Prepaid travel card news! ANZ customers to claim leftover funds after expiry

By Rebeccah Elley · · 2 min read
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A major catch of prepaid travel cards that has long frustrated Aussie travellers is the risk of the card expiring before they have been able to spend the entire balance.

But things are changing with major travel card issuers ANZ, Cuscal (issuer of the Westpac card) and Bank of China (issuer of the Australia Post Load&Go China card), tweaking their terms and conditions so that customers can now claim any leftover funds on their prepaid travel card even after the expiry date.

The changes come after ASIC conducted an industry wide review of travel money cards and found that ANZ, Cuscal and Bank of China were the only issuers out of eight to forfeit customer funds after expiry.

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In a statement ASIC explained, “ASIC's review of travel money cards has led to three additional card issuers changing their terms and conditions so that customers do not forfeit their funds when the cards expire. This is in line with all other travel money card issuers in Australia.”

According to ASIC if ANZ didn’t make this change to its PDF, they could have forfeited up to $3.5 million in funds sitting on expired travel money cards, three years after card expiry (where the amount was less than $500).

“Consumers can now be confident they will have access to their funds even if their travel money card has expired,” ASIC Deputy Chair Peter Kell said.

“This is a positive outcome for consumers, and we welcome ANZ, Cuscal and the Bank of China changing their terms and conditions about forfeiture to align with the rest of the industry.”

If you think you might have funds on an expired prepaid travel card, ASIC recommends contacting your card issuer, as soon as possible to avoid the bite of any ongoing fees eating into your balance.

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