People face losing money on shopping centre gift cards

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Sue Ellen

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Thousands of people face losing the money on their shopping centre gift cards, after the payments firm that manages the funds was shut down by regulators.

Shopping centres including Dublin's Liffey Valley, Mahon Point in Cork, White Water in Kildare and The Square Tallaght are now unable to sell or accept gift cards due to the shutdown. See here.
 
I dont have one but doubtful the people buying the vouchers would have realised the card company and funds were in Lithuania and was not run by the centres and something like this could happen.
 
Yes there have been too many such incidents or say restaurants closing down.

I wonder what value of vouches is impacted and any chance something might be salvaged.

Assuming Christmas is biggest generator hopefully a lot spent in 6 months.
 
I got a voucher in 2014 for 70€ as a gift. Went to spend it last Christmas and it had been entirely used up by charges. I dislike receiving vouchers as I don’t get to shopping centres much. I’m sure I have a few others around being slowly used up by fees. They are a gimmick and I never buy them for others. Cash all the way.
 
Agree - or else somethig like a national book token which can be used in any book shop and no expiry
 
I like a voucher but always use them fast! I got 2 all4one last year totalling €100. I just went into my local household place. I got me a fancy zester, a decent cheese grater for hard cheeses and a decent tempeture probe. I had to add a tenner or so.

Just spend them.
 
It seems it worked out for you but lots of people will not go out and spend then straight away. I feel sorry for anyone loosing money on this latest pre-pay card issue with all their terms and conditions and handling or management fees .
I still have some of the paper Liffey Valley vouchers form eons ago I am never there. Now that I have to pay parking charges to go there it's even less likely I will ever visit.

Vouchers are harder to spend than plain old cash. At least one 4 all are as so many places don't take them and you have to know the amount that is left on the card if your spend is more than on the card.
 
I wouldn't be the most prudent person when it comes to money (or gift credit cards). But, we were burnt by one of the shopping centres named on this thread. Mrs Lep's hairdresser just happens to operate from the Shopping Centre. She informed the hairdresser of what happened with the shopping centre card and wouldn't be setting foot in the centre again (nothing personal of course!). The hairdresser knowing the potential of a lost customer sent a voucher to us almost immediately. I dropped the same line to a sports shop in the centre and immediately got a discount on a good pair of runners. For once, (using Mrs Lep's head) we more than got our money back and no thanks to the management of the shopping centre.
 
It's worth reading the Lithuanian supervisor's press release.

Supervisor can't even confirm that client funds are all there:

According to the information provided to the Bank of Lithuania, the institution is aware of the amount of its current liabilities to clients, and its client funds are safeguarded in separate dedicated accounts.
Click to expand...

Later on it says:

After assessing the institution’s financial position, the Bank of Lithuania found that the liabilities currently held by the institution exceeded its assets, therefore it is insolvent and there is no evidence that the situation could change in the near future.
Click to expand...
 
The shops which sold these cards must surely now have a responsibility under consumer law to refund the customers who purchased them?
 
T McGibney said:
The shops which sold these cards must surely now have a responsibility under consumer law to refund the customers who purchased them?
Click to expand...
It's a good question. I suspect if you read the fine print you would find that claims ultimately fall on UAB PAYRNET which as of six days ago cannot make payments as its e-money license has been revoked.

On the other hand the businesses would be best placed to honour the cards and take whatever they can get in due course from the liquidation of the entity.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
It's a good question. I suspect if you read the fine print you would find that claims ultimately fall on UAB PAYRNET which as of six days ago cannot make payments as its e-money license has been revoked.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily disagreeing but if I head off to a store in Liffey Valley and buy a Hugo Boss suit and there's a little label on it saying that claims ultimately fall on Hugo Boss GmbH, that doesn't invalidate or compromise my rights as a consumer if it later turns out that there's something wrong with it.
 
T McGibney said:
The shops which sold these cards must surely now have a responsibility under consumer law to refund the customers who purchased them?
Click to expand...
The problem here is that the shops don't sell them, they're only available from the customer service desk or dedicated kiosk.
 
Leo said:
The problem here is that the shops don't sell them, they're only available from the customer service desk or dedicated kiosk.
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Well then if I head off to a kiosk in Liffey Valley and buy a voucher and there's a little label on it saying that claims ultimately fall on a voucher company in Lithuania, that doesn't invalidate or compromise my rights as a consumer if it later turns out that there's something wrong with it.
 
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