Do gift cards expire in Spain? Here's what the law says
Short answer: Yes, gift cards expire in Spain when the company sets a deadline. That includes photo session vouchers like mine. There's no law written specifically for them, so Spain's general consumer act covers them instead. The fight is never about having a deadline. It's about how clearly you were told. An arbitration board in Madrid backed a company whose deadline was stated plainly before payment. A deadline buried in the small print is a different story. And if yours has already run out, you can still ask. My credit vouchers here in Barcelona last two years, and every card that carries a deadline shows it before you pay.
Is it legal for a gift card to have an expiry date?
Spain has no rule written specifically for gift cards. What covers them is the general consumer act, known as the TRLGDCU: the Consolidated Text of the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users. The part that matters is its section on unfair contract terms, along with the time limit for claims in the Civil Code. So the honest answer isn't a flat yes or no. It depends on how the deadline was set, and how it was explained to you.
One warning before you start searching. Much of what Google puts at the top for this question cites foreign law: the US federal five-year minimum, or Australian consumer rules. Neither applies in Spain. Quote them at a Spanish company and the conversation is over before it starts.
Two official Spanish positions that say opposite things
Even inside Spain there's no single voice. A January 2025 statement from the Andalusian regional government says that vouchers, coupons and gift cards "cannot have an expiry date, since that is an illegal practice".
A real case decided the other way. A consumer arbitration board in Madrid heard it. Someone tried to use a gift voucher seven months after a six-month deadline had passed. The panel sided with the company: no refund, no service. The deadline had been set out "clearly, specifically and in plain language" on the website and on the voucher itself.
Both positions are official and both are published. Read together, they give you the one conclusion you can actually use. Nobody is really arguing about whether a deadline exists. They're arguing about whether the company told you properly, and whether the deadline is a fair one.
The articles that actually get used
The consumer act never mentions gift cards. It does cover what happens when a company keeps your money and gives you nothing back:
- Article 82.1 treats a term as unfair if you never negotiated it individually and, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance to the detriment of the consumer. Article 82.2 adds that if the company claims you did negotiate it, the company has to prove that.
- Article 87.5 calls "any other term charging for products or services not actually used or consumed" unfair.
- Article 87.6 names "the loss of amounts paid in advance" explicitly.
- Article 83 finishes the job: unfair terms are void, and treated as if they had never been written.
On top of that comes Article 1964.2 of the Civil Code: if you have a claim against a company and no other deadline applies, it runs out after five years. That's the outer limit on any argument about a voucher you've already paid for. The next section shows why it matters if yours is past its date.
What happens if you don't use the card in time?
First thing: your right to ask doesn't evaporate. A date printed by the company doesn't close the matter. If that term is unfair, it's void, and the money you paid is still money paid for a service nobody has given you.
That's where the five-year window in Article 1964.2 comes in. It starts from the moment you could have asked for the service. So if you bought the card less than five years ago, the matter is still open, even if the printed date went by a while ago. Or to flip it around: a voucher from 2023 still gives you something to stand on. One from eight years ago gives you very little.
Start by asking for an extension in writing
Here's the order that works. Write to whoever issued the card and ask for an extension. No drama about it. Plenty of companies say yes, because they'd rather have you in than argue with you. Keep it in email even if they answer by phone. What you can show later is what counts.
Where to complain if they say no
If the answer is no, ask for the official complaint form (the hoja de reclamaciones) and take it to your local consumer office. In Barcelona that's the OMIC. Another route is the consumer arbitration system, which companies join voluntarily. Check first whether the issuer is signed up, because that decides whether it's any use to you. And if your case fits a wider pattern, the consumer groups pick it up. On 19 February 2026, the consumer association FACUA reported four airlines to the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs for putting deadlines on their gift cards.
What to save before you write
Keep two things: proof of purchase, and a screenshot showing where the deadline appeared, or showing that it appeared nowhere at all. That second detail is what decided the Madrid case, only there it went the company's way.
Unused cards pile up in drawers everywhere. In the US, where there's a survey with published methodology, Bankrate found in 2024 that 43% of adults are sitting on one, and 20% have lost money to expiry. Not Spanish data, but it gives you the scale.
How do you tell a fair deadline from an abusive one?
This is the test I use when I read the terms on any voucher, and it follows straight from the two positions above.
Signs of a fair deadline:
- You see it before you pay, in plain words and on the product itself: on the page, in the email, and in the document you get.
- It fits the service. Anything that depends on a calendar needs room, and a deadline too short to fit a pregnancy or a house move gives you none.
- The money isn't simply lost. If the date passes, there's still a way out: an extension, credit on your account, or a booking on another day.
- Asking for an extension is easy, with a person at the other end instead of a form that never replies.
