Woolworths gift vouchers

BargainHunter_2

Woolies are following other retailers and doing away with gift vouchers and instead using electronic gift cards
Their card states on the back that if it remains inactive for 24 months the credit is wiped!
Thisseems a bit of sharp practice- after all I keep vouchers for infrequent use and 2 years may easily pass before i use them

Del_Boy_Gupta

its not sharp practice, it is a way of big borther keeping an eye on what you are purchasing and i presume to see if there is any trend occurring.

Of course the best thing is that if credit disappears of one of these cards it is just tough on the customer and it makes no difference to the retailer.

Call me old fashioned but I prefer cash compared to these vouchers and lets face it the only time you use them is when you are given them by a relative!

BargainHunter_2

I agree with the Big Brother aspect- did U know Tesco's make quite a packet selling on info re what clubcard holders buy

What is sharp practice is simply wiping off all the credit after 2 years. Asda cards have a 2 year inactivity period after which they charge a £1 per month admin fee- this seems quite benign compared to Woolies.

What do other retailers who have moved to cards do?

EvilMonkey

BH, they're all the same to be honest, debs, boots borders all say the same thing.

Apparently its more an accountancy thing than a money generating thing, the average card has about 7p left on it at that point!

Oh and with the woolies card a check on the amount left counts as use....

E.M.

EvilMonkey

One other thing on the ASDA card (not to sure if this is the still the case but was about 6 months ago) they're the only one to offer you your money back if you loose the card...

BUT I think this actually makes it worse as the way to get it is to present your original receipt for the card and you can reclaim any unused amount for that card. Bad luck if you just threw the receipt away and some scrote picked up, your money's GONE.

E.M.