It wasn’t too long ago that almost all gift cards self destructed. After 6 or 12 months they started subtracting a “maintenance” fee until the balance was reduced to zero. Thankfully this has largely gone out of style. Now the main issue is when you get a gift card to a store that you don’t normally shop at. It becomes a sort of solitaire game show where you need to select the exact items to use up the maximum amount on the gift card possible without going over.