Uchoose

Full scam – Scam. It didn’t let me pay and gave fake numbers, we couldn’t pay by online and in a store. Everyday interest charge been made even not use at all for year what a shame .

0 stars if I can – failed to use in JB HIFI, retried in Kmart failed again. Tried to use for online, registry was required and there was no way to register this VISA card with name and addr. Checked status online it was activated. Contacted uchoose staff, not resolved. Then surprisingly, there was a $2.5 monthly fee for it!! Wow, I will tell everyone I know to stay away from uChoose gift card. You are welcome.

Not a user friendly experience. It took $3.00 off my card to convert it back to the physical requested card of$15.00 – This was my experience with the uchoose reward system I'm not sure why they changed the system.

Beware Beware Beware Beware Beware Beware Beware Beware – This card is a rort. If a12 month expiry is not bad enough how about $2.50 per month being deducted from the remaining balance after the first 4 months. Why would any company want to use these cards for staff or customer rewards.

I choose Gift card – Useless card not accepted almost anywhere. So far 5 different attempts. All failed. Next attempt my grandma grave.

THIS COMPANY ARE THIEVES – I am not sure how they get away with this, but if you don't use up the credit before it expires they just keep the funds. Reading the reviews on here they must be very rich with all the unused funds that whoever has purchased the card in the first place has paid for in good faith. There are new laws surrounding expiry dates on gift cards but this company seems to be exempt from these. Stay clear of this company

Can't use card online – What is the point of having a gift card that is almost entirely unusable online in this day and age? I will be letting our Admin team know to never buy cards from Uchoose again. Also, what "maintenance" is required on a prepaid card? None...as others have said, this crowd are scamming their customers. Horrendous!

Card expired before I got to use it. Unexplained "maintenance fees" charged – Card expired before I got to use it. Unexplained "maintenance fees" charged. $100 gone which is a bit of a scam in my opinion. Avoid if possible.

Not accepted at many online retailers – Absolutely useless. Works on eBay purchases, doesn't work at Myer, JB HiFi, never been about to swipe at a shop that accepts visa also.

Total rip off!! Use other similar type of GiftCards – SCAM!!! They charge you a card maintenance of $2,50 a month. Are you joking? I paid $$$ to give them as a gift. This is ridiculous. And this tax is more expensive than bank maintenence fees….

Don’t Buy – There are so many other options you can choose. Best to avoid, as they have monthly account keeping fees, 12 month expiry and customer service is shocking. Apparently the pre-paid cards are not classed as vouchers, therefore the 12 months is somehow part of the T&Cs regardless of when you activate. Some places don’t even accept these cards,… Read more

online included and they are non-negotiable on time frames even (expiry dates) with Covid impacts.

I logged a formal complaint over 3 weeks ago, they said they would review and get back to me in a couple days. Called today spoke to a manager said they are still reviewing it, I pressed on how long they will need, they responded 90 days, perhaps a joke, but not funny.

I have gone to AFCA, as they trade under Hertige Bank limited, so will see how it goes.

Do yourself a favour and avoid, even if it’s for work purposes. I purchased approx 10 cards (approx $2,000) a reward etc. for team. 3 card have experienced a loss of $700.00

**update: following the AFCA review I was able to get $700 credit back.

Awful Cards - not accepted anywhere – Awful - not accepted on Amazon. For a $900 card - you lose $2.50 a month. Stupidly short expiry (a year) despite gift cards being required to have a three year expiry. Pretty sure these are against the law.

