Our guidelines on best practices for setting terms & conditions for gift cards.
Terms and conditions are displayed when the purchaser is buying a gift card online and is also displayed on the digital gift card. It is the venue's responsibility to ensure terms & conditions are printed on physical gift cards and that they adhere to your local legislation.
Australia
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) has updated the Gift card laws for any cards sold on or after November 1, 2019. The main updates are:
- a minimum three year expiry period for gift cards is required;
- gift cards must display expiry dates; and
- most post purchase fees on gift cards are banned.
This new legislation is in addition to those already outlined in the Corporations Act 2001.
- Can be used more than once
- Cannot be reloaded (i.e. the value cannot be increased or added to)
- Cannot be redeemed for cash unless there is a remaining amount that, in your business’ reasonable opinion, cannot be conveniently used
USA
In 2009, The United States Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which set consumer protections for gift cards based on many state laws:
The law provides that gift cards cannot expire within five years from the date they were activated and generally limits inactivity fee on gift cards except in certain circumstances, such as if there has been no transaction for at least 12 months.
The federal law creates a floor for regulation and leaves room for state regulation on redeeming gift cards for cash and unclaimed property provisions.
Basic recommended Terms & Conditions to display
Gift card terms & conditions
- No cash refund and not redeemable for cash
- Gift cards are non-transferable
- Any additional cost exceeding the value of this voucher will be paid by the redeemer
- This voucher is valid only at (Name of the company and branches)
- In the event of any dispute, the decision (Name of the company) is final
- (Name of the company) reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions without prior notice
Other optional terms and conditions:
- Voucher validation is required by authorized person only
- This voucher entitles the bearer to redeem the product specified herein Specifically for gift cards that aren’t credit based: This gift voucher is only good for a single transaction; any remaining amount is not exchangeable for cash or another voucher and will be automatically forfeited points