Do Gift Cards Expire in Canada? The Rules by Province

Most gift cards in Canada don’t expire. Every province bans an expiry date on a gift card you paid for, and most ban the monthly fees that used to lower the balance on a card nobody was using. The exceptions are narrow, and they change from one province to the next: a spa card for one massage can legally expire in Ontario, but not in Quebec.

The bigger risk isn’t a date on the card. It’s the store. Gift card laws don’t cover a business that goes under, and when Mastermind Toys went into creditor protection in 2023, its stores stopped taking gift cards after December 24, the day before a lot of them would have been unwrapped.

Do gift cards expire in Canada?

Not if you paid for the card. All ten provinces ban expiry dates on gift cards bought with money, and in several of them a date printed on the card anyway has no legal effect. The territories are different. Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no gift card law, so a card sold there follows its own terms.

Every province lets a seller charge a fee to replace a lost or stolen card, or to put your name on one. Below is what else each province allows. Each name links to where its government publishes the rule.

A card you got for free is a separate case. In most provinces, a card you didn’t pay for, like a $10 bonus card that came with a $50 purchase, falls outside the gift card rules, so it can carry an expiry date. In British Columbia and New Brunswick, so can a promotional card sold below its face value. Read the back before you put it away.

Which gift cards can still expire?

A card for one specific service and a card sold for charity can carry a date in some provinces, and a card you got for free can carry one in most of them. Quebec keeps its own short list. Of the cards you pay for there, only a pass for unlimited use of a service, like a monthly bus pass, or a cellphone card can expire.

A card for one specific service

Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island let a card for one specific good or service carry an expiry date: a card for one massage, say, or one haircut. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador allowed that only on cards issued before their rules took effect, in 2010 and 2011. Alberta’s rules only cover cards sold for a dollar amount, so a card for “one massage” falls outside them. Saskatchewan has no exception for service cards at all.

Quebec doesn’t allow the date either. A spa card there keeps its value for good, but the spa can charge you the difference if its price has gone up, as long as the card shows the price you paid and the date a surcharge can start. The Office de la protection du consommateur (opens in a new tab) gives the example of a $50 massage card used two years later, when the same massage costs $60. You’d pay the $10 difference.

Charity cards

A card sold to raise money for a charitable purpose can carry an expiry date in every province except Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. Except in British Columbia, those same provinces let it carry fees too. Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec have no charity exception (Alberta and Manitoba exempt only cards given away free), so in those three a charity card you paid for can’t expire.

The territories

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (opens in a new tab) says the territories don’t have specific regulations on gift cards. The Northwest Territories’ own consumer bulletin (opens in a new tab) says the territory “does not regulate gift cards.” In Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, whether a card expires depends on its own terms, so read them before you buy.

Do Visa and Mastercard gift cards expire?

The money on them doesn’t, but the card itself can. A Visa, Mastercard or American Express gift card is issued by a bank or a trust company, so federal rules apply, and several provinces leave these cards out of their gift card laws. Under the federal rules the funds can’t expire, the card itself can carry an expiry date, and a maintenance fee can start 12 months after activation.

If the card expires with money still on it, call the number on the back. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (opens in a new tab) says your right to use the funds doesn’t expire, though the issuer can charge a fee to move them to a new card.

Check the package for fees before you buy one. Many of these cards charge an activation fee, and the FCAC’s own example (opens in a new tab) is a $50 card with a $4.95 fee, which leaves $45.05 to spend. A maintenance fee is allowed from 12 months after activation, as long as it’s printed in the information box on the package. Unless it was sold for charity, a store’s own gift card can’t charge a monthly fee in any province.

These are gift cards you load once. Reloadable prepaid cards from banks and fintechs are a different product, and we compare them in our guide to prepaid cards.

What fees can a store charge on a gift card?

On a card for one store, almost none. Every province lets the seller charge to replace a lost or stolen card or to customize one, and Alberta also allows a one-time activation fee. Mall cards, which work at many unrelated stores, are the exception. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec let a mall card lose value over time.

Mall cards

Quebec lets a mall charge one of those two fees, never both. In all four provinces you can push the monthly fee back three months by asking for an extension: in the 15th month in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Ontario, and before the end of the 14th in Quebec. In New Brunswick the 15-month clock also starts over every time you use the card.