Uchoose - u duds and scammers – Given a uchoose gift card . Several issues - $2.50 a month fee until it’s used , $3 to speak to an operator If it doesn’t work, requirement to log on and unlock card . Got to a restaurant today and card was declined , was told by unhelpful uchoose staff , you cannot use 10% of the balance as it’s a holding fee for some venues . Venue didn’t know… Read more

what they were talking about. Basically - $250 gift card has only $180 available or thereabouts at restaurants

Updated Review - Read the T's & C's – This review has been changed as we have had a positive outcome after Heritage Bank the card provider intervened. UChoose has provided $2,000 of credit back to the staff member who's cards expired. We had purchased $10,000 to give out to staff during covid and this particular staff member saved them for a holiday without opening the packaging to… Read more

see the expiry. I note that the expiry is now clearly displayed on the outer cardboard packaging. I still encourage you to read the T's & C's don't just tick the box as my our representative did as these are not gift cards. So, the rules for gift cards do not apply. We are glad we had a positive outcome in the end for the staff member. But i note she was, as we were, originally turned away by UChoose siting their T's & C's.

Uchoose a waste of time, no idea why my company chose to work with them – If you need assistance in regards to payments not working online, trust these guys to charge you for their customer service and online service. What is customer service these days?

uchoose is a big waste card – They say you can use where visa card is accepted. I had tried in Chemistwarehouse it declined, used in 7/11 declined. But my visa debit card worked. Its frustrating and waste of time.

Absolutely A Scam – $2.50 deducted each month from card after 4 months.. This is only know once you open up the sealed holder... My daughter was given one for her birthday and was saving it up for something special, but was eaten away in fees......... Absolute rip off !!!!!! Do not buy.

Scam! Lose $2.50 a month after 4th month on a 12 month gift card – My kids won a $25 Uchoose gift card. Basically after the 4th month, you start losing $2.50 a month... so the gift card only has $10 left now. It is also difficult to find a place that accepts it.

what a scam – received a gift card from my company as a bonus for some work done beyond my normal duties. Obviously the company buys these in bulk and distributes them throughout the year, as the card was down to 4 months before expiry when I got it. Is that even legal? Either way, it's dodgy. Additionally, it's not accepted in many online stores so options… Read more

were limited, particularly during covid - and the balance just keeps going down every month. What are we paying them for? I could come up with a great list of names better than uChoose. In the end I gave up, their policy seems pretty strict. It's sad knowing my colleagues wasted money getting me this.

Horrible Scam - Card Loses $2.50 per month once activated but is sold as a 12 month gift card – Card is sold as a gift card, in my case $50 The card itself only has 12 months on it, but once activated, it's gone down in value $2.50 every month!

Online Retailers Won't Accept Card – I have tried to use this card at Amazon and another online store and neither will accept it. Both rejected it because they consider it to be not secure. Contacted customer service and was told to try somewhere else.... which defeats the purpose of being given a $1000 card if I can't use it where I want to!

Terrible Company - Lost $1200 – Cards expired during COVID - 19 we have paid $1600 that I have just lost and they will not replace or extend the expiry date, I was even happy to pay fees for new cards etc. How can they take $1600 and not deliver any value, this is a company you need to stay away from. The websites are all glitz and glamour however behind the doors they are a… Read more

rubbish company, as per all these reviews which I have just seen as we were fooled by the website. Australian law now requires people to have a 3 year expire on gift cards and these guys just don't care.

Blatantly Breaking the Law ! – I have a gift card that states on the card valid thru 12/20. Issued 12/19. However look at the https://consumerlaw.gov.au/new-gift-card-laws. "Three-year minimum expiry period The law requires that most gift cards or vouchers be sold with a mandatory minimum expiry period of three years. The period begins from the date a gift card is sold to a… Read more

consumer.

If you believe a business is not complying with gift card requirements, raise your concerns with them in the first instance. If you have further queries or concerns, contact your local consumer protection agency."

Knowing there are laws around the expiry, I called UChoose. However the blatant lies of not knowing when I spoke to the person - he even had the nerve to say most people don't call or know the law, they just let it expire. Then a 10 minute hold when I asked for the supervisor and the only option to leave a message !! If you been affected please speak up. If in NSW use the form below.

