As paper lunch vouchers, almost always issued by Pluxee or Edenred in Luxembourg, have been replaced with contactless cards or smartphone options, remaining cheques languishing in wallets and desk drawers will expire and become worthless at the end of the month.
“The last luncheon vouchers were issued at the end of December 2024 with a validity date of the end of February 2025,” Pluxee toldVirgule. The company added that while vouchers cannot be spent after February, participating retailers will have a further two months in which to exchange them for money.
Pluxee started offering lunch vouchers in electronic format in May 2021 “to best meet the demands of customers, consumers and merchants,” the company said.
Pluxee said it is gradually switching its customers over to the card and tried to support them as they changed their habits. “The new meal voucher scheme, which came into force on 1 January 2024, introduced an increase in the face value of vouchers to €15, a daily spending limit of five meal vouchers and an end to the issue of paper meal vouchers on 31 December 2024,” a spokesperson said.
Digital lunch credit is less likely to be wasted than paper cheques, according to Pluxee. “Luncheon vouchers are valid for one year from the date they are loaded onto the consumer’s card. Consumers also receive alerts from Pluxee when some of their vouchers are about to expire. We have found that with the card, there are far fewer expired cheques than with paper,” he said.
As for Edenred, the other main operator in the market, the question of paper luncheon vouchers was also settled a while ago. In a press release dated October 2023, it was stated that the last paper cheques had been issued on 1 January 2024 and that they were valid until the end of the year. In principle, therefore, there were no longer any Edenred paper cheques valid on 1 January 2025.
Where can I use my last paper luncheon vouchers?
For those in doubt about where to use their meal vouchers, Pluxee has listed over 2,100 restaurants, supermarkets, grocery shops, bakeries, butchers and tobacconists that still accept paper vouchers.
But be warned: depending on the business, cheques may only be taken until a certain date before 28 February. For example, one tobacconist in the capital announced on a notice that it would only accept paper cheques until Friday, 21 February. This was explained by the need to deposit the cheques at the bank due to a holiday.
(This article was first publishd by Virgule. Translation and editing by Alex Stevensson.)