Universal Gift Card

I received a gift card of $50 from my employer for Christmas Early March, I decided to use and found the "activation" date had passed, so I wrote them a sharp email to complain about the very short period. They said they would reactivate, waited 2 days and when I did, it had only $25 on it! So I complained again They said they would issue another… Read more

card, which I have now received - I'm having huge trouble activating this one. I think its designed to frustrate the life out of you

If it were possible to give no stars, I would. I would discourage anyone from using this 'service'. I was given a $50 gift card by my employer, unfortunately, unlike other giftcards you need to activate it by a certain date, otherwise they cancel your funds. They also don't give you three years to spend the money like other vouchers. I contacted… Read more

their customer service, which has an autoreply that they will reply within 1 business day, which was a lie. I had to follow up a number of times to get a reply. In the end they refunded me only $35 as a goodwill gesture, and I only had 10 days to spend the funds. This company is a scam

This is a scam company received mine $1000 card from someone as a house gift. I open the envelop after we moved in which is next year and there was no money in the account when i lodged the complaint this is what i got the response" As stated in our terms and conditions, cards that reach their expiry date are closed and remaining funds forfeited.… Read more

Unfortunately, I am unable to extend an expiry date on this occasion and I am sorry that I am unable to assist you further". Dot not buy

This eGift card worked fine for me – I saw many poor reviews and was a bit concerned to activate and use the universal gift card. I added it to my Apple wallet (which I had never used before) by following all the instructions and that went fine. I then used the ecard a few weeks after activation to buy groceries. From what others were saying I was a bit worried the card might have… Read more ·  1

been used already, but I found the full amount of $30 was still there and I made my purchase. It all worked fine so I gave it 4 stars (The only reason I did not select 5 stars is that being 'old school' I would prefer to use a physical gift card. Adding an egift card to your phone is a bit clunky, although this is not the fault of universal gift card).

Card worked when I used it to buy from Mecca – I used this card my daughter sent me to buy something from the Mecca website. There are two emails they send you. One has the Order No and CCV. You need to enter the long Card Proxy Number from one email then the CCV from the other email, I think it is convoluted but it worked for me. Very happy. Show details

Not their failt – I was given a Universal Gift Card by my employees as a welcome gift. I went online to activate card but unbeknown to me there is a fake website which mimics the original, which after after activating cleared out all my credit. I submitted a request to the offical website and they replaced the card and credit. This is not the fault of Universal Gift Cards, but rather scammers who are imitating their website and stealing your money.

I’m technical and this process was deliberately hard. It took so long to activate with lots of hurdles and errors. Terrible buggy website and process. I suspect it is a ploy to deter people from activating their cards. Many people would give up. Stay far away from this product!!

Nightmare to try to communicate with about registration issue and now card has “expired” leaving my $900 gift in their wallet. A friend had the same experience. Total rip off. How are they allowed to continue trading?

If 0 stars were an option, I'd select it. I've sent almost 10 emails and had no response since their first acknowledgement of query. "We'll get back to you within 24 hours"? The customer service numbers gives you an email address (which obviously doesn't get monitored or emails are just disregarded and there is no option to speak to someone. How are you really meant to use this 'Universal gift card' without access to it?!

SCAMMERS: I just received a gift card from Outdoor Living as a gift after installing blinds. The card seems very dodgy as to activate they want my Name, Address, DOB, Email and Mobile via ugca.au As a gift why do I have to provide all this personal information which is enough to get through most company privacey questions. With this information they could pretend to be me.

2 cards arrived by registered post. Why and who ?? Am concerned about request to put my credit card number so the account is activated.. red flag. Cutting them up now. Have had followup email because I have taken too long. Why/how was it delivered by registered post

Completely agree with the sentiments of other 1 star givers who wish they could give 0! The entire system they work offf is designed to discourage you from activating/spending the money on the cards. Three in a row now I have been unable to use ($1,000+!). I am a literate, tech savvy person in my early thirties who has no trouble with any other… Read more

gift card activation and usage, this one just seems to be problematic every time. And good luck getting a response out of anyone within the business.

Have activated three and set the pin on all three; went to use them only to be decline. Came and checked- said incorrect pin attempt three times card suspended (only used it once!). Can not get hold of anyone to unsuspend the card and you cannot do it yourself on the portal they make you sign up for.

Would strongly discourage anyone from gifting these.

ACCC should look in to validity of these cards. Takes forever to activate and has the world's shortest expiry date, need to pretty much use it straightaway. Would not recommend and give it 0 stars if it was on option.

Terrible - do not use. The app won’t let me activate the gift card I was given and the customer service is non existent. I’ve sent multiple emails to all of the different email addresses in the terms of conditions, no one actually answers the phone and the complain phone number just directs you back to the other phone number (that no-one answers). So I’m currently not able to use the card and in the process of reporting them. DO NOT USE THEM!!!

If I could give 0/10 I would! Biggest scam! I am disgusted with the service NOT being provided to assist me with my card. I contacted them on multiple days with no reply, so much for 24 hour response! They do not pick up their phone, don’t respond to emails and their website is broken logging me out as soon as I sign in not allowing me to activate my card. THIEVES!

do not buy one of these cards if you failed to activate it in the very short activation. Period you will spend a month or more trying to get these people to give you customer service. The phone number they give you when you finally find it just tell you to email them. All you can do is email them and they will get back to you in their own sweet time which means never do not buy it.

