Redeemed an Xbox Live Gold gift card but my membership doesnt seem to have been updated

So basically, my Xbox Live membership soon ends and I wanted to extend it, so I proceeded to gift a card to myself (12 months long). I even redeemed it on my Xbox but my actual membership still says that I last updated/extended/whatever it x-y years ago,
ergo it is not the current date thats shown. Altho if I remember right I canceled the yearly subscription because there was some kind of error, hence why I gifted the card to myself, so Im not really sure whether that makes it unable to update itself or whether
it should still show today as the date it was extended on. Point is, I'm not sure whether I actually have this activated or not, the date makes me think I do not but I really dont know. What makes this problematic is that I did actually buy it, the money
is gone. What I thought about was that (evidently?) some cards can only be used in the USA, even if I bought it from the original wesbite?

:)