Restaurant vouchers: if you have any unused vouchers left at the end of the year, you will be able to recover them, here’s how

Restaurant vouchers received during 2023 are valid until December 31, 2023. You will still be able to recover them, Clubic will explain how.

Last week, deputies voted to extend meal vouchers for the year 2024. It will be possible to use your card or meal vouchers to purchase any food product in the broad sense. Good news for consumers, who are keen on this additional advantage, granted in 2022 to offer them more purchasing power, in an inflationary context. But you may be asking yourself a question: what to do with unused “restaurant tickets”? And can we exchange them or get a refund once the year is over?

It is possible to recover unused meal vouchers

You may not know it, but restaurant vouchers, whether in paper format or via card, can be used during the calendar year in which they are issued, that is to say from 1^er January to December 31, and for two months from December 1^er January of the following year, that is to say in January, and in February.

If you wish to exchange or be reimbursed for your unused meal vouchers in 2023, it is entirely possible, and it is also the Labor Code which authorizes it. There are two things to know, depending on whether you use paper tickets, or the famous card which will soon become compulsory.

For recipients of “paper” meal vouchers, it is possible to exchange unused tickets from the current year before they expire, with vouchers from the following year. To do this, you must return the titles concerned to your employer, fifteen days before the end of their period of use. They will then be exchanged for an equal number of shares, free of charge.

The key is to anticipate

If you have a card and there is money left on it, the employer must convert the unused balance this year into credits for the current year. If the transfer is not done automatically, you must then ask the employer directly. What is certain is that titles which expire at the end of the year are not reimbursed by the employer. It is therefore better to anticipate.

In the event that you leave your company, you can request reimbursement of your contribution to the purchase of meal vouchers which would not have been used on the date of your departure from the company.