Fair Go: Kiwi consumers losing millions of dollars each year through expired gift vouchers

Every year one in seven of us buy vouchers or gift cards, and every year one in four of those goes un-redeemed.

Those figures are from a nationwide survey done by Consumer NZ, which also revealed as much as $10 million a year is lost by consumers, either because the vouchers and gift cards expired – or the retailer went out of business.

Consumer NZ is campaigning for retailers to "Drop the Date" – either get rid of expiry dates altogether, or at least extend the date to a five year minimum lifetime, as they have in the US, with Australia also moving to a three year minimum.

Retail NZ says they have not done any research on the number or value of expiring gift cards and vouchers, but feedback from their members suggests it is not as high as one in four.

Retail NZ say companies need to have expiry dates because otherwise, the voucher or gift card remains on their books as an open-ended debt, and a liability, which can be a problem, especially for smaller businesses.

Both Retail NZ and Consumer NZ note that a number of Kiwi businesses have already listened to consumers and have either dropped the expiry date or extended the expiry from one year to two years.