The VISA Gift Card could be used anywhere a VISA card is accepted. Or so I thought.

When she received her card she was overjoyed. She really needed a new pair of shoes and quickly went to Big W to purchase them. Unfortunately, when she went to use her Gift Card the transaction was declined. She tried again at K-Mart and was told they did not accept it there either. A few months later she came to visit and told me about the card. We tried to use it at Bunnings and Woolworths with no success. We believed the card must have been invalid or not activated.

It was not until I went to the official website that I found out that the VISA Gift Cards were not accepted at either the Woolworths or Coles group of stores. Unfortunately this accounts for almost every shop that elderly people would visit including Woolworths, Big W, Dick Smith, Coles, Target, K-Mart, Liquorland and Officeworks. I was rather surprised.

“The Visa Gift Card is a prepaid card that can be used wherever Visa cards are accepted and processed electronically.*

*Excludes cash and cash equivalent transactions at ATM and over the counter at Financial Institutions, and gambling merchants, and a small number of merchants displaying the Visa logo who elect not to accept prepaid Visa Gift Cards, such as the Woolworths Group.”

“You or the lucky recipient can enjoy the flexibility of shopping at millions of different Visa locations around the world, including more than 550,000 locations in Australia. Please note that at present Woolworths and Coles Groups have chosen not to accept Visa gift cards.”

Prepaid Visa Card

Another thing which surprised me was that a $4.00 fee applies if you need to talk to someone for customer service. My reason for purchasing the VISA Gift Card was so that my mother-in-law could have great flexibility in choosing where to spend her money. How wrong was I. I should have researched this before.

I ended up having to use the gift card to pay my electricity bill online. Next time I will definitely buy a store card for her.