Tesco gift card warning

portege

Hi,
If you have any tesco gift cards, be warned to check when they expire ( if you can ) .

I saved mine over sometime, to make a big purchase, but when I went in store to spend them, was told they were out of date. I lost £50.00 in gift cards.

How?

Well, the gift cards say on the back, The card and balance will expire five years from last card use. But be warned, what tesco dont tell you is, they class the last card use as when you first put credit onto the card. So if you buy them today, put £10 on them, and then give them as a gift a month later, infact the 5 years started the day you loaded the cash on.

The way its worded, i thought the 5 years would start the day i first used the card to pay for something.

I think the wording is all wrong, and would be better - The card and balance will expire five years from purchase of the card.

Or at least tesco should make it clear they class use of the card as loading credit.

I sent tesco a letter 4 weeks ago, and sent the cards back, but still had no responce from them.

gavin020782

I'm sure i've got tesco cards somewhere - can you register them in case you lose them?

A._Badger

Thanks to the OP for raising this!

I have three Sainsbury's gift cards which I had been told never expired - but they do and mine had! Until I read this I assumed supermarket gift cards never expired.

However, I called Sainsbury's and they sorted it out on the phone without a quibble - they couldn't have been nicer about it. I hope Tesco does the same for you.

portege

it says treat them like cash, but you can check the balance online at the tesco gift card site.

The major problem with tesco gift cards is, unless you remember when you first put credit on them, you have know way of telling when the 5 years is up.

When you check online, it does not tell you the date. And instore they only tell you the balance, when i asked, they had no way of telling me the date they expire, they just said we only know the balance and when they have run out.

Tesco would be much better looking at argos, as argos re-stamp the use my date on the back and up date them each time you use the card.

:money:Martin did do a bit on his tv show the other week, and his advice is to buy gift cards when you know you want something, and dont save them.:money:

Would deffo agree with that.

balmk

portege wrote: »

Well, the gift cards say on the back, The card and balance will expire five years from last card use.

It means exactly that, not that they expire 5 years from issue - if the last time that you used it was to add money, then it will expire 5 years from that date.

If, however, you check your balance, top it up further, or use part of the balance to pay for your shopping, it expires 5 years from that date.

All gift cards have an expiry date - you may be able to get the money back by calling Tesco customer services if you have proof of the amount that was remaining on the card.

portege

balmk wrote: »

It means exactly that, not that they expire 5 years from issue - if the last time that you used it was to add money, then it will expire 5 years from that date.

If, however, you check your balance, top it up further, or use part of the balance to pay for your shopping, it expires 5 years from that date.

All gift cards have an expiry date - you may be able to get the money back by calling Tesco customer services if you have proof of the amount that was remaining on the card.

rang them, they said they class last card use as when you buy them and put credit on the card.

its just when you get a gift card, and put money on it, i thought the first time i used it was when i used it to pay for something.

the wording would be more clear if it was from last card use ( which includes first time crdit load ).

VoucherMan

portege wrote: »

five years from last card use.

One way around would be to spend a small amount (10p or something) within 5 years of the card being issued & that would 'renew' the card.

portege

VoucherMan wrote: »

One way around would be to spend a small amount (10p or something) within 5 years of the card being issued & that would 'renew' the card.

thats a good idea for sure.:money: