are probably buried in the back of your wallet, down the side of the sofa cushions or still languishing on the mantlepiece long after the birthday cards they came with have been thrown away.
I’m talking about gift cards - that ubiquitous present option for the relative who wants to give you a personal gift, but has no idea what to buy.
The problem is that they are often – and quickly – forgotten about, meaning that at least £5.40 out of every £100 that is put onto a gift card is never spent. In total, £300 million is wasted on them every year, according to figures from the UK Gift Card & Vouchers Association.
It is a huge sum of money: about the same amount that it costs every year to run the Royal Family. It is also more than the sale price of what is believed to be the world’s most expensive house – a luxury chateau in France, which was last year bought by a Saudi Crown Prince for $301m (£228m). In the UK, the £6 billion sector is not well regulated. Retailers have the option of slapping expiry dates on the cards which can be as long or as short as they like. Some are as tight as just eight weeks, and that can mean the Christmas tree decorations have barely been taken down before the recipient has already lost their chance to cash in their gift.
For, while most retailers do state the terms and conditions on the card as to how long it can be used, a sneaky few calculate that date from the time of purchase, rather than the day of the gift, meaning that if Great Auntie Morag has had a stash of cards hidden away in her drawer for a while before she pops it in the post for your birthday, you could be out of pocket before you even receive the card.
Companies including Asda and Boots have a respectable – but still possibly too short – two-year limit, but retailers Aldo, Apple Store, Disney, Foot Locker and Selfridges, on the other hand, do not have any expiry dates at all on their cards,