There can be many reasons why your gift card is not working. Below are some simple checks to help identify what could be the problem.
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Is there available funds on your card?
You can check the balance of your card via our Website
- What if the purchase transaction is more than the balance of the funds on my gift card?
If the purchase value is more than the available balance on your gift card, simply ask the cashier to split the payment. Pay the difference first, either with cash or another card. e.g If your gift card has an available balance of $30 but your total transaction is $70, you would ask to pay the $40 difference first and then use your gift card to pay the remaining $30. Make sure the EFTPOS terminal is showing the $30 value before swiping your gift card, selecting SAVINGS and entering your 4 digit PIN.
- Has your gift card been activated?
Gift Cards can take up to 48 hours from purchase before the funds are loaded onto the card and available to use. Check the issue date printed on the back of your gift card to see if your card is still within 48 hours of the issue date and may be pending activation.
- Has the retailer processed the sale as an EFTPOS Card?
Your gift card is an EFTPOS gift card. It must be processed by the retailer's POS as an EFTPOS transaction and not a Gift Card. If the retailer chooses gift card as the sale type their POS system will try to recognise the card as their own in-store gift card and will decline the transaction. Tell the retailer to process the card as an EFTPOS transaction.
- Did you select the SAVINGS option?
The gift card will decline if the Cheque or Credit Option is selected.
- Has your gift card expired?
The expiry of your gift card is marked on the back of the card. Our standard gift card expiry is 36 months from the date of issue. There may be exceptions to this date if your gift card was part of a promotion. Check the expiry date and terms and conditions printed on the back of your gift card to ensure it has not expired.
- Are you attempting to take cash out with you purchase?
The gift card can only be used to make a purchase at an EFTPOS terminal and cannot be used for taking out cash.
- Is the magnetic strip on your gift card damaged?
Large scratches or close contact with magnetic items may delete the information on the gift card magnetic stripe.
- Are you trying to purchase something online with your gift card?
The EFTPOS gift card cannot be used to make online purchases. The card must be physically swiped through the EFTPOS terminal and the SAVINGS option selected.
- The EFTPOS network may be offline.
On rare occasions the bank may be experiencing issues and their network has gone offline. You will need to provide another payment type or come back when the EFTPOS system is back online if this is the case. Usually when this occurs you will receive an error on the EFTPOS terminal of “Issuer Not Available”