Roughly $23 billion in gift card value goes unused in the US every year, according to WalletHub — and some real fraction of that is money people assumed had already expired when the law actually said otherwise. Gift card expiration rules are set by a mix of federal and state law, and which one applies to your specific card depends entirely on where it was issued.
The federal 5-year minimum, explained
Under the Credit CARD Act of 2009, most gift cards cannot expire for at least 5 years from the date they were issued or last loaded with additional funds — reloading effectively resets the clock. This is a floor, not a ceiling: states are free to require longer minimums or ban expiration outright, but no state can allow a shorter window than the federal 5-year rule. Cards issued for a specific experience or service without a stated dollar value are generally exempt from this rule entirely.
States that ban gift card expiration completely
Nine states go further than the federal floor and prohibit expiration entirely: California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington. A compliant gift card issued in one of these states should, in principle, never expire — though issuers can sometimes still apply inactivity fees after a period of non-use, which is a separate issue from expiration.
States requiring longer than 5 years
Three states sit between the federal floor and the no-expiration group: Massachusetts requires a 7-year minimum validity period, Maryland requires 4 years, and Hawaii requires 2 years for certain card types. Every other state, plus Washington, D.C., follows the plain federal 5-year floor.
How to actually check if your card is still valid
The math is simple once you know which rule applies: take the card's issue date (or the date it was last reloaded, if applicable) and add the required minimum validity period for that state. If today's date is before that calculated expiration date, the card should still be legally valid — regardless of what any expiration date printed on the card itself might say, since state and federal law override a shorter printed date.
This is general information, not a guarantee
Gift card rules are compiled here from secondary legal-summary sources, cross-checked across multiple guides, and are meant as a starting point rather than a final word. If a merchant refuses to honor a card you believe is still valid under your state's law, the next steps are checking the card's actual terms and conditions and, if needed, contacting your state's consumer protection office or attorney general — not relying on any online calculator as proof.
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Sources: Credit CARD Act of 2009, federal 5-year minimum, via nolo.com and blackgardenlaw.com; WalletHub, "Gift Card Market Size" (2026), $23B unused figure; purchy.ai, "Do Gift Cards Expire? 2026 State-by-State Legal Guide," state-by-state rule compilation.