Vouchers: a present somebody will actually use

A gift voucher is normally a way of admitting you could not think of anything. It does not have to be.

A voucher for a specific good place — one you have been to, with photographs on its page of the food somebody will actually eat — is a different present. It is a night out rather than a plastic card.

Buying one

Pick a place, pick an amount, and either keep it or name somebody.

If it is a gift it reaches them in the app, immediately. Nothing to post, nothing to wrap, and nothing to leave in a drawer until it expires — which is the fate of most paper vouchers and the reason people are sceptical of them.

Bonus credit

Some places give more credit than you pay. Pay €50, get €60 to spend.

They choose whether to do it and by how much, so it is not always on offer. When it is, it is the best value on the app: the place would rather have your money now than your indecision later, and you get a better dinner out of it.

Buying one for yourself

Not the obvious use, and a real one.

A voucher is money you have already decided to spend somewhere good. People buy them for themselves in December to make January less bleak, or before a month where they know they will otherwise eat badly out of tiredness. The decision is made once, in a good mood, rather than eleven times on weekday evenings.

It also works as a small commitment device with a place you keep meaning to go back to.

Where the bonus credit comes from

It is not a loss leader and it is not a trick.

A place that sells you €50 of credit today gets money in January for food it serves in March, which is worth something to a business with rent to pay. Bonus credit is what that is worth, passed to you. The place is buying certainty and you are buying dinner at a discount, which is a genuinely fair trade rather than a marketing device.

Spending it

The balance comes down as you use it, so it does not have to be one meal.

Fifty euro at a café is a fortnight of mornings. Fifty euro at somewhere you go for dinner is one evening. Both are fine, and you can see what is left at any point.

What it costs

The face value, plus €1.29 to process the transaction, VAT included. Nothing for sending it as a gift, and nothing monthly.

Changing your mind

If you buy a voucher and think better of it, you have 14 days to withdraw, as long as none of it has been spent. That is a statutory right rather than a policy, and it is handled automatically — you are not asking anybody for a favour.

Two things narrow it, and both are reasonable. Once any of it has been used it is no longer untouched, so it becomes a conversation with the place. And once a gift has actually reached the person, pulling it back is not something a rule should do on its own.

Some places ask you to waive the 14 days at checkout in exchange for immediate access. If you are shown that box, ticking it is a choice — and if you are not shown one, you keep the right.

What else to look at

• Ratings — checking the place is worth the present
• Memberships — for somewhere you go constantly
• Events — a night rather than a credit
• Lists — where to keep the places you rate