Company suspends gift cards for cash program

Money Mart gives in to public pressure

TORONTO Money Mart has agreed to suspend its controversial program offering cash for gift cards at half of their f ace value after a call from Ontario’s Consumer Services Ministry.

The government issued a release saying the payday loan company “voluntarily suspended” the gift card exchange program, which Money Mart defended earlier Friday as a “convenient” service for its customers. The program was running in Hamilton and Niagara.

Consumer Services Minister David Orazietti says his office is looking to see if there needs to be increased regulation around the reselling of gift cards, something the opposition parties called for Thursday when they demanded the practice be stopped.

Ontario’s New Democrats called Money Mart a Grinch for launching the cash-for-gift-cards scheme during the pre-Christmas period, when many charities give their clients the cards.

Money Mart, which has branches across the country, described the service as “value added” in an earlier release Friday, which NDP consumer critic Jagmeet Singh said showed “how horribly misguided” the company really is. “It’s actually preying on very vulnerable people,” he said.

Ontario’s Tories accused Money Mart of “highway robbery” and, like the NDP, demanded the government stop the practice.

“It’s a sad indictment of society that we’re allowing it to happen, so the government needs to shut it down right away,” said interim PC Leader Jim Wilson.

Orazietti had warned Thursday that regulating cash-for-gift-card plans was a tough issue because people trading something they own for less than face value may not be any of the government’s business.

Money Mart did not respond to questions about how it makes money off the gift cards or if it sells them back to the original retailers.

A statement issued by the New York public relations firm ICR Friday morning did not directly address accusations that Money Mart was preying on vulnerable members of society.