The gift card guide / Give it a deadline and it gets used three to five times as often.

Why we forget them

Give it a deadline and it gets used three to five times as often.

Two experiments, one lesson: a short date you set yourself beats a long one the law gives you.

Share of people who used the money. Shu and Gneezy, Journal of Marketing Research, 2010 (a $6 cafe certificate, 3 weeks vs 2 months). Boehm, Fize and Jaravel, American Economic Review, 2025 (funds that expired after 3 weeks vs funds that didn't).

People save a card for the perfect day, and the perfect day never comes. A deadline ends the waiting.

Go deeper: the numbers

Shu and Gneezy gave 64 students a cafe gift certificate. Of the 32 given three weeks, 10 used it (31%). Of the 32 given two months, 2 did (6%). The longer window made people put it off until it was gone.

Boehm, Fize and Jaravel ran a randomized experiment in France in 2022 with about 915 participants and EUR 300 transfers. Households spent 23% of a cash-like transfer within a month, but 61% when the remaining funds expired after three weeks.

The federal rule gives the money on a purchased gift card at least five years. The research says give yourself three weeks.

CardCue Pro is built for exactly this: a date on each card, and a reminder near the store.

Drawers do this to money. CardCue Pro doesn't.

CardCue Pro keeps every card's balance, expiration and barcode in one place, and chirps when you're near a store where you have a card. Free for 3 cards. iPhone, with an Apple Watch app on every plan.

Download on the App Store Not a bank or card issuer. It never holds, funds or guarantees a balance.
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