Research
Which retailers replace a stolen gift card — and which do not
We read the published terms of 11 major US retailers. One protects your balance in advance. Three refuse to replace it at all.
The finding: of eleven major US retailers whose published gift card terms we read, only Starbucks offers any protection before a card is stolen. Five will replace a balance but only if you still hold the receipt. Three state plainly that a stolen balance is gone. Two publish no policy at all.
Why this matters
Gift card draining works because the card is compromised on the shop rack, before anyone buys it. By the time a balance disappears, the shopper has done nothing wrong — and what happens next depends entirely on terms almost nobody reads before buying.
We read those terms. Below is what each retailer actually commits to, taken from its own published gift card pages. Every row links to our full guide for that brand, which cites the source.
The comparison
| Retailer | If the card is lost or stolen | What the terms say |
|---|---|---|
| Starbucks | Protected in advance | Register the card and the balance is protected from the moment you report it lost. |
| Target | With receipt | Replaced on production of the original receipt. A partly used card is replaced for its remaining balance. |
| Best Buy | With receipt | Replaced with valid proof of purchase, up to the remaining balance. |
| Macy’s | With receipt | Replaced only with proof of purchase, and only for the balance Macy’s records show. |
| DSW | With receipt | Not replaced without the original sales receipt. |
| Ulta Beauty | With receipt | Not replaced without proof of purchase. Ulta states it is not responsible for unauthorised use. |
| Sephora | Not replaced | States value will not be replaced if the card is lost, stolen, altered, destroyed or used without authorisation. |
| Nordstrom | Not replaced | States lost or stolen cards will not be replaced and that it is not responsible for them. |
| Kohl’s | Not replaced | States it is unable to replace a Kohl’s Merchandise Credit that is lost or stolen. |
| Old Navy / Gap Inc | Not published | No lost or stolen policy published on its gift card pages. |
| Lowe’s | Not published | No lost or stolen policy published on its gift card balance pages. |
Three things the table shows
1. Registration is the only real protection, and almost nobody offers it
Starbucks is the outlier. Register a card to your account and the balance is protected from the moment you report it lost. Every other retailer here is reactive at best: you find out the money is gone, then argue about a receipt.
2. The receipt is worth more than most people think
Five of the eleven — Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, DSW and Ulta — will replace a balance, but only with proof of purchase. A gift card given as a present almost never comes with a receipt, which means the people least able to prove purchase are exactly the people most likely to be holding a drained card.
3. Two major retailers publish nothing at all
Old Navy and Lowe’s do not state a lost or stolen policy on their gift card pages. That is not the same as refusing — it means you have no way to know what you are entitled to before you buy.
What to do about it
- Register the card if the retailer allows it. On Starbucks this converts a total loss into a recoverable one.
- Keep the receipt until the balance is spent. For five of these retailers it is the difference between replacement and nothing.
- Check the card before you buy it — see our guide to how gift card draining works for the four physical signs of tampering.
- Spend promptly. An unused balance is what automated bots scan for.
Method. Each policy was taken from the named retailer’s own published gift card terms, FAQ or customer service pages between 20 and 23 September 2026, and is cited on that brand’s guide on this site. Where a retailer publishes no policy we record that rather than inferring one. Terms change; we re-check them at least twice a year. Corrections: see our contact page.
Reuse. Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite or reproduce this table with attribution to GiftBalanceGuide and a link to this page.