I disagree with this, it's entirely possible for vendors to honour gift cards (and credits) indefinitely. In fact, here in Canada, in most provinces, if not all, it's law and has been for some time:
http://www.gov.on.ca/mgs/en/News/133713.html
The problem comes in the accounting. Try borrowing X million dollars against 2X million in assets when you have 4X outstanding debts that can be called in at any time. Sure, they probably won't be, and you might discount them to near zero, but the lender won't be so generous.
But in the sale of the gift cards/credits, at a 1:1 exchange rate, your assets would increase as well as your debt, surely?
Sure, at the time of sale. But you will spend/disburse the money you receive in short order and be left with a looming debt on your balance sheet.
Exactly.... I actually found Skype's way of handling this to be far more fair and less predatory than most - not only were they generous with the expiration date, but they insisted you only had to log in and place a single call (spend a penny or so) to keep it going another 6 months, or whatever.... it's just keeping dead liabilities from accumulating... and skype was NICE about it, sending me all those notifications.
I was looking for that. Business make boatloads from unused, expired gift cards.