Use this https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/367811/generalcomplaintformweb.pdf

These cards are almost unusable in Australia. Do not buy – I have reported to AFCA and ACC and I have been in contact with the supplier being the heritage bank - who also supports the other gift cards such as vanilla, Australian gift cards, giftcards.com.au etc. - I have 7000 of unusable money - heritage is trying to get the money directly reimbursed to me - but there is a much larger issue - AFCA said to… Read more

get anyone who has received these to report them directly as the more they get the more likely they will investigate and bring this to justice - what they are doing is not legal - ASIC needs to look into it - I urge you all to take it further - do not buy these cards

Uchoose Visa Gift Card a total rip off – I received a $100 Uchoose Visa card for Christmas last year. The card is valid for 12 months so I thought when I see something I want I will buy it for $100. I went to use it yesterday and it now only has $82.50 left on and it has never been used.. Do yourself a favour and NEVER gut a Uchoose Visa card. They are a total rip off.

This company is a scam for private info – Company is a total scam. 1800 number doesn’t work I wouldn’t trust them. Became argumentative when I said not interested. Still receiving unwarranted calls. Do not use or trust this site it has many bad scam reports online and forums confirming this. They can’t provide company details in Australia or a legitimate local ph number either 1800 or… Read more

1300. We receive calls at odd hours and they have no legitimate authority to conduct search or offer discounts on behalf of energy providers they also asked for personal details DO NOT GOVE THEM ANY DETAILS!!

Visa gift cards are a rip-off – UChoose gift cards are a rip-off. If you don't use within 6 months you get charged a $2.50 fee each month thereafter. And if you have an issue, the charge is $3.99 fee for phone service, for which they leave you hanging on hold for ages and don't get back to you. And I also experienced charges deducted from the card being different (greater) than the receipts from the stores. I would never purchase these again.

Rude and pushy – Once a week I've been getting an unsolicited call from this mob. Out of habit I never answer numbers that I don't recognise and if they don't leave a message I know it a marketing call. They kept at it though and when I picked up this time, [name removed] got very pushy despite me saying politely that I wasn't interested in their service and then… Read more

the jerkoff promptly hung up on me. I will never use this company and will do my utmost to ward everyone I know to stay clear of them.

Hang up the phone in my ear – I had an unsolicited call today from uchoose. I patiently heard the guy out even though at this stage I was not interested in changing providers which doesn't mean I won't be looking at this in the near future. When I told the team member I wasn't interest at the moment and I was very polite he hung up the phone in my ear before I could finish.… Read more

Just from this experience alone would make me think twice about using uchoose in the future. Going by the reviews this seems to be their customer service-hanging up in people's ears. Very bad customer service and extremely unprofessional. Sorry uchoose, won't ever use you!

No Customer Service – I visited Uchoose website to compare energy providers. They contacted me several times a day inspite of me telling them that I was a bit busy. Finally today I spoke to one of the consultants named [name removed] in the Brisbane office. I asked my current plan and was suggesting some other plan. I told him in order for me to go through the plan and… Read more

review the terms, if he could email me the details. He just bluntly said NO and disconnected the phone on my face. This is just not acceptable. I regret going to there website, I believe it a BIG mistake from my side. Hopefully no one ever will contact them again if they such "GREAT" values for there prospective customers.

Blatant misinformation – In early July I wanted to compare electricity rates, and Uchoose contacted me with a great sounding discount with Simply Energy. I queried several times whether this would affect my solar tariffs in any way, whether with feed in or supply. They consistently reassured me these would not change, and I would benefit with a big discount. The… Read more

contract arrived 3 days later , cutting my feed-in tariff, cutting my supply discount and adding a 25c additional daily solar supply charge on top of the basic daily supply fee.

That day - I rang Uchoose and was promised a call back Still waiting.

- Spent over an hour renewing my original contract with the supplier and cancelling Uchoose's misbegotten debacle.

- Emailed Uchoose with complaint details, received a presumably computer generated "case number"

The following week I received an advertising email, suggesting I use their site, but no response to the complaint then or since.

Do not touch this company, they will blatantly lie and hope you can't decipher the fine print.

Incompetent, uncaring.