One4All Prepaid visa giftcard overly restrictive

toph

Don't buy or gift one of these cards as they are a nightmare to use.

I now have 3 of these cards with total balance of £130.

You can't use them at self scan tills, shop staff on the tills don't know how to use them and you have to know exactly how much is on the card before you use it as if you try and use it for more than the cards value it'll be declined with no explanation & then subsequent attempts for less than the cards confirmed value will fail too.
You can't spend at Amazon or Ebay.
With other online retailers you can only use 1 method of payment so can only spend upto the value of the card making it useless if you want to use it to part pay for that special item you've had your eye on.

If you want the cash sent to you they have a punitive process requiring you to send them the cards & charge £7.50 per card!!!

Their terms & conditions explain that things are changing (for the worse, transaction limit of £40 for starters!!) on 10/01/2020 but if you don't agree to the changes then you can request a refund (section 7.1) without paying charges (section 10.1).

https://www.gvsprepaid.com/one4alluk-tcs.html

Our Gift Card Terms & Conditions are changing from 10 January 2020. To keep you in the loop these are the main changes we’ve got planned.

- The maximum value that can be loaded to the card will be £120 (£100 in Tesco)
- The maximum spend online using the One4all gift card will be restricted to £40

The full revised Terms & Conditions are available on the website and come into effect on the 10 January 2020. You will be deemed to have accepted such revised Agreement, unless you tell us that you do not agree to the change prior to the change.

7. CHANGES
7.1 We reserve the right at all times to introduce new terms and/or to vary or amend an existing term (including, without limitation, change the existing fees or introduce new fees) by giving you at least two months’ notice thereof on the Website or by whatever means we, in accordance with applicable legislation, deem appropriate at that time. You will be deemed to have accepted such revised Agreement, unless you tell us that you do not agree to the change prior to the change taking effect. In such circumstance, your rejection of the change shall be treated as notification that you wish to terminate this Agreement. We will refund the balance on your Card in accordance with the Clause 10 (Redemption) below.

10. REDEMPTION
10.1 You may at any time request repayment of the remaining credit balance on the Card by calling us on 0370 085 4141 and quoting your Card number. You must not use your Card after you ask us to repay the balance to you. In order to allow any outstanding Card Transactions to clear, we will refund the balance to you by bank transfer to your nominated bank account, minus any fees within seven Business Days of such a request. The Redemption Fee set out in Clause 6 will apply, except:

during the Cancellation Period as set out in Clause 12.1;
during the 12 months following the termination of this Agreement; or
when you are cancelling your Card because you object to a change we have made to this Agreement under Clause 7.1.

I've phoned them, after 40+ mins of hold music i spoke with an agent & told them i didn't agree with their new terms and conditions and asked for a refund quoting section 7.1 & 10.1.

I was told that as the new T&C's hadn't started i would need to pay £7.50 per card, send the cards to them and also proof of purchase and proof of my ID, then they would take 10+ days to deposit to my bank or issue a cheque.:rotfl:

When i mentioned their T's&C's required me to notify them before 10/01/2020 i was basically told that i had to wait till after that date to make the request, i think we all can guess what would happen if i phoned after the date their T's&C's state they would deem i had accepted their new T's&C's to tell them i didn't.

Anyway the agent hung up on me.

so i'm now stuck, i have £130 on 3 cards that i'd like to use to but something at retailer's online store (sold out in shops) but can't as all websites don't permit splitting card transactions.

I've made complaints to One4All & also the [EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]ombudsman[/EMAIL]

Anyone any suggestions on how to convince One4All to send me the balance on the cards? i've not been able to buy gift vouchers and they are not accepted by Amazon, Ebay or any utility companies i use, another thread on here states they are able to restrict where they can be used at the card authorisation stage.

The card issuers restrictions clearly make it hard to use and when it can be used there is a good likely hood of change being left on the card that they recoup after 18 months by the £0.99 p/m fee.

I've wasted a lot of time trying in vain to use this card so am writing this as a warning to others :mad:

JES_F1

Agreed that these are a pain - I've received one a couple of times for my birthday. I found the best way of using them was to buy an M&S e-gift card online and then use that. Perhaps it's possible to do that in other shops.

toph

I tried buying a John Lewis gift card and it didn’t work.

I’m after something at john Lewis online (clearance) ~£200 and can’t use these vouchers which really grates.

kevChan

It is a visa debit card.
Would you like to try extracting cash via Curve card?
If you aren't clear what I mean message me. Otherwise good luck.

mej24

When I've had a prepaid Visa card I've bought an Amazon e-voucher with it.

IIRC Amazon put a £1.00 check on the card when you first add it to your account, so if you have a £40 card you can only buy a £39.00 e-voucher. After a couple of days the £1pending charge will drop off and you can buy another £1 voucher with the balance.

crumpetman

You can't use one4all at amazon, it is a prepaid visa debit card but it will only work at specific retailers.

WH Smith is a good place to make use of it, my local has a wide variety of branded gift cards (Amazon, Xbox, Nintendo, Playstation to name a few) and some have a variable topup (but with a £10 minimum) which makes it handy to use up odd amounts.

toph

@kevChan

Curve looks interesting, but one4all limit their cards to specific retailers, i assume Curve won't be on the list as it might be useful,

janetgw

I checked the balance on a One4all  GIFT CARD.
£2.80 when originally £10.
Been charging me every £0.90 month since inactive after 18 months
terms & conditions  do state this!
Was not told when purchasing & have not told those who have received my GIFT CARD
Will post office care?

should I create a fuss  ?

crumpet_man

There's no point complaining.
Why buy a gift card to keep for 26 months before using it?  I don't understand why anyone buys a gift card unless they get a good discount.

eskbanker

janetgw said:

I checked the balance on a One4all  GIFT CARD.
£2.80 when originally £10.
Been charging me every £0.90 month since inactive after 18 months
terms & conditions  do state this!
Was not told when purchasing & have not told those who have received my GIFT CARD
Will post office care?

should I create a fuss  ?

The 90p monthly inactivity charge has been a feature of this card's Ts & Cs for a long time, and was mentioned in a post on here back in 2013: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63546750#Comment_63546750

So, as there hasn't been any breach of these Ts & Cs (even if you didn't read them when buying), why would you expect a retailer or credit card provider to intervene?

2e0arr

they advertise and supply these at post offices, however you cannot buy anything from the post office with them. ironically you used to be able to buy postage on line with them from parcel2go.