Gift cards: buying, redeeming, and refunds

A Creatures gift card is a simple way to give someone value to spend on Creatures. You buy it for any amount in range, the recipient redeems a code, and the full amount lands in their Creatures Credit. There is no fee, so every dollar you pay becomes a dollar they can spend.

Buying a gift card

Buy a gift card at /gift-cards. You fill in three things:

• Amount: any whole or part-dollar value from $5 to $500. There are quick presets for $25, $50, and $100, or you can enter a custom amount in that range.
• What choosing it means: the amount you pick is exactly what the recipient receives as Credit. There is no platform fee added and none taken out, so a $50 card costs you $50 and gives them $50.
• Recipient email (optional): the email of the person you are gifting it to.
• What it means: if you fill it in, Creatures emails the card and code straight to them. Leave it blank and the card and code come to you, so you can pass it along yourself however you like.
• Gift message (optional): a short personal note, up to 500 characters.
• What it means: the note rides along with the gift email. It is purely for the recipient; it does not change the value or how the card works.

You pay for a gift card by card. Once payment succeeds, the card and its code are issued and the email (or emails) go out.

The code

Every gift card has a unique code in the format CRE-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

• What it looks like: the prefix CRE followed by twelve characters in three groups of four. The characters are drawn from a set that leaves out easily confused characters (no zero, one, I, or O), so reading or typing a code by hand is less error-prone.
• What it means for you: the code is what unlocks the value. Anyone who has the code can redeem it, so treat it like the cash equivalent it is and only share it with the person you are giving it to.
• It never expires. A gift card code does not go stale. It can be redeemed whenever the recipient is ready.

Redeeming a gift card

Redeem a code at /gift/redeem (a link in the gift email goes straight there).

• What redeeming does: it adds the card's full face value to the redeemer's Creatures Credit in one step. A $100 card becomes $100 of Credit on that account.
• Who can redeem: whoever enters a valid, unredeemed code. The Credit goes to the account that redeems it. From there it spends exactly like any other Creatures Credit, applied automatically at checkout before Wallet and card, and it can even go toward the first invoice of a Creatures Pro subscription. See Creatures Credit: what it is and how it is spent.
• A code is single-use. Once a card is redeemed it is spent; it cannot be redeemed again.

Statuses and refunds

A gift card is always in one of three states, and only one of them allows a refund:

• Unredeemed (ready to redeem): issued and waiting. This is the only state in which a card can be refunded.
• Redeemed (final): the value has been moved into someone's Credit. A redeemed card is done; it cannot be refunded, because the Credit has already been granted.
• Refunded (final): the purchase was reversed back to the original payment. A refunded card cannot be redeemed.

When a refund is possible: a gift card can be refunded only while it is still unredeemed, and the refund is made to the purchaser (the person who bought it), back to the card they paid with. The reason is straightforward: once a card is redeemed, the Credit is already in the recipient's account, so there is nothing left to refund. Decide before you redeem, because redemption is the point of no return for a refund.

Gift cards and referrals are the two everyday ways to build up Creatures Credit. For where else Credit comes from and how it is spent, see Creatures Credit: what it is and how it is spent.

Related information

• Creatures Credit: what it is and how it is spent
• Referrals and promoter rewards: earn by sharing

Updated on: 23/06/2026