Restaurant gift cards UK: sell and redeem

What has to be on a restaurant gift card record?

Value, date sold, expiry if you set one, who sold it, and the redemption: date, amount, till. A paper voucher in a drawer cannot show the remaining balance after a partial redeem. Two redemptions of a £50 card are how you give away £100.

Expiry has to be a rule you can explain. If you say 12 months, the record needs the end date, not a hope. When the card is redeemed, the remaining balance stays on the same card number. Do not issue a new card to “make it easier” unless you void the old one in the same step.

Gift Cards in System Hub is £5 a week, VAT included, after the trial. It is not a bank. Card payments for the sale go through Stripe. The outstanding balance is your liability, which is why finance can see it.

• Unique number. Two cards with the same number will both be spent.
• Partial redeem leaves a balance. Write the remainder, not only the visit.
• Void and reissue are one action, or the old card still works.
• Staff redemptions on their own cards need a second person. Write that in the house rule.

What happens to the balance left on a gift card?

A £50 card redeemed as £30 on Friday still has £20. If the till only rings £30 and the card record is marked “used”, the guest has lost £20 and you have a complaint you cannot prove. The record has to store the remainder on the same number.

Two cards printed with the same number will both be accepted unless the second is voided at the moment it is printed. Write the void. Expiry: if the house rule is 12 months, the end date is on the card and in the record. “About a year” is how a Saturday supervisor gives a free meal.

Staff buying a card for themselves and redeeming it the same week needs a second person to see the sale. Write that rule down and follow it. Gift Cards in System Hub is £5 a week per location, VAT included, after a 14-day trial with no card. Stripe takes the payment when a guest buys online.

The outstanding balance is still your liability, which is why it should sit next to the rest of the account and not in a shoe box. A paper voucher that leaves the building cannot be cancelled when it is lost. A numbered record can. Do not run a second list in a notebook “just for the regulars”. That second list is the one that gets spent twice.

Two statutes, and neither is a gift-card template. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the law on consumer contracts. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 cover misleading actions. This page is not legal advice.

A card sold in one site and spent in another needs both sites on the same record, or the second site will refuse a balance the first site already took. Write which location sold it. If you only have one site, say so on the card. Refunds go back to the original payment, not as cash from the till, unless your written rule says cash. The rule is what the Saturday supervisor follows.