Don’t let those theatre tickets expire

MANY of us will have received a gift card for stores or a show this Christmas and put it aside until there is something we really want to buy or see. But waiting too long could cost you.

Gift cards have terms which mean many

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expire, leaving your perfect present worth nothing. Gift cards for ticket website Ticketmaster, for example, could buy a trip for a hit show such as Mamma Mia! pictured above, but expire after a year, M&S gift cards last two years and Amazon gift cards are valid for ten years from their date of issue.

Some cards even start to charge you after a certain period, eating into your balance and quickly leaving you with nothing. The One4All card, for example, charges an ‘inactivity fee’ of 90p a month, starting 18 months after it is issued. That could see the value of a £20 gift card slashed to just £9.20 after two and a half years.