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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU...all4one vouchers

30 replies

Tubs11 · 18/10/2019 13:28

I have 4 cards amounting to £110, so far one4all have taken £25 approx in a 90p month fee for inactive use. I tried to use online yesterday and it didn't work and today when I tried to use in-store the retailer said the cards hadn't been authorised, despite them taking a 90p fee monthly. AIBU to think this is some sort of scam and the Post Office should stop using them? Anyone else successfully use these cards and actually see the benefit in giving them as gifts?

OP posts:
Bluewavescrashing · 18/10/2019 13:30

I've just received one but haven't tried to spend it yet.

Reallybadidea · 18/10/2019 13:30

YANBU they're an absolute waste of money. And charging for inactive use is outagous.

Jayne35 · 18/10/2019 13:33

I bought these as a Christmas gift last year for my daughter but only because they have stores she likes included, I didn't know about the inactive use charges but she spent them within 2 weeks so I guess it wasn't a problem.

I might re consider buying them again though.

Bluewavescrashing · 18/10/2019 13:34

I'm glad you posted this as we will use them quickly now I know about the inactivity fee.

LordNibbler · 18/10/2019 13:38

They are awful. I won some and it was a nightmare. They don't tell you you have to activate them. And that takes over 24hrs to register before you can use the card. Very embarrassing if you don't know that and try to go spend them in a shop. Also if you use them online you can only buy as much as your card has on, so you can't buy something £110 if you only have £100, you can't top up with a credit or debit card. Also when you go in some shops that are supposed to accept them, they don't know how to process them as they are not chip and pin. I almost gave up the will to live trying to spend them. I wouldn't recommend them at all, and their customer service were worse than useless.

Jayne35 · 18/10/2019 13:39

I just read the T&C's which do state that 90p per month will be charged on an inactive balance after a period of 18 months non use. That won't be an issue for my daughter as she always spends straight away so I would still buy a card.

Bit irritating about the card not being authorised though OP, maybe try to contact them.

Original poster
Tubs11 · 18/10/2019 13:53

I didn't know you had to activate them, why would you have to activate them? I think they do these things to try and frustrate the customer. When I got them first I tried to use them and when they didn't work I gave up and shoved them in a drawer. Found them recently and said I'd better spend before the expiry date is up in 2020/21. When I checked the balance thats when I discovered £25 in monthly fees gone from the various cards. Its such a scam

OP posts:
Papergirl1968 · 18/10/2019 14:02

I’m glad you posted this because I tried to use one the other day and it wouldn’t work. Now I realise I hadn’t activated it.

Leeds2 · 18/10/2019 14:09

How do you go about activating a card?

LordNibbler · 18/10/2019 14:14

You have to call their customers services to activate it.

Piglet89 · 18/10/2019 14:21

Some of the customer assistants in the branch of Boots near me seems to have serious problems using them. I tweeted both Boots and One4All about the problem but got no response.

No problem spending some of the balance on my card in M&S tho.

Hoping4alotterywin · 18/10/2019 14:23

Hi! I work for a voucher card related business. You have to activate any voucher you buy as it stops fraud and theft. Consider if all voucher cards were ‘activated’ before you picked one up in Tesco or the Post Office in this case any one could just In essence grab one, not pay for it and walk out with free cash. Most T&C’s are on the redemption site of the retailer you buy them for I.e Primark or One4All and all instructions are on the back on how to redeem the voucher. Using them online and there being a limit of £100 is again down to fraud regulations. Unfortunately (and I know this through work) elderly ladies are being driven down to their local supermarket and being forced to pay ‘HMRC’ in voucher cards so the activation process and the limits are there to restrict the criminal activity. It’s not a great customer journey but as an industry we are highly regulated and work very hard to combat nasty things happening to people who don’t know any better.

WhereShallWeGo · 18/10/2019 14:29

We have had all sort of problems with this, too. So I never buy them and asked friends and family not to get them for our kids.

thetideishigh · 18/10/2019 14:29

Doesn't the giver of the gift card get it activated when they buy it ?

We're holding a couple of these at the moment and I've also sent them out to people in the past but had no idea that there was a deduction being made if not used fairly quickly.

Do we need to be doing something ?

Original poster
Tubs11 · 18/10/2019 15:07

@Hoping4alotterywin

Who are you regulated by and I'm not really convinced given other retailers don't charge or require activation

OP posts:
Hoping4alotterywin · 18/10/2019 15:39

Hi Tubs all voucher card companies and retailers that produce a voucher card are authorised by the FCA under the E Money regulations. If you got the card through a business as a reward for buying something then they would have had to highlight somewhere that you would need to have activated it before use. I hope that helps!

Toddlerteaplease · 18/10/2019 15:41

I had some abs they were really difficult to use. I went to John Lewis and swapped them for their vouchers in the end.

Hoping4alotterywin · 18/10/2019 15:42

Hi - if you buy them through a retailer or supermarket as a gift then they are activated at the point of sale i.e at the tills. If like I’ve just told Tubs you were sent them by a third party company - or even received them from an employer as a staff reward you would have to activate any card before use. Once you’ve activated any card most cards will give you years to use them (but always worth checking their T&C’s!)

ThatMuppetShow · 18/10/2019 15:45

if all voucher cards were ‘activated’ before you picked one up in Tesco or the Post Office in this case any one could just In essence grab one, not pay for it and walk out with free cash.

Easy fix, activate them at the till when you pay for them.

Problem solved! It's a poor excuse from the card retailer.

Any card like that should be immediately use, they make a fortune out of people forgetting them, losing them, getting caught with expiry date and ridiculous fees now.

Original poster
Tubs11 · 18/10/2019 17:14

They were purchased at the post office and the amount was put on them then. At no stage did they mention the end user would have to activate them. This is surely a breach of one of the FCA's objectives Treating Customers Fairly. The valid through date on the card also suggests you have that date to use it, when in fact it's only 18 months from the purchase date, which is misleading. Personally the monthly 90p free is ludicrous given the upper limit cap on these cards but I guess they can change what they like

OP posts:
Fowles94 · 18/10/2019 17:42

I've used them loads before, never left for more than a few months so won't get charged.

PleaseSirMyGoat · 18/10/2019 18:29

I got one as a present, didn't need to activate it and I spent it around 4 months after I got it with no charge.

I get love to shop at Christmas and do need to activate them

OutInOutIn · 18/10/2019 18:32

I bought one as a gift a while ago. I won't now - the very notion of an inactivity fee is total bullshit.

It is pretty standard to have to activate these sorts of gift cards - I've had loads over the years.

OutInOutIn · 18/10/2019 18:32

(I don't mean bullshit as in untrue! I mean it's a horrible idea and I can't believe anyone would buy them if they knew - I certainly didn't.)

britnay · 18/10/2019 18:35

I work at a small branch of a large retailer and my heart drops when I see one of them. They are very very difficult to get to work. Sometimes it takes more than a dozen swipes to get it to go through, after the till keeps saying that its invalid. Sometimes they just will not work at all. Its extremely frustrating, and embarrassing for customers.

Love2Shop ones usually go through first time.