Expiry dates and other issues with gift cards/vouchers

I’ve always received cash from Bunnings Card if there was change from my purchase

Hi @jeniel, was your change more than $9.95?

Even though I kick started this thread and hate the expiry dates; I have come to the conclusion that not much will be done about it by politicians. In the end we have to take responsibility ourselves and simply not buy any of these cards with expiry dates. I also tell my family and friends not to buy me any more as a gift. Old fashioned competition works: Bunnings have a better gift card model than Masters and look what happened to them.

Speaking of Masters, I tried to redeem a gift card there today and was told it had expired a little over a month ago. I am a senior citizen in my 70th year and when I got the gift card there was no mention of an expiry date. I have now looked closely at the card and even with my glasses on I cannot read the small print, although it does say in slightly larger print that there is a web address where you can check the expiry date. I run a retail business myself and have done so for many years for the life of me I cannot understand why a gift card is not treated like cash and has no expiry date. All the arguments about unfunded liabilities are a complete sham. As one respondent rightly pointed out the older a card is before it is redeemed, the greater the benefit to the retailer.

From the consumer perspective not honouring a gift card because it has expired is no different to stealing from me!

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Australia Post do exactly this. My daughter was given a gift card and when doing a room clean-out we found it, a $50 gift card VISA from Australia Post but 7 days past expiry date, 7 days… I rang Australia Post and asked for a replacement card and they refused, so I asked for an extension and they refused, the bloke I spoke to likened it to buying a carton of milk that if not used by the use by date it goes off “and you don’t take it to the shop for a replacement then do you” was his comment. Despite another attempt to ring and get another person on the phone, and lodging it via social media they did not budge. 7 days after expiry, $50.

I had another experience with Westfield and a $100 gift card,and while they did re-issue a card its value was less an administration fee and postage, which is better than refusing to do anything I suppose and probably a fair enough thing to do.

Please, it’s Parliament, it’s not Canberra. Canberra is a city not a referendum on the topics you send your elected representatives to our city to fight over. :-). Sorry, pet hate of a Canberra resident.

NSW Fair trading is encouraging consumers to take the fight to retailers this week and seek to redeem expired gift cards.

Complete this short survey to let them know about your gift card experience.

As most Gift cards I see belong to companies and as far as I am aware they are federally controlled by the Corporations Act maybe a Federal Court action could be a viable way to get a satisfactory outcome for us, the consumers. Even to get Gift cards holders recognised as Secured Creditors or at least somewhere near the top of the heap when companies go broke. I wonder if one of the Law Firms that specialize in Claas Actions might be willing to test this? Even the Commonwealth might be a worthwhile target of the action as they could have amended legislation to counteract the gift card snarl we have here.

I thought you’d like to know that I have had the experience of receiving an email with details of their sale and reminding me of a special offer from my last purchase - because it was a computerised system, they had all the details necessary. It was a very good marketing tool and as a result I have shopped there regularly for 20+ years. There are a number of companies in Albury and Wodonga that use the store card I have to remind me of points accrued, the available spend and the sale dates.

I don’t mind just 12 months because if someone requires even more time to use it,will they ever use it at all.Good chance probably not

Would you be equally happy if that $100 note in your pocket disintegrated after 12 months of not being spent? There is no difference excepting the form that $100 note takes, $AUD100 or $GiftCard100==$AUD100.

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Well put Ray … Why would choice put a limit with their proposal ???
All should be like Bunnings Card … no expiry date … the merchants have your money for the time you do not spend it.

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An interesting and long running thread! Here’s what I’ve decided to do - I will not purchase a gift card that has an expiry date and encourage my family and friends to do likewise. If I receive a gift card with an expiry date I will express my gratitude to the giver and tell them I will use it within the given time. I will then gently explain that I don’t purchase gift cards with expiry dates for the many reasons stated above. Cheers🤑

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This is exactly what we all should be doing and this problem would be solved in a very short time.:relaxed:

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i just wanted to add my recent experience. the other week i put in 2 orders to target online and used both EXPIRED cards.
One had had expired back in 2013 the other 2014, one was a coles group, the other a target card.
I don’t buy them personally, i won’t buy them for others… but the kids get them as gifts from family.
Kudos to target accepting the cards to the full value despite their age.

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Well here is my update. I went to get my wife a beauty treatment for Christmas. The store said they had gift cards but they expired after 6 months. So I said I’ll pre pay an appointment for a particular treatment. No problem. Made the appointment and the proprietor said she could have any treatment and if there was a price difference she could pay the difference or if cheaper get a refund on any product she purchased. All good!

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When a store sells us a giftcard, they haven’t really sold us a product or service yet, so the full payment for the giftcard should be held in a separate account to all their other income and only transferred to their regular account when the giftcard’s value is used to purchase goods or services. By doing this, funds will always be available to cover the full cost of all redeemed giftcards no matter when that happens, even if all at once many years down the track.

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Another way of looking at it that the money in our wallets has no expiry date .There are exceptions of course if we decided to go back to pounds , shillings and pence ,there could be a use by on money as happened back in the sixties when we went to decimal currency, A hypothetical , not likely . Therefore when you purchase a gift card for , we’ll say $100 , you are exchanging an article with no expiry date for one , at the moment at least , that has an expiry date . For any person that has a modicum of the ability to think laterally it makes no sense .I would put the $100 in an envelop and give it to the party involved rather than bind them to limited outlets and an expiry date
Strange too that the marketing departments are not listening to the ground swell amongst consumers about expiry dates . Very strange . There must be a kick back somewhere along the line for them maybe ???

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@hitspacebar. Yes, I agree. Building further upon your thought about the companies keeping gift card amounts in a separate account until used; my feeling is that from a LEGAL perspective, these amounts should be seen as being legal TRUSTS – which the companies are required to safeguard until used by the gift-card recipients! And of course, if federal government politicians should be interested in the issue at all, they can easily bring in a section to the federal consumer legislation to make time-expiry limits illegal.

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I won a gift card from a Germany company. When I logged on to use it before I went to Europe, I found that it had devalued by E40. When I complained to the issuing company (Give) they said that they would issue it again but that it would have an expiry date. Since they had not replied before I went to Europe, I could not use the card while I was there. On return I found that I would not be returning to Europe for another two years. The company said bad luck when I told them and asked for an extension because it would be useless for me to waste the gift on articles I did not want from Europe especially when the cost of the postage would probably exceed the cost of the article! I guess it gave Patrick (the responder) a good Easter present!