An IOU with a farm on it.
A gift card is an admission that you did not know what to get, and calling it anything else is a small lie that everybody involved can see through. It is also, about eight times out of ten, the correct answer.
The whole product, in one table.
| Thing | Answer |
|---|---|
| Amount | Anything from ten pounds to five hundred, in pounds |
| Expiry | Twenty-four months from purchase. Told at twelve months and again at one |
| Fees | None. No purchase fee, no inactivity fee, no balance-erosion fee |
| Where it spends | The shop, the brewery and the pub shop. Not against a pub table |
| On alcohol | Yes, after an age check at the till or the door |
| Part-spending | Yes, as many times as you like, until it is gone |
| Refundable | Within fourteen days of purchase, unspent, to the buyer |
| Replaceable | Yes, if it is lost, because it is a record in a database rather than a bearer bond |
| Bushels | Earned when the card is spent, not when it is bought |
Why twenty-four months, and why we tell you twice.
Unspent gift cards are, across the retail industry, a substantial line of income. A proportion of every card sold is never redeemed, and the shorter the expiry the larger that proportion gets.
Twenty-four months is long enough that almost everybody who intends to use one does. We send a reminder at twelve months and another at one month, both of which reduce our own income, which is the only real test of whether an expiry policy is honest.
And the balance is not eroded by a monthly fee, which is the other common mechanism and a considerably worse one, because it takes the money invisibly rather than at a stated date.
Buying one.
Choose an amount
Ten to five hundred pounds. Round numbers are not required and nobody will judge £37.
Choose a delivery
Email, instantly or on a date you name. Or printed on card and posted, for four pounds.
Write something
Up to two hundred characters. We do not read it and we do not moderate it.
It arrives
With a code, a balance, and nothing whatsoever about what it cost.
They spend it, or part of it
Across the shop, the brewery and the pub shop, as many times as they like.
What you get
- Any amount from £10 to £500
- Email, scheduled email, or printed and posted
- Twenty-four months to spend it, with two reminders
- Part-spending, as often as they like
- Replacement if it is lost
- A refund to the buyer within fourteen days, unspent
What you very much do not
- Any fee, of any kind, at any point
- Spending it against a pub table booking
- Exchanging it for cash
- Using it to buy another gift card
- Earning bushels at the point of purchase
- Any age-restricted purchase without a check
A gift card is not a trivial benefit.
If you are an employer thinking of giving these to staff, they are cash vouchers and therefore taxable, however small. A box of jam at fifty pounds is not. That distinction catches people out every December and it is set out properly on the employers page.
Owing, questioned.
Slightly. It is also right about eight times out of ten, and considerably better than a hurried guess that ends up in a charity shop in February.
No. A booking is not a purchase and the pub takes payment for food and drink at the table. It spends on the pub shop and on everything in the farm shop and the brewery.
We replace it. It is a record in a database rather than a bearer instrument, and treating it as cash-if-lost would be a policy designed to keep the money.
Only if you tell it to. About one in nine are anonymous, which is a higher proportion than anybody expects.
If it is already late.
Which it usually is, and there are four things that still work.
