Buying Gift Cards at WOW

[exceladdict]

Hi All, just thought I'd report on an experience yesterday acquiring some gift cards, it may be of interest to others.

Objective: Maximise points earn on a new Nexus 6P phone.

Mitigating Factors: Hold a 1PP$ MC and a 2PP$ AMEX (for spend at supermarkets). Also am always up for a challenge, and wanted the phone asap (online stores not an option). And of course, there are other ways to obtain money to spend at woolworths.

I had established that JB would have the best price. However, as well as not being a supermarket, they charge a 2.65% amex surcharge.

On to the Forrest Place Woolies I go, but they had no JB Hifi gift cards. Drat. Over to Enex100 - and they had a small handful of $30 gift cards, and 3x $50 gift cards. Still not enough to make the $900 for the phone. Asked a few people at the supermarket if there were any more - after looking, the lady said "Why don't you buy them from JB?".

Over to the self-check out I went and quickly discovered there was a 10 gift card per-transaction limit - the major learning of this exercise. An attendant had to reset it for me to continue. After scanning the cards, all payment methods were available, and I did my thing. After the transaction finished, it took some time but eventually spat out an activation docket for each $30 gift card.

I then moved on to the next batch of 10, so on and so forth until I'd purchased every JB gift card at enex100. I also discovered that fuel dockets were awarded on the gift card purchases. I suppose I could have done tens of transactions to collect a bunch of dockets - but I guess it's a shame QFF points are no longer awarded.

Up to JB Hifi and was friendly to the register attendant, they had no problem with me using all the gift cards, apparently I'm not the first person to do it (perhaps they just remember last time I bought a laptop from there). They did however enforce a "take a copy of your ID because you've spent more than $375 using gift cards, or used multiple cards". I understand why. Finished the last $100 or so of the transaction on the MC.

Hopefully this helps someone!

 

[kspara]

Personally I use the AmEx platinum edge (3 points per $ @ supermarkets)
Then I buy egiftcards (5% off) - And then redeem those at Woolworths to get jb cards, or ebgames, etc.
Same principle as your method, but with an added 5% off
We don't have enex100 stores here in SA, so would have to go to various Woolworths to get the required jb cards.

 

[coriander]

The 10-card per transaction reminds me to mention that JBHifi have a 5-card per transaction limit on online orders (unlimited in-store). I got caught by this last year when JB had a 24-hour special on Nikon ($250 off a D7200). I raced into the City with 14 $100 gift cards, only to find that city stores were out of stock. By the time I trammed home, it was after closing time. Jumped online to purchase, started punching in gift card numbers........ after the 5th, a message popped up telling me "maximum gift cards reached, use another form of payment"; had to use CC to conclude transaction :evil:!

 

[N860CR]

Personally I use the AmEx platinum edge (3 points per $ @ supermarkets)
Then I buy egiftcards (5% off) - And then redeem those at Woolworths to get jb cards, or ebgames, etc.
Same principle as your method, but with an added 5% off
We don't have enex100 stores here in SA, so would have to go to various Woolworths to get the required jb cards.

I was only looking at this last night.

Is there any issue using the E-gift card at woolies to buy more gift cards?. Do you use self checkout or the physical person register?

I've never used one of these ecards in a store, only online

 

[kspara]

I've had no problem using the e gift cards even at manned check out.

[You are not supposed to use the e gift cards to buy a (physical) wish gift card as these are also owned by WOW - but I have managed to "covert" the paper version into a physical card in the past. Add it in with your normal shopping. ]

No problems for using the e gift card to buy gift cards from other companies like jb, hoyts, eb games, myer, bcf etc.

Just tell the operator you are paying by e gift card. Then enter the 10 digit number + pin.

 

[exceladdict]

I've had no problem using the e gift cards even at manned check out.

[You are not supposed to use the e gift cards to buy a (physical) wish gift card as these are also owned by WOW - but I have managed to "covert" the paper version into a physical card in the past. Add it in with your normal shopping. ]

No problems for using the e gift card to buy gift cards from other companies like jb, hoyts, eb games, myer, bcf etc.

Just tell the operator you are paying by e gift card. Then enter the 10 digit number + pin.

An exclusion to this is the WoW Money Prepaid Mastercards which cannot be loaded with gift or e-gift wish cards.

 

[kspara]

Yes, you actually have to pay an extra charge for the prepaid credit card as well! ( about $5+ ) So even if you could use a gift card to load funds on, it wouldn't be a viable way to earn points.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Was the purchase of gift cards and and the final purchase at JB done on the same day. I've heard there is sometimes a 24 hour delay on the activation of JB gift cards when purchased at Woolworths and other places so you can't always hop from one store to the other in the same shopping trip.

I've considered converting discounted Wish cards into JB Hi Fi cards but haven't done it due to several timing issues. Mostly the issues were due to family commitments and the fact that JB had one day only specials/coupons and I don't carry stock of JB gift cards.

 

[kspara]

I usually carry the e gift card with me in anticipation of using it at woolies, big w, Dan Murphy's etc.
I've used to to acquire eb games gift cards @ woolies and then used it 5 minutes later at eb. So it was activated straight away.
Think I did a jb one last year and it was activated already. Was only for about $150/$200. Used it on the same day too.
But your point is valid in not wanting to carry a whole bunch of gift cards around with you.
It's always a compromise in our never ending effort to acquire more points - and to also save $50 on a 1k item.

 

[exceladdict]

Was the purchase of gift cards and and the final purchase at JB done on the same day. I've heard there is sometimes a 24 hour delay on the activation of JB gift cards when purchased at Woolworths and other places so you can't always hop from one store to the other in the same shopping trip.

I've considered converting discounted Wish cards into JB Hi Fi cards but haven't done it due to several timing issues. Mostly the issues were due to family commitments and the fact that JB had one day only specials/coupons and I don't carry stock of JB gift cards.

About 15 minutes between the stores.

 

[zzyss]

Hehe... good one. I did something similar last year when I bought my Surface. Wrote about it here:
cyberseraphic » Beneath the Surface

The JB receipt was about 2 meters long!

 

[andye]

Both David Jones and Rebel giftcards bought from WW can take 24 hours to activate. Irritating.

 

[exceladdict]

Sorry I just realized this duplicates the gift cards at supermarkets thread if mods wish to merge.

 

[coriander]

Hehe... good one.
The JB receipt was about 2 meters long!

Yes,I've had a similar receipt - it's then great fun to hand over the "streamer" to the officials at TRS.

 

[whatmeworry]

With JB I believe you can combine smaller gift cards to a value of $500 online.

 

[exceladdict]

With JB I believe you can combine smaller gift cards to a value of $500 online.

Is there not a per transaction card limit?

 

[whatmeworry]

Is there not a per transaction card limit?

Online 5 per transaction. Can be done multiple times upto $500.

Eg 20 $5 e giftcards, so that equals 4 $25 e giftcards which then can converted to one $100 e giftcards.