Got gift cards for the holidays? Redeem, track and spend them

The week after the holidays, a lot of people are holding gift cards they did not choose and may not remember by March. The cards fall into two groups that need different handling. Platform cards (Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Spotify) should go into an account the day you get them. Shop cards need to be written down and spent in order. Here is how to do both.

What should you do with a gift card the day you get it?

1. Check that it works. A card bought in a shop is activated at the till. Check the balance on the issuer's own page, using the list of official balance pages, while the giver still has the receipt.
2. Redeem it if it is a platform card. Apple, Google Play, Amazon and Spotify cards are meant to move into an account. Once redeemed, the value is tied to your login and cannot be lost with the card.
3. Write it down if it is a shop card. Brand, amount, expiry, where the card physically is.
4. Do not photograph the code into a synced gallery or forward it in a chat. A code is cash.
5. Decide when you will spend it. A card with a plan attached gets used.

How to redeem Apple, Google Play, Amazon and Spotify gift cards

The Apple steps are from Apple's redeem guide, which also notes that in some countries you can redeem in Wallet on iPhone. The Google steps are from Google Play Help, and you can also redeem at checkout by choosing Redeem code as the payment method. For Amazon, adding a card moves the money into your balance without spending it, which is the safest place for a card you will not use this week.

PeakVoucher does this from your own data. A wallet for the vouchers buried in your messages. Join the free beta →

Spotify gift cards: what has changed

Searches for Spotify gift cards have been climbing, and the reason is on Spotify's own help page: in the US, gift cards are no longer sold, but cards already bought remain valid. If you were given one, it still works, with three conditions.

• Individual Premium only. Discounted and group plans, including Family, Duo and Student, cannot use gift cards, and neither can an account with an add-on.
• The country has to match. Your account's country or region must be where the card was bought.
• Time stacks, up to a limit. You can hold up to 18 months of Premium time. If you already pay for Premium, the card's time starts from your next payment date; when it runs out, your normal payment resumes, or the account returns to the free tier if no payment method is set.

Expiry depends on the country. Spotify's US terms say cards do not expire and carry no inactivity or service fees, while its Australian terms say a card must be redeemed within 12 months of purchase. If you are on a Family plan, the card is for someone on an individual plan: give it to them rather than letting it sit.

Do holiday gift cards expire?

A card someone paid for usually keeps its value for years. In the US the federal floor is five years, several provinces and states ban expiry outright, and Ireland and Israel set five years; the rules by country are in their own guide. Some issuers go further: Walmart's terms say its gift cards do not expire, and Vanilla says the funds on its Visa gift cards never expire, whatever the valid-through date says.

Promotional cards are the exception. The “$10 bonus card when you buy $50” that came with a holiday purchase is usually a promotion, with its own short dates and its own conditions. Those are the ones to spend first.

Why so many holiday gift cards go unspent

Bankrate's 2024 survey found that 43% of US adults had unused gift cards, worth $244 on average and about $27 billion in total. Its analyst's advice was short: use gift cards promptly. The money is rarely taken by expiry. It is forgotten in a drawer, left on a card for a shop you do not visit, or held back for a purchase that never comes.

Long expiry dates make this worse rather than better. The research on the deadline effect found that a short deadline gets a voucher used far more often than a long one, because a card that is safe for years is never urgent. The unused gift card numbers go into the size of the problem.

A simple system for the cards you keep

1. One list. Every shop card in one place: brand, amount, expiry, where the physical card is.
2. Sorted by expiry. Promotional cards and anything with a date in the next two months go to the top.
3. A weekly look. Five minutes, on the same day each week, to see what is at the top and whether a planned trip covers it.
4. Attach a purchase. “The bookshop card is for the new cookbook in January” gets spent; “the bookshop card” waits.
5. Update the amount after each use. A partly spent card with the wrong balance is the one that embarrasses you at the till.

This is the same method as keeping track of gift cards and vouchers year-round; the holidays are simply when the list grows fastest. For a card for a shop you will never visit, the cleanest move is to pass it on promptly to someone who will, while it still has its full value and its full time left.

How PeakVoucher does it

PeakVoucher's wallet is the list above, sorted by expiry: anything inside sixty days is amber, under fourteen days red. It records partial use with the new balance and the date, and the assistant can answer “what do I have for Amazon?” from the wallet without exposing the codes. PeakVoucher is coming soon and in private beta.

Hen Eytan · Founder, UPeak

Builds the UPeak apps and writes up the research behind them.