Yahoo Finance Huge change to gift card rules from Nov 1
Have you ever excitedly pulled out a gift card from your wallet to purchase an item, only to realise it’s actually expired?
With six-month to year-long expiry dates, we’ve probably all had to throw away a gift card rendered useless by a retailer who won’t accept it anymore.
Well, not anymore.
From November 1, Aussies with gift cards will have a minimum three-year expiry period.
“The law requires that most gift cards or vouchers be sold with a mandatory minimum expiry period of three years,” the government advisory states.
“The period begins from the date a gift card is sold to a consumer. Businesses can choose to apply an expiry period longer than three years and no maximum expiry period applies.”
The law has also been amended to ban all post-purchase fees like activation fees, account keeping fees and balance enquiry fees.
Card and vouchers sold before 1 November 2019 will continue to have the same expiry period and applicable fees at the time of purchase.
If businesses or individuals are found to breach the laws, they could cop a $30,000 or $6,000 fine respectively.
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