Sending/Receiving gift certificates

Security: For security and identification purposes, a recipient may be required to enter credit card or bank account information before gift certificate redemption.

Email Delivery: Gift certificates that have a scheduled future email delivery date are sent at approximately 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time (or in purchaser’s time zone, if known) on the day of the scheduled delivery.

Privacy Policy: For recipients who are not PayPal members, PayPal will not use the recipient's email address for any other purpose than to send notifications to the recipient regarding his or her gift certificate. This includes one reminder in the first 6 weeks, then quarterly reminders for one year. For details on PayPal's privacy policy, see https://www.paypal.com/privacy.


Cancellation/Non-Expiration of gift certificates

Recipient Cancellations:Gift certificate recipients can cancel their gift certificate within 60 days of the purchase date and have funds refunded to the purchaser.

Purchaser Cancellations: If the recipient is not an existing PayPal member, the purchaser will have 60 days from the date of purchase or until the recipient opens a PayPal account, whichever comes first, to cancel the certificate and receive a full refund.

Refunds: Refunds on gift certificates that were purchased using a credit/debit card will have the face value credited to that credit/debit card. Refunds on gift certificates that were not purchased using a credit/debit card will be placed into the purchaser's PayPal account.

Expiration: Gift certificates do not have an expiration date.

Maintenance Fee: Gift certificates do not carry a maintenance fee.

Account closure: If merchant closes its PayPal account, the remaining balance of gift certificates less than 18 months old will be refunded to the purchaser.


Redeeming gift certificates: gift certificates can only be redeemed to pay for items where PayPal is used as the payment method.

Excess gift certificate Value:Any unused balance will remain in the recipient's gift certificate account until depleted.

Insufficient gift certificate Value: If the amount of the order exceeds the amount remaining on the gift certificate, the recipient will be required to pay for the balance using PayPal.

Requirements:Merchants have the right to refuse a transaction. Many merchants require a confirmed address, which could require that a credit card and billing address be entered.

Multiple gift certificates:More than one gift certificate can be redeemed at one time if they are denominated in the same currency.


Additional Terms

PayPal reserves the right to reverse any gift certificate purchase for any reason and return the funds to the purchaser's PayPal account.
Gift certificates are non-transferable and their resale is prohibited.
Gift certificates are not available for sale, purchase, or redemption in China. If a gift certificate is delivered to an email address that is not associated with a PayPal account, and the owner of that email address proceeds to sign up for a PayPal account in China, the gift certificate will be cancelled, and the funds used for the gift certificate purchase will be refunded to the purchaser.
Gift certificates cannot be redeemed for cash and have no cash value.
Gift certificates cannot be used to purchase other gift certificates.
Neither the merchant nor PayPal is responsible for lost, stolen, or misused gift certificate codes.
This gift certificate may be purchased or redeemed by residents of the United States and Canada only.
Purchase and redemption of gift certificates is subject to the PayPal User Agreement which is incorporated herein.


User Agreement

Description: Merchant Gift Certificates is a product that allows merchants to offer Gift Certificates for sale through the merchant’s web site or store. Purchasers may purchase a Gift Certificate for a designated recipient, who may then redeem that Gift Certificate on purchases made with that merchant. The purchaser must define the recipient at the time of purchase for Gift Certificates delivered by email. Once purchased, Gift Certificates delivered by email may not be transferred to a different recipient. Please note that this policy does not cover eBay Gift Certificates which are offered for sale by eBay.

General Restrictions for Merchants who Offer gift certificates for Sale:

Limited access to Merchant Gift Certificate balances: Proceeds from the sale of Gift Certificates are stored in a merchant’s reserve balance. When a Gift Certificate is redeemed, funds are moved from the merchant’s reserve balance to the merchant’s available balance. If a gift certificate is not redeemed within the initial 18 month period, the remaining balance on the gift certificate is released from the reserve balance.

Treatment of Gift Certificates after initial 18-month period: If a gift certificate retains a balance for 18 months, the amount of the remaining balance will be released from the reserve and placed in the merchant’s available balance. However, since gift certificates do not expire, a gift certificate recipient will still be able to redeem these gift certificates. In these types of redemptions, the gift certificate will act as a discount against the recipient’s purchase total, but the seller will not receive the remaining balance from the gift certificate. For example, if a recipient uses a $10.00 USD Gift Certificate that is more than 18 months old on a $15.00 USD purchase, the merchant will receive only $5.00 USD (less fees), since the merchant will have already received the $10.00 USD in proceeds, less PayPal fees, from the recipient’s gift certificate when the gift certificate had aged 18 months.

Fees:PayPal does not charge fees when a gift certificate is purchased; however, PayPal charges standard transaction processing fees to the merchant upon redemption. If a gift certificate is not redeemed within the initial 18 month period, the remaining balance on the gift certificate is released from the reserve balance. Standard transaction processing fees are charged to the merchant if an when funds are moved from the reserve to the merchant’s available balance.

Account required:Recipients are required to create a PayPal account in order to redeem their gift certificates.

Customer Service: Merchants who sell Gift Certificates are expected to provide support for the purchasers and recipients of those Gift Certificates. PayPal gives Merchants the ability to refund and cancel Gift Certificates within the first 60 days of purchase.

Policy Acceptance: By selling or making available for sale Merchant Gift Certificates, the merchant agrees to the terms of this policy.