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PLANS TO SLAP a minimum five-year expiration date on all gift cards have been set in motion.
The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, has announced that she will soon put forward proposals to regulate gift voucher expiry dates.
At present, there is no specific legislation that deals with retail gift vouchers, although they are generally covered under existing consumer protection laws.
The minister has compiled a proposal to introduce a minimum expiry date of five years for vouchers and will soon be seeking approval from the government to draft a bill.
In May 2015, the Department of Business published the draft scheme of a Consumer Rights Bill for public consultation. It put forward a number of proposals, including an outright ban on expiry dates for gift vouchers.
The department said responses to the Consumer Rights Bill provisions “raised a substantial number of issues, including concerns expressed by businesses about the impact of a complete prohibition on expiry dates”.
The 2015 bill took into account planned EU directives on the supply of streaming services to consumers and strengthening consumer protection for online shoppers.
The Department of Business said these proposals “overlap very substantially” with two of the main parts of the draft Consumer Rights Bill.
“Given the slower than expected progress on these two EU proposals, the minister is proceeding with a standalone proposal on the issue of the expiry dates for gift vouchers,” it said.
‘Confusion and worry’
Unfavourable terms and conditions for gift card-holders have drawn ire from consumer protection groups over the years.
In January, An Post-owned, multi-store gift voucher outfit One4all came under fire for charging €1.45 each month if a person’s gift card is not used within a year.
Commenting on the plans to introduce a mandatory five-year expiry date for gift cards, Minister for Business Heather Humphreys said each year ”countless gift vouchers are lost or out of date”.
She said the lack of gift voucher regulations “causes confusion and worry to many consumers”.
“This can be particularly frustrating where the vouchers themselves aren’t clear about their cut-off point,” she said.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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No expiry on cash, why should a gift card be any different? If retailers don’t want to honour all gift cards equally regardless of age then they shouldn’t issue them.
@Emachine: It probably followed suit with cheques, expired after 6 months. Five years might force companies to give cash as change instead of rewriting a new stupid value on the voucher. (Don’t write stupid in a comment, it’s like nitro on the toxicity meter)
@Watchful Axe: Otherwise they will have bits of transactions to keep a record of going back for a crazy number of years.
@Emachine: at christmas a few years ago a notable Irish store tried to tell me the expiry date printed on my gift card wasn’t the expiry date really and my card was expired. Apparently you only get a year even if the expiry printed on the card says longer.
Some legend overheard the argument I was having with the manager, came over told her he was about to buy 2k in gift cards for his employees as a Christmas bonus but had changed his mind after hearing our argument. Handed the manager the clothes he was holding and walked out.
Miraculously my gift card was acceptable after that. I’m sure the guy was lying, but still, what a legend.
@Watchful Axe: cheques are totally incomparable. If you pay your gas bill by cheque and it expires before it’s cashed, the debt isn’t considered cleared just because you gave them a cheque (though you could probably argue with them for a discount because of inconvenience and wasted time, but it’s beside the point). Here retailers basically consider the voucher redeemed when they expire, having provided nothing in return but gladly taking payment for the voucher’s issuance.
Scratch cards and lottery tickets should have their claim dates extended as well.
@Sam Cairns: The biggest ‘squeeze’ is paying a toll on the M50,you have less than 24 hours to pay and boy do penalties mount,just to cross a bridge,the trolls don’t hide under the bridge any more
Good! They’ve taken your money, just honour it simples! Just wouldn’t buy a HMV or golden discs one as they’ll prob go out of business before you can use it lol
There shouldn’t be an expiry date at all!
For once a sensible proposal from Heather Humphries.
@Billy McNamara: __ I was only looking into this today because my Missus has a voucher that expires in July. Richard Bruton spoke about the problem back in 2015 and nothing came of it. At the back end of last year Catherine Murphy mentioned it and that a bill was going to be brought before the Dail before the end of November 2017. I don’t know what happened to that one. I wonder if this one’s going to make it?
In certain States in the US the money that retailers receive for unclaimed vouchers must be handed over to the State treasury. After all it is not theirs. But here, retailers seem to just hold on to this money which for large shopping centres like Dundrum can add millions to the bottom line. I have little confidence in HH but it’s a wonder that someone in her department didn’t think to approach it from this angle. Knowing they couldn’t hold onto the money then, retailers would have little incentive to impose unrealistic terms and conditions and expiry dates as currently happens. So then you don’t need minimum expiry dates or any of that complexity.
How a minimum 5 year expiry date on cards – with no ‘admin deductions’ (you know it One4All
What about companies that start to charge against the gift card after a set period? I know Are Lingus do it .
delighted to see them closing this anti customer policy ,been going on far too long .
I’d be using a gift voucher in the first month or two.
About time.
Better still outlaw all gift cards use money instead there is no date limit on money i never use gift cards i give my family and friends money or a cheque.
The money could go to the dormant accounts fund after 5 years. It certainly does not belong to the retailer. I’m delighted that this issue is being tackled finally.
Just do it.
have your say