Signs of a bad deadline:
- It only turns up in terms you read after paying, or at the bottom of a PDF.
- It's short enough to push people into never using it, and whoever set it knows that.
- The company keeps the money and hands over nothing. That's where articles 87.5 and 87.6 come in.
- There's no way to reach anyone about an extension, or the extension costs extra.
Nobody talks much about that second warning sign, the deadline that's too short. It's the one you feel most. A short deadline doesn't just put the money at risk. It changes why you come. You end up booking so the voucher doesn't go to waste, in a rush, on the first free slot, instead of coming on the day you actually want to.
"What you will remember in the end is how you felt, not whether you saved 50 euros." — Tami (Wonderstory)
That cuts both ways. Nobody looks back fondly on squeezing in just before a card ran out. My vouchers have a deadline as well, and it's written on the gift card page before you pay. I'm not saying it to score points. I'm saying it because it's exactly what I'm asking you to check everywhere else.
What to check before buying an experience voucher
Four checks. You can do all of them from your phone before you pay, and each one comes from something that actually goes wrong.
Where the deadline appears, and how early you get to see it. Look for it on the sales page, not in the confirmation email. OCU, Spain's main consumer organisation, published a 2019 report on experience gift boxes that documents a classic trap: the clock starts at purchase, not when the person who receives it registers the voucher. Get one in January, register it once you're organised, and weeks are already gone. The report is a few years old, but it describes how the model is built, not a passing trend.
Whether redeeming it depends on other companies or on the issuer itself. This is the check that saves the most money. In that same report, OCU tried to book hotels 95 times across six Spanish cities, Barcelona among them. Only three in ten hotels accepted. In four out of every ten refusals, the hotel said outright that it was turning the booking down because the customer was paying with an experience box. The borrowed-inventory model is the problem, not experience gifts themselves. When the voucher comes from the same people who run the service, like a self-photo experience in its own studio, that risk simply disappears.
Whether you pay a supplement to redeem it, or to keep it alive. Ask in writing before you buy: weekend supplement, extra people, delivery of the files. Then look at what happens once the deadline passes, because extensions are rarely free either. In the boxes OCU examined, extending a voucher by three more years cost 15 € on top. A voucher that covers half the real price is a discount dressed up as a gift.
Whether you can move the date once it's booked. Plans change, especially with a baby in the house. OCU advises against leaving it to the last minute and warns that confirming a booking can take up to 48 hours. If changing the date is hard on top of that, one small hiccup swallows the voucher. If the answer is "once, and only once", assume whoever receives it will spend weeks staring at the calendar.
What deadline do I give, and why do I publish it before you pay?
Run those same four checks on my own cards and it comes down to a few sentences. My credit vouchers last two years from the date of purchase, and that deadline sits on the sales page where you can read it up front, not in terms that surface once the money has gone. Each card carries its own, so check the one you're about to buy. The family photo session is the clear exception: it comes as one complete gift, with no expiry date at all.
And since I'm telling you to ask about supplements, let me answer first. There are two ways to give a gift here, and they don't work the same way. A credit voucher works like money. It comes off the total and covers a photo session of the same price in full. If the person receiving it picks a longer session or brings more people, they pay the difference at the studio afterwards. The family session and the sessions with me behind the camera work the other way: the whole session is paid for, so there's nothing left to settle. If you're worried about the other person topping up your gift with their own money, take the second one.
Then there's who has to say yes when the card is used. The session happens in my own studio at Ronda de la Universitat 33, in the Eixample, a few minutes from Plaça Catalunya. There's no chain of outside suppliers behind it that can turn you away. That's exactly where the experience boxes fall apart. And on moving the date: once a session is booked you can change it as many times as you need, right up to the day before. If you want the detail of what my gift card includes and what it costs, that has its own article. Here I'm sticking to the law.
If you have a voucher sitting in a drawer, today is a good day to write to whoever issued it and ask for an extension. It's almost always easier than it looks. And if you're about to buy one, run the four checks above before you buy, mine or anyone else's. If the gift is for the holidays, look at the Christmas and Three Kings deadlines too. In Spain most families exchange gifts on 6 January, so that side of the calendar works differently.
"During my sessions I never watch the clock... what I'll never do is tell you: 'That's it, your hour is up.' So relax and enjoy it, because time doesn't matter here. Only the memories we make together." — Tami (Wonderstory)
That's the same idea applied to the terms. If I don't rush you during the session, it makes no sense to rush you before it. Yes, gift cards expire, and most of mine do too. The difference is whether you know that before you pay, and whether you can pick up the phone and extend. You can read the full terms and the deadline in writing on the gift card page, and decide with the small print in front of you.
Tami · Photographer at Wonderstory and creator of the YOULO project
I've been photographing families and mums-to-be in Barcelona for more than seven years.