Gift Cards at Supermarkets

[foggy]

Hence why I stated in message #2586:

'It may be a harsh lesson to learn - but I'd always recommend keeping a 3 month stock of these cards on hand to sustain you between deals. I kept enough to pay my familys heath insurance for just this reason.'

There is no reason to loose .65 cents in every $100 except that you weren't organised enough.

No limit was enforced until mid way through the promo period for the VISA ONLY card. Many people, including myself, purchased hundreds of VISA ONLY cards.

By all means keep going with your strategy of loosing money purchasing the VISA ONLY cards now. The point which I thought I had made clear is that there was no need to do this and not a strategy which anyone needs to undertake.

Mate, I don't know where you live but if you live in METRO SYDNEY, you are competing with many savvy frequent flyer hunters. It has nothing to do with being organised, it just has to do with living in areas where more people know about these promos and buying more than 50+ at a time so that 1 single person can clean out a store. And my local chatswood woolworths didnt even have $100 only1 giftcards at all because i went 7:30am on that wednesday morning.

Saying people are unorganised is an unfair and unjust statement.

 

[SOPOOR]

How did you buy another 50 cards at the end of the promo when it was capped at 10 ?

for the first half of the promo , the 10 cards per account wasnt enforced by the system,
in the second half, they were, I have 2 edr cards plus I used a few of my relatives edr cards,
so I was carrying around a few orange cards during the promo!

well worth it

 

[CaviAck]

Hence why I stated in message #2586:

'It may be a harsh lesson to learn - but I'd always recommend keeping a 3 month stock of these cards on hand to sustain you between deals. I kept enough to pay my familys heath insurance for just this reason.'

Unfortunately some people can't afford to keep thousands tied up in prepaid visa cards for months and this is the best they can achieve

 

[lovetravellingoz]

No limit was enforced until mid way through the promo period for the VISA ONLY card. Many people, including myself, purchased hundreds of VISA ONLY cards.

I think one needs to bare in mind that opportunity can be different, and is indeed different, for each of us due to a wide range of criteria.

ie Many people had no access to such stockpiles depending where they lived. You cannot buy what is physically not there. Certainly in Melbourne the cards were in short supply. And indeed are still in short supply.

In addition while points are nice, travelling large distances to gain them is often not worth it to many. I can certainly make more $$$$$ through spending more time on my business than driving all over Victoria in the hope of possibly finding cards (Most posts here and on Ozbargain also indicated that Victoria was a pretty barren hunting ground) . This may be different of course for those whose income is fixed. But for some of us it is always a choice do I spend more time earning money vs more time gaining points vs more time saving money or points.

Points do not just cost $$, but time. The opportunity cost of that time varies by the individual. Like many of the forum I enjoy chasing points as a hobby (and as such sometimes chase points when pure logic suggests that I should not) but I always factor in points gained for $$ and time expended.


As for future promos.Who knows. WOW will quite possibly next time make sure that any cap actually works, and secondly there is now a large army of Ozbargainers who missed out last time and will make quick work of any repeated such deal.


However opportunities, though probably different ones, will present again as companies will continue to stuff up their promos.

 

[SOPOOR]

I hear you but unless you can tell me that there is another only1 offer coming tomorrow, I don't have the luxury of time since health premiums need to prepaid by 31st March.

I appreciate your advice is sound in general, but not overly useful in this particular instance. I can live with the 65c loss per $100 since my overall saving is still significant and worth it given the timescales involved and the lack of a better offer.

to me when trying to find the best deal its like a two horse race, one to find the best deal at the time, and one to find the best deal ongoing or long term, I stocked up on those recent visa 1 deals, I missed out on those coles offers completely, but next time will stock up again, for me personally the cashflow crisis I go through after is well worth it

 

[Dr Ralph]

Mate, I don't know where you live but if you live in METRO SYDNEY

I'd encourage you to read the information available to you.

You do know where I live. That information is available to all. It has never been hidden. And you may not also be aware that during the promotion period for the VISA ONE card myself and many other members took the time to specifically state which stores did and did not have stock availability, including for metropolitan stores. I remind you that I stated that I visited over 15 stores searching for and purchasing VISA ONLY cards. I gave the location for those stores and informed members of how many cards were available at that time. i would have seen more than 1000 cards during the entire promotion period.

I state clearly again for you, organisation is key to taking advantage of these offers. Simply visiting one store or a series of stores in an isolated geographical area was never going to be very successful strategy. Many other members have already made this point when the VISA ONE offer was current. Th VISA ONE offering was open to every person to enjoy. If you wanted to enjoy it fully you needed to make sure you had available cash and were prepared to look hard for cards.

It is not correct to state that my statement of this reality is unfair and unjust. It was an accurate and fair statement and I stand by it. If you aren't organised and willing to play the game you will likely miss the available opportunities or at least miss the opportunity to fully maximise the benefits of such offers.

