Gift certificates expiration date is legal?

October 28, 2006 1:10 PM

Are gift certificates allowed to expire in California? I thought there was a law that says that they can't legally expire. Am I wrong?
posted by aacheson to law & government (3 comments total)

Generally no. There are exceptions listed here.
posted by saffry at 1:18 PM on October 28, 2006

Thanks for asking this question. I've heard the same thing anecdotally but never read anything in print. I have a couple of Banana Republic certificates that expired in August. Hopefully it'll work.
posted by special-k at 6:56 PM on October 28, 2006

I don't know the specific legal details, they're probably in saffry's link, but the answer to your question is no. They are not allowed to expire, but what happens with most gift cards as opposed to certificates is that after a certain amount of time has passed, a monthly fee is assessed on the card to drain out the remaining balance. This has the effect of 'expiring' your card for you if you don't use it for a long enough time.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:32 PM on October 28, 2006