Why this policy needs source proof
Small businesses often mention gift cards and credits in checkout pages, email receipts, POS systems, FAQ pages, old promotions, and customer-service macros. AI search can stitch those fragments together and invent a promise. A source card keeps public wording factual and gives owners a review path before customers rely on the answer.
STOP PUBLISHING: do not let AI invent gift-card expiration dates, fees, cash redemption rules, balance-transfer options, refund-credit exceptions, legal compliance claims, promo-credit eligibility, or replacement policies. Have the owner confirm the active policy and source links first.
Copy/paste gift-card and store-credit source card
| Field | What to capture | Review rule |
|---|---|---|
| Policy owner | Name/role, POS or ecommerce owner, support owner, and date last reviewed. | One person must own the final answer before it appears in public pages or AI replies. |
| Credit type | Gift card, voucher, prepaid package, refund credit, promo credit, loyalty reward, service credit, or manual adjustment. | Do not combine different credit types unless the same rules actually apply. |
| Source links | Current public policy page, checkout language, receipt template, POS setting, terms page, support macro, and promotion page. | Archive or remove stale pages that conflict with the active policy. |
| Expiration / fees | Whether balances expire, inactivity fees, service fees, partial-use rules, minimum purchase rules, and any jurisdiction-sensitive wording. | Owner/legal review is required before publishing broad expiration, fee, or compliance claims. |
| Redemption limits | Online/in-store, service/category exclusions, transferability, cash redemption, lost-card replacement, fraud checks, and refund interaction. | Use exact source wording; do not let AI infer exceptions from old promotions. |
| Customer-safe wording | Approved short answer, escalation trigger, where to check balance, and support contact path. | Include a review date and escalation route for edge cases. |
Safe public wording templates
Gift card answer: Gift cards can be used for [eligible products/services] through [channel]. For balance or redemption questions, use [official balance/support path]. We review exceptions manually and do not confirm fee, expiration, or cash-redemption details without checking the active policy.Store credit answer: Store credit is tied to [account/order/customer record] and may be subject to [approved limits]. If your situation is not covered by the policy page, contact [support path] so we can verify the source record before promising a credit, refund, transfer, or expiration change.Internal AI note: STOP PUBLISHING. Do not invent expiration, fee, transfer, cash-out, replacement, refund, jurisdiction, or eligibility promises. Use only the active policy source card and route edge cases to [owner].AI audit prompt
Act as a cautious AI-search content QA assistant. Review the gift-card/store-credit policy source card below and find claims an AI answer engine might misstate.
Do not provide legal advice. Do not invent policy details. Use only the verified sources listed.
Source card:
- Credit types covered:
- Active policy URL(s):
- Checkout / POS / receipt source:
- Expiration and fee wording:
- Redemption limits:
- Balance-check path:
- Escalation owner:
- Stale or conflicting pages:
Return: 1) approved public summary, 2) claims that need owner/legal review, 3) stale/conflicting source risks, 4) safe chatbot/FAQ answer, 5) STOP PUBLISHING items, and 6) next source-maintenance tasks.Weekly source-maintenance questions
- Do checkout, POS, receipt, FAQ, and support-macro answers all match?
- Are old holiday or promo-credit pages still indexable?
- Can customers find a balance-check or support path without asking a chatbot to guess?
- Which edge cases require owner/legal/accounting review before AI or support replies?
Related free assets: Refund and Return Policy Checklist, Discount and Coupon Page Checklist, and Subscription and Renewal Page Checklist.
Disclosure: Horizon Flow is Andrew Burton's digital product catalog. This worksheet is useful without purchase; product links are labeled and UTM-tagged.
Product signal: if gift-card/store-credit policy checks earn clicks, replies, or reuse, add a policy-source-card appendix to SEO After AI covering gift cards, credits, vouchers, checkout snippets, chatbot answers, and stale promotion cleanup.