Use your vouchers now to try to beat the High Street struggle

By LIZ PHILLIPS FOR MAILONLINE
Updated: 19:24 EST, 30 December 2008

Watch out if you were given a gift voucher for Christmas - it could now be worthless.

The credit crunch is biting in the High Street, and already, well-known retailers, including Woolworths and Zavvi, have gone to the wall.

And with several more High Street chains under threat of failure in the coming months, the £3billion-a-year market for vouchers and gift cards could fall out of favour. The key message is: don't hang onto your vouchers.

Problem: Don't hang on to your gift vouchers as stores like Comet may not accept them

Woolworths is still accepting its own vouchers at stores around the country, though these have already started to close, with the last ones shutting on January 5.

If you hang on to your vouchers after that, then you will have to join Woolworths' list of unsecured creditors and hope the administrators refund you.

But shoppers with around £10million of Kingfisher vouchers, which were redeemable at Woolworths, Comet and B&Q, are out of luck.

None of the stores is accepting them - they will only accept vouchers issued in a single chain store's name, so Comet will accept Comet-only vouchers.

Zavvi, which sells games, DVDs, music and books, is refusing to accept its gift vouchers as payment even though its stores are still trading.

Only Zavvi vouchers sold on or after November 27 are likely to be refunded. Zavvi stores stopped selling vouchers on December 4.

Vouchers can be redeemed by writing to Zavvi's administrators Ernst & Young at 100 Barbirolli Square, Manchester M2 3EY.

If you have a voucher sold before then, there will be no automatic refund and you will join the list of unsecured creditors. You will need to write to the administrators to register your claim.

If you bought vouchers by credit card, you are unlikely to be able to make a claim. This is because the voucher company has fulfilled its side of the deal by supplying you with vouchers.

Also, credit card claims apply only to goods or services worth more than £100. But it's worth checking the terms and conditions on the voucher and asking your card issuer.