All businesses who can accept digital cards as payment (ie: ‘tap’ with a smart phone or smartwatch) can accept the digital AlburyCBD gift cards. However, businesses do need to register to be part of the AlburyCBD gift card program.

The digital gift cards work just like any other card in a digital wallet. At time of payment, the customer just selects the AlburyCBD Digital Gift Card in their wallet and hold to the reader (eg: EFTPOS machine or Square) to pay.

Digital Gift Cards can be purchased through the AlburyCBD website or directly through the Why Leave Town (WLT) website: https://www.whyleavetown.com/product/albury-digital-gift-card/

The digital gift cards can be spent at a wide selection of businesses across AlburyCBD. View the full list here.

No, we have updated your registration to also include digital gift cards. Only businesses who are new to the program, ie: those with Square readers, will need to register.

Yes! The original AlburyCBD gift cards are still available to spend and purchase. Scroll down for more info on the physical gift cards.

The cards are manufactured with PVC plastic and contain a magnetic strip that is encoded with the card details. Each card has a unique identification number as well as a 4 digit pin located on the back of the card.

Load Amounts

$10 to $1000 can be loaded onto a single card.

Terminals

The cards will work on all standard EFTPOS terminals within Australia. They are made to the same standard as any of the bank issued debit style cards. The cards will also work with EFTPOS terminals that are integrated with a computer. The cards are required to be swiped through the EFTPOS terminals to transact. Therefore, they will not operate via Paywave.

Transaction fees

Businesses will be charged standard fees for each transaction that takes place on their EFTPOS terminal. That is, they will only be charged what they normally would be charged when transacting any other EFTPOS savings card. There are NO ADDITIONAL FEES charged by WLT.

Within the Load Up businesses, money is placed onto the cards using the REFUND function on the EFTPOS terminal.

For example, a customer would like to buy a gift card for $50.

Step 1 – The customer pays $50. The customer’s debit card is swiped through the terminal (where the gift card is to be loaded).

Step 2 – The business uses their EFTPOS terminal to do a REFUND onto the AlburyCBD gift card. The customer has a gift card with $50 to ‘treat themselves or someone special’.

This is essentially a zero sum transaction, i.e. money goes into the businesses account and then comes straight out again.

Please note, if the customer pays with cash, the cash figure at the end of the day will be up, and the EFTPOS figure down by the same amount. However, the total combined figure will still balance.

When a card holder wants to spend money on their card, they simply present the AlburyCBD gift card at a participating business and the following transaction takes place via the EFTPOS terminal.

Step 1 – The sale amount is entered into the businesses EFTPOS terminal

Step 2 – The AlburyCBD Gift Card is swiped

Step 3 – SAVINGS is selected

Step 4 – The 4 digit pin on the back of the card is entered

The money is then released from the trust account and goes directly to the businesses EFTPOS account.

Transactions are processed exactly the same as any other EFTPOS savings card (i.e. same day payment).

How many times can the card be used?

The gift card amount can be spent a little at a time or all at once. However, the cards can only be loaded once. This means that the initial value loaded onto the card cannot be added to.

What happens if I lose my gift card?

The gift card is like cash, it is non-redeemable if it’s lost. However, if the card number is known then the card can be replaced. It is for this reason that purchasers are encouraged to register the card at www.whyleavetown.com/register-card

How do I check the balance on my gift card?

The balance of funds remaining on the card can be found by logging onto www.whyleavetown.com/check-card-balance. It includes a statement of where and then the card has been used, and its expiry date,

What is the expiry date?

Card funds that remain after 3 years from being loaded will expire, in line with government legislation requirements.

The AlburyCBD gift card program is run by Why Leave Town.

Where is the money held?

All funds that are loaded onto the cards are stored within a separate trust account. The trust account sits with Cuscal, the largest independent provider of payments solutions for the Australian financial services sector. Cuscal partner with more than 150 different companies, process more than three million transactions a day, and switch (i.e. transaction routing and processing) for over one-third of ATMs across Australia.

To find more about Cuscal head to https://cuscalpayments.com.au/

No funds are held by Why Leave Town Promotions, AlburyCBD, Albury Northside Chamber of Commerce or the participating businesses. This is vital in protecting the value of the card for the card holder.

What happens with the funds when the cards expire?

The cards themselves expire 6 years after their printing date – regardless of if they have been loaded or not.

Once cards expire then the holder of the cards cannot access this money. The amount left on the cards at expiry is known as the ‘breakage’. 75% of any funds left on the card after expiry are returned to WLT (25% is maintained by the card providers that WLT use for their gift cards). Of the 75% that is returned to WLT, 100% of these funds are passed onto AlburyCBD. That is, WLT makes NO profit from expired funds in our programs.

Given that the WLT brand is all about keeping money within local communities, they are transparent about all breakage.

Systems the cards will not work on

Please note that the cards WILL NOT work on Square, PayPal or similar card readers. Although some of these terminals have a swipe function and will accept EFTPOS cards, these terminals operate differently to standard EFTPOS terminals, and hence cannot be ‘locked down’. The locking down process is at the core of the WLT system as it is what ensures that the money can only be spent at participating stores.

However businesses with Square readers can accept digital gift cards (scroll back up for more info).

Terms & Conditions

Read the full Gift Card Terms & Conditions here from Why Leave Town (the gift card provider).