December the 17th, 2022 - With Croatian Eurozone accession now less than one month away, just how long will Croatian gift cards expressed in kuna, soon to be an invalid currency, remain valid following the introduction of the euro?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, N1 recently looked into a reader's inquiry about the validity of Croatian gift cards expressed in kuna, which will be scrapped as legal tender of January 2023. In several large retail chains operating across the country, the situation with Croatian gift cards whose value is expressed in kuna has been clarified.
People are busy collecting all of the many coins they still have lying around the house, in old trouser and jacket pockets and under sofa cushions, others are trying to locate that old sock with a few balled up notes in it to be deposited into their bank accounts before Croatia switches to the euro. Many forgot about gift cards, and some have been worried about the deadline in which they have to spend the amount expressed in what will soon be the old currency on those Croatian gift cards. Retailers have stated that there is nothing to worry about and that everyone will have plenty of time to spend them.
"The Konzum gift card, for example, will be able to continue to be used after January the 1st, 2023, and the remaining amount on the card will automatically be converted into euros," Konzum stated.
The situation is similar in the case of gift cards issued in kuna by Lidl.
"The deadline for using the amount on Lidl gift cards is three whole years. All Croatian gift cards on which employers have paid out Christmas bonuses to their employees in kuna, as well as kuna gift cards that customers will be able to buy in Lidl until the end of the year, will simply be converted into euros as of January the 1st, 2023, so customers will be able to use them to make legal payments in Lidl stores even after the introduction of the euro as Croatia's official currency," Lidl explained.
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