 

[burmans]

Unfortunately some people can't afford to keep thousands tied up in prepaid visa cards for months

Unmentioned but there is a security risk in doing so too.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Unmentioned but there is a security risk in doing so too.

No more than holding gift vouchers for any other business in my view.

Unfortunately some people can't afford to keep thousands tied up in prepaid visa cards for months and this is the best they can achieve

Then the reality is that those people will miss out on maximising opportunities when they do arise.

If I had a spare million dollars when the VISA ONE offering was on and could have redeemed the those cards within a 12 month period, I would have had no hesitation in spending that sum. The reality was I didn't have a spare million dollars, but I spent enough to purchase cards which I knew I could use withiin the next three months - which is the average amount of time between similar deals.

 

[foggy]

I'd encourage you to read the information available to you.

You do know where I live. That information is available to all. It has never been hidden And you may not also be aware that during the promotion period for the VISA ONE card myself and many other members took the time to specifically state which stores did and did not have stock availability, including for metropolitan stores. I remind you that I stated that I visited over 15 stores searching for and purchasing VISA ONLY cards.

I state clearly again for you, organisation is key to taking advantage of these offers. Simply visiting one store or a series of stores in an isolated geographical area was never going to be very successful. Many other members have already made this point when the VISA ONE offer was current.

It is not correct to state that my statement of this reality is unfair and unjust. It was an accurate and fair statement and I stand by it. If you aren't organised and willing to play the game you will likely miss the available opportunities.

Our definition of being organised is very different. I feel like you should be saying dedication. Also one cannot rely on posts here saying a location that would require 1hr drive has XX amount of cards, given that the amount of people that read forums like these without posting, it could be cleared out before you even arrive. I did visit around 12 stores in total during the promo period and it was store small suburb store that still had stock.

If the location on your profile saying Wollongong is true then it makes sense that you could purchase 100s of the only1 giftcards. You'd have very little competition.

 

[SOPOOR]

Our definition of being organised is very different. I feel like you should be saying dedication. Also one cannot rely on posts here saying a location that would require 1hr drive has XX amount of cards, given that the amount of people that read forums like these without posting, it could be cleared out before you even arrive. I did visit around 12 stores in total during the promo period and it was store small suburb store that still had stock.

If the location on your profile saying Wollongong is true then it makes sense that you could purchase 100s of the only1 giftcards. You'd have very little competition.

honestly, I think it might be a logitisical thing for each area, im sure state by state is very different

however, i pretty much went across town , and the two that I found were close together, both had no ideas of when stock was coming or not,

1 store had decent stock before the promo, and never got any more

the 2nd store, had just a few on promo day, and got a truckload at like 12pm the last day of promo,

1 store I found one in plain view , it was obvious no one in that area cared as the rack was not very well organised or viisible

 

[Dr Ralph]

Our definition of being organised is very different. I feel like you should be saying dedication.

That's probably correct.

I've stated before more than one time that I value a dollar saved more than a dollar earned.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Our definition of being organised is very different. .

In my case I checked out local stores on the Sunday prior to promo starting. Stocks even then were low or zero.
Monitoring of relevant sites during the promo period indicated no joy to be had anywhere within my viable range.

Being organised was irrelevant in my case.

 

[JohnK]

I am going to prepay mine and the wife's health cover premiums for the next 12 months because I am somewhat disgusted by the premium increase.

Off topic slightly but how do you prepay Health cover?

Medibank Private allows split payments and I used only1 cards to pay this month's premium which take me through to 04 April. If I pay say $1000 (roughly 9 months cover) before 31 March does that cover me for next 9 months at old rate?

 

[asterix]

Off topic slightly but how do you prepay Health cover?

Medibank Private allows split payments and I used only1 cards to pay this month's premium which take me through to 04 April. If I pay say $1000 (roughly 9 months cover) before 31 March does that cover me for next 9 months at old rate?

Yes, any amount paid before April 1 will be at today's price. I had 17 x $100 VISA/Mastercards from the Coles and Woolworths deal that I used to prepay part of my health insurance.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Off topic slightly but how do you prepay Health cover?

Medibank Private allows split payments and I used only1 cards to pay this month's premium which take me through to 04 April. If I pay say $1000 (roughly 9 months cover) before 31 March does that cover me for next 9 months at old rate?

Exactly that.

 

[d00dz]

How long in advance can you prepaid for? Maybe 5 years for NIB? LOL

 

[asterix]

I was told I could prepay until June 30, 2018.

 

[foggy]

I was told I could prepay until June 30, 2018.

I think all health fund providers limits a prepaid amount of 14months

 

[Mr_Orange]

How long in advance can you prepaid for? Maybe 5 years for NIB? LOL

Ours have said 12 months, which I thought was the norm.

 

[burmans]

I think all health fund providers limits a prepaid amount of 14months

My prior health fund said they only allowed 12 months, however in reality allowed me to prepay 30. That was a special situation though, generally I would question the benefit of doing so!