New Zealand gift cards: three-year expiry readiness guide

What changed in March 2026

Covered gift cards must have at least a three-year expiry period and display the expiry date prominently, subject to statutory definitions, exclusions and transition rules.

What businesses should do now

Update card stock, ecommerce terms, point-of-sale settings, balance systems and staff scripts, and check whether hybrid, promotional or replacement products fall within an exclusion.

• Separate statutory rights from voluntary store policies and commercial gestures.
• Review terms together with frontline scripts, system rules and actual complaint outcomes.
• Build vulnerability, comprehension and stop-contact safeguards into sales and collections.
• Update forum, escalation and disclosure information when regulatory responsibility changes.
• Monitor recurring complaints for misleading explanations or controls that fail in practice.

Evidence to retain

• Current terms, policies, scripts, disclosures and customer communications.
• Complaint chronology, product evidence, remedy assessment and outcome.
• Training, quality assurance, vulnerability indicators and escalation records.
• Register ownership, renewal calendars and proof that required profiles remain current.

Turn the issue into a controlled decision

• Record the affected product, claim, customer journey, system, supplier or business process.
• Separate current requirements from proposals, priorities, allegations, warnings and matter-specific outcomes.
• Assign an owner, action date and evidence location for every material gap.
• Set review triggers for legal changes, new facts, supplier changes, incidents, complaints and campaign variations.
• Escalate when the available facts or evidence do not support the proposed decision.

Questions to ask

Focus on the decision and the evidence.

1. 01

   Which current law, contract, product and customer circumstances control the decision?

2. 02

   Do terms, scripts, systems and actual remedy outcomes match statutory rights?

3. 03

   Are vulnerability, dispute and escalation safeguards working in practice?

Primary sources

Check the controlling material.

• Current legislation ↗

Related resources

Continue with this topic.

Recommended training

Practical support

Apply the guidance to your facts.

Identify the exact product, claim, customer journey, supplier, legal entity or process involved. Preserve the information that supports the current position, record unresolved facts, assign an owner and confirm the point at which specialist review is required.

Important information

Check the current position.

This resource is general information, not legal advice. Laws, official guidance and proposals can change. Do not rely on a title or summary alone to decide whether a requirement applies to a particular entity, product or activity.