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Why Does My Gift Card Say “Invalid” at Checkout?

Trouble using your gift card? Learn what “invalid” means and how to check or update your balance using Croissant tools.

Joe H avatar
Written by Joe H
Updated over 4 months ago

If you’re seeing an “invalid” message when trying to apply a gift card at checkout, don’t worry—this usually means the gift card has already been redeemed and now has a $0 balance.

Why This Happens

Croissant displays the initial value of your gift cards when they’re issued, but we don’t receive real-time updates from our partner retailers when gift cards are used. That means your Wallet may show a balance even after a gift card has been spent—leading to confusion at checkout.

How to Check the Actual Balance

To confirm if your gift card is still valid and has remaining funds, follow these steps:

Option 1: Use the Retailer’s Official Balance Checker

Here are the balance check links for our supported merchants:

Option 2: Use Croissant’s “Check Balance” Tool (Recommended)

  1. Install the Croissant Extension for Safari on iOS or Chrome on desktop.

  2. Go to your Wallet via the extension.

  3. Click on the gift card and select “Check Balance”.

  4. Follow the prompts to update the current value of the gift card directly in your Croissant account.

Tip: If your card is fully redeemed, you can remove it from your Wallet to keep things tidy.

Still Need Help?

If your card shows a balance but still says “invalid” at checkout, or if you believe the card hasn’t been used, feel free to contact our support team. Be sure to include the last four digits of the card code.

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