The other six provinces don’t allow a monthly fee on a mall card. Manitoba did until December 1, 2015, so a mall card sold there before that date can still be charged one.

A mall card has one advantage over a store card. If a store in the mall closes, the card still works at the others.

What happens to your gift card if the store closes?

The gift card laws above don’t help here. When a chain goes into creditor protection or bankruptcy, the court process can stop its stores from taking gift cards, and the balance on your card becomes a debt the company owes you. You’d be an unsecured creditor, paid after its secured lenders and priority claims like employee wages.

Saskatchewan’s consumer regulator (opens in a new tab) says that if a retailer goes out of business before you’ve used your card, “it is unlikely that you will be able to recover its value.”

It happened at Mastermind Toys and Hudson’s Bay

Mastermind Toys got an order for creditor protection on November 24, 2023, and court documents put its outstanding gift cards at about $5.6 million (opens in a new tab). Its stores stopped accepting gift cards after December 24 (opens in a new tab), with signs going up only days before.

Hudson’s Bay filed for creditor protection on March 7, 2025, and moved to liquidate its stores. It said it would stop taking gift cards after April 6 (opens in a new tab).

In both cases, cardholders had about a month after the filing to use their cards.

If a store you have a card for is in trouble

• Spend it right away. A month is what those two chains gave, and nothing guarantees you’ll get that long.
• Try another location. Quebec’s consumer protection office (opens in a new tab) suggests checking whether another store in the same chain will take the card.
• File a claim if the stores stop taking it. The company’s court-appointed monitor or trustee handles claims, and the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (opens in a new tab) explains how a creditor files a proof of claim. Keep the card and your receipt.

What if a store won’t honour your gift card?

Show them the rule. If a clerk says your card has expired or tries to take a fee, ask for a manager or write to head office, name your province’s law, and ask for the full balance. If that doesn’t work, a complaint to your province’s consumer protection office costs nothing.

1. Read the back of the card and check your province’s row. A card for one massage in Ontario really can expire. A $50 card for a clothing store can’t.
2. Ask for the money back in writing. In most provinces, once you’ve made a written demand for an illegal fee, the seller has 15 days to refund it. Don’t wait, since several provinces only give you a year from the charge to ask.
3. Complain to the province. In Ontario that’s Consumer Protection Ontario (opens in a new tab), and in Quebec it’s the Office de la protection du consommateur. The consumer office in every other province takes complaints too.
4. Take it to small claims court as a last step, if the amount is large enough to be worth it.

Before you give a gift card this year

Gift cards are one of the most common holiday gifts in Canada. In the Retail Council of Canada’s 2025 holiday survey (opens in a new tab), 47% of Canadians planned to buy one, up from 42% the year before. If one is on your list:

• Buy it from the store or a retailer you trust. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (opens in a new tab) says to avoid resale and auction sites.
• Check that nobody has tampered with it. Compare it with the other cards on the rack and run a finger over the barcode.
• Make sure the cashier activates it, and tuck the receipt in with the card.
• For a gift that might sit a while, pick a store’s own card over a Visa or Mastercard gift card. In every province, a regular store card can’t pick up a monthly fee.
• Skip a chain that’s in creditor protection.

If you’re working out the rest of the holiday budget, our look at what Canadians spend on Christmas has the numbers.

Can a gift card help you save?

It can, if you use it on something you’d buy anyway. A $100 grocery card spent on this week’s groceries leaves $100 of your own money in your account. Move that $100 into savings, and the gift ends up as $100 saved instead of $100 of extras.

Lodavo is a free app that rewards you for that kind of move. Connect the savings or chequing account you already use, and every $25 in it earns a ticket in a weekly cash draw, with prizes up to $10,000 and at least $100 going to a user every week. That $100 you didn’t spend adds four tickets every week it stays in the account, and your money never leaves your own bank.

If you’re hunting for money that’s already yours, unclaimed balances are worth a free search too.

Found an old gift card in a drawer?

Every province had its rules in place by April 2011. So if it’s a regular store gift card with a dollar amount on it, bought in a province since then, it still has its full balance. Check the balance on the store’s website or by calling the number on the back, then use it, and use it sooner if the chain has been closing stores.

Want a reason to look forward to saving what you don’t spend? Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and start earning tickets for the weekly draw.

This article is general information, not legal advice. If you’re in a dispute with a store, quote the government page linked beside your province, since that’s where the rule is written down.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.