Looks like the same thing has happened to me. I was given a $500 card for long service with my employer. At the time I passed it onto the ex so she could use it for kids expenses. She only recently mentioned that it hadn't worked at the time and she forgot about it. Expiry is November 2025, so should still work, but I'm not sure if she did the… Read more

activation or not. Regardless, how can they take money that is not theirs if it's still within the expiry period. A non-activation should only be able to trigger a refund to the body who paid the money in the first place. Given how many people appear to be affected, could a class action or other govt watchdog prosecution be commenced?

If I could rate less then I would. We were issued this gift card by an employer. Activated the card but in the process of accumulating additional cards (to use on an expensive item), this gift card expired. I contacted customer service who dismissed my request to extend/honor the card amount. This company has no concept of customer satisfaction… Read more

and I believe relies on consumers either not activating cards or using prior to the expiry date in order to retain funds. Surely this cannot be legal?

Same as other reviews. Gift card wouldn’t work. Multiple emails sent with empty promises and no solution. Eventually magically worked after weeks of doing nothing that wasn’t tried already. Were they gaining interest on the payment while pretending not to know how to fix?.

Infuriating to activate, can’t setup a login (keep getting bumped out of the login), the website lists a 1300 number which simply produces a recorded voice message telling you to email them. Whole thing feels like a scam and is awful customer experience. 0 stars.

Lost $1000 - multiple coworkers had same issue. Confusing activation rules: card shows November 2025 expiry but must activate by May 2025. Missed deadline = your money becomes Corporate Prepaid Cards' money. That's not right. Customer service ignores you. Predatory business model designed to enrich the company. Avoid.

BUYER BEWARE!!! Zero Stars!!! Absolute waste of money!!! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! Paid for a personalised gift card for my husband plus the value of $100 on the card. Card expiry states 12/26. Husband tried to use card last week and wouldn’t work… embarrassing enough. Upon entering a myriad of personal details on the website to determine the… Read more

issue, I find in my account ‘Card Cancelled’ and a balance of zero dollars. What the actual?

I then read the fine print on the web site and cannot believe this company is legally able to cancel your card and keep your money without consequence if you have not activated your card after a set period of time. No communication, no warning… NOTHING! Here I was naively thinking that consumers were now protected with a mandatory 3 year minimum on gift card purchases… WRONG!

Total Scam… DO NOT PURCHASE!!!

Useless, I am still working in my late sixties and received a so called gift card which has proved impossible to register and use from my employer, disgraceful that as an elderly man I do the right thing and get let down by this company

I was gifted a $300 digital gift card from Universal Gift Card. I immediately redeemed the digital card, and I can see it all set up in my account. I followed all the instructions to add the card to my Google Wallet. Once it was set up the card kept saying that I needed to validate it by entering the security number (CCV). No mater how many times… Read more

I tried I got the same issue "An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later", so I did over multiple days. Finally I caved and contacted Universal Gift Card for support. The phone number is a looped message asking me to email, so I emailed with the exact wording of the error I was receiving, as well of a description of what I was struggling with. My first response was from Saraya from Corporate Prepaid Cards (note the different company name), and she asked for a screenshot. Now this is interesting, because you cannot take a screenshot within the Google Wallet app (for obvious security reasons). I let her know this, so I took a picture of the error message with a different phone and blacked out the card details. I was then responded to by Eli from Universal Gift Card. Eli asked me to delete the card from my wallet and add it again (like this was something I hadn't already done). I deleted the card, and took the time to re-add it for what was likely the 4th time. Alas the same issue persisted, and I could not verify the card. I tried using the card at a petrol station, and a coffee shop for amounts far below the $300 balance. It declined 3 times, and I can see where it declined in the transaction history. However the transaction history shows a message after the decline that "Cash withdrawal not allowed on this card", which I wasn't surprised about, because no gift card allows you to withdraw cash. What did surprise me is that error code would show up for trying to purchase petrol at a BP, or buying a coffee from a coffee shop. In both instances it was a tap of the phone on an EFTPOS machine. I email Eli again and let him know the issue has persisted and asked for a new card to be issued, or a physical card be sent to me. Eli lets me know that "There may be an issue with your google wallet." but "This card is still useable for online purchases." and "Unfortunately, we are not able to provide a physical card or a replacement card in this case." Fair enough I think, and I cast my mind back to a sound bar I would quite like. I head on over to JB HiFi online and I attempt to make a $195 purchase through their online store. This isn't what I thought I would be using the card for, but it would be nice to have a sound bar. I enter the details as if the card is a credit card, but alas the card declines. I go and I double check the card number, expiry date, and security number, and then I try again. Declined. Frustrated, but still polite I send a follow up email to Eli and let him know about this issue, and specifically ask how I can rectify this? Eli lets me know "When making a purchase online, please ensure you are selecting the pay by credit card option. Please note our cards cannot be used with google pay or PayPal." At this point I am at a loss for how I should proceed to fix the issue. If you have been gifted a Universal Gift Card, I am sorry, but there is slim to no chance that you will be able to use the card. If you are looking to purchase a gift card for someone I would recommend avoiding them like the plague, as well as Corporate Prepaid Cards, and any website selling their junk gift cards.