That Salon Voucher in Your Drawer: What UK Law Actually Says About Expiry Dates

There's a decent chance you have one: a salon or spa voucher from a birthday or Christmas, sitting in a drawer, quietly approaching an expiry date you can't quite remember. You're in large company — around £300 million in UK gift vouchers goes unclaimed every year. Here's what the rules actually are, because they're more nuanced than "it's expired, tough luck."

The starting position: expiry dates are legal

There's no UK law setting a minimum validity period for gift vouchers. Businesses can set their own expiry, and once a voucher has genuinely lapsed under fair terms, a salon isn't legally obliged to honour it.

But that's only half the rule, and the other half is where most disputes are actually won.

When an expiry date can be challenged

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, contract terms must be fair, clear and transparent. Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, unclear or misleading expiry terms can amount to unfair trading. Together that means an expiry date is only enforceable if it was communicated clearly at the point of purchase.

So an expiry buried in small print, mentioned only verbally, or not shown on the voucher itself is potentially challengeable as an unfair term. An unreasonably short expiry given what was paid can be too — and it's worth knowing that Parliament has explicitly encouraged businesses to offer at least two years. Plenty of salons offer six months, which is legal but sits well below that guidance.

One catch worth understanding: you're bound by the terms known to the buyer at the time of purchase, not to you. If you received the voucher as a gift, you may need to ask whoever bought it what they were told.

If it's expired: ask anyway

The genuinely practical advice. Many businesses honour recently expired vouchers or reissue them as goodwill, particularly for small overshoots — and beauty industry guidance actively recommends this, because refusing a customer over two weeks costs more in reputation than the treatment is worth.

A polite message referencing the purchase date and asking whether they'd consider honouring it works far more often than people expect. That's goodwill rather than a right — but goodwill is free to request.

Two situations where you're on stronger ground

No expiry date stated at all. If a voucher doesn't specify one and the salon refuses it, consumers may have a claim for breach of contract. Without a stated term, the reasonable expectation is that it stays valid for a reasonable period.

You can't book before it expires. If the treatment is no longer offered, or the salon is fully booked until past your expiry date, you should be able to secure a refund or an exchange — a voucher you're prevented from redeeming isn't your failure to use it.

If the salon closes down

This is the hard one. If a business ceases trading, voucher holders typically become unsecured creditors — joining the queue of people owed money, usually recovering nothing. If administrators are appointed, they decide whether to keep honouring vouchers while trying to rescue the business, so it's worth checking rather than assuming.

The practical takeaway, particularly given that around a fifth of UK salons are currently operating at a loss: don't sit on vouchers for long-established-but-struggling businesses. Redeem sooner rather than later.

Three habits that avoid all of this

• Photograph the voucher and the receipt when you get it. If there's ever a dispute, the voucher number and proof of purchase are what you'll be asked for — and lost vouchers generally don't have to be replaced unless the terms say so.
• Diarise the expiry the day you receive it, and book a couple of months before, not a couple of weeks — particularly with waiting lists lengthening across the industry.
• Check the terms before buying one as a gift. You're the one bound by them, and you're the one who'll hear about it if the recipient can't use it.

For salon owners

Briefly, since the same rules cut both ways: state the expiry clearly at purchase and on the voucher itself; 12 months is the common minimum and anything shorter reads as unfair; be upfront about whether lost vouchers are replaceable; and be aware VAT timing differs between single-purpose vouchers (VAT at sale) and multi-purpose ones (VAT at redemption). Vouchers are genuinely good for cash flow and new clients — just don't oversell them if your financial position is uncertain, because that's how goodwill turns into a very public problem.

The bottom line

Expiry dates are legal but only if they were clearly communicated when the voucher was bought — buried, verbal or absent terms are challengeable. If yours has lapsed, ask anyway; goodwill extensions are common. If no expiry was stated, or you genuinely can't book before it, you're on firmer ground. And if the voucher's been in the drawer since Christmas, this is your reminder to book it this week.

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