Google Play balance expires after 2 years

Lcrikey on 02/03/2017 - 16:31

Went to purchase an app today and noticed my Google Play balance was unexpectedly zero. Unfortunately Google don't provide a running balance or statement, just a list of previous purchases from your account, so I couldn't see what had happened or what my balance was before it was zeroed out. Had to call them.

The support person was kinda helpful but had to escalate and it took more than 30mins to sort out. Anyway, turns out they took my balance because there hadn't been "activity" for two years.

https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_au/about/card-terms.html

Gift Card value expires 2 years following the date of (1) card issuance, or (2) last activity on Google Play stored value account into which the card is redeemed, whichever is later.

I pointed out that I had been using my balance pretty regularly during the last 2 years, most recently with a purchase 2 months ago, which the support person confirmed. However, she claimed that "activity" means adding credit to the balance, and that last occurred on my account more than 2 years ago.

Have any of you been stung by this? Appears to be really deceptive to me - any reasonable person reading the term above would surely interpret "last activity on the account" to include purchases made using that account.

If you do the Google survey thing you'd be adding credit pretty regularly so it wouldn't affect you, but I've never done that.

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Comments

  • reno on 02/03/2017 - 16:48

    and so I just checked my account and it shows as 0 as well… =/

  • trustnoone on 02/03/2017 - 17:15

    Personally feel thats a little saddening, if 2 years meant no activity at all I might be more accepting, but if activity only counts "adding credits" then it feels a bit stingy.

    Good to know I guess, I never put credit on Google play unless I buy something which has only been a handful of times. Looks like I'll be keeping with that in the future.

  • Baebs on 02/03/2017 - 17:33
    +1

    Haven't received Google surveys in over 12 months yet can't justify spending my remaining $3 (Ozbargain dilemmas). If only pokemon go hadn't bombed..

  • Diji1 on 02/03/2017 - 19:48

    Note that whilst they're happy to delete your bank details when they have your money they will never ever delete the records they hold on you, ever.

    Just like a scummy advertising business!

  • Colombian on 02/03/2017 - 22:18

    The balance I have is from Google Surveys since it started in 2014 I think. I still got that balance, never have added any credit to it.

  • JSQUARED on 02/03/2017 - 22:28

    Realised I lost my credit too, but it was from this deal back in 2015.

    • crikey on 03/03/2017 - 12:04

      Yeah, I had a gift card added in 2014 but also took up that deal for $6 credit in Feb 2015. That was the last credit to my account, so two years later, Feb 2017, my total remaining balance is wiped out.

  • Save 50 Cent on 02/03/2017 - 23:54

    So they want you to add credit to your credit when you can't find something decent to spend your credit on? That's a bit silly. I'd get an iPhone just to piss them off.

    • crikey on 03/03/2017 - 11:57

      Yeah, I actually have an iPhone in addition to my Android tablet. When I complained about their behaviour the support person asked me, "But don't you think two years is a reasonable time to use up your gift card credit?", I explained other major companies such as Apple and Amazon don't expire credit ever. Her cop-out response was, "I can't comment on the policies of other companies".

      Anyway, thankfully I only lost a small amount, but others need to be aware that once your 2 years is up, that credit is automatically stolen without warning, and without any ability for you to investigate what happened other than to call Google support on the phone. (And even then it can take them 56 mins - I just checked the call log - of faffing around to figure it out!)

  • theoneandonlylml on 25/03/2017 - 21:59

    Thanks for posting this, I had no idea about the 2 year expiry.

  • Mik on 09/04/2017 - 19:49

    I'd escalate to ACCC. The only reason that an expiry date exists on credit like this, is for Google to screw you. There is literally no other reason.

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