Gift Cards at Supermarkets

[andye]

Which big w?

Warringah Mall

 

[RAM]

At the weekend I spotted 'the perfect giftcard' EFTPOS card in BigW. Activation fee of $5.95 for $100 but presumably bought with a BigW discount eGift this could be a viable (though fiddly) way to get a small discount and 3 MR points per $ on stores that don't take (or surcharge) Amex. Won't work online and unable to get cash out.

You could be out of luck.

I tried doing a similar thing 'with a twist'.

Big W egc to buy WoW gcs and then use them to buy prepaid MC (same $5.95 fee) at a WoW.

The system refused to accept payment by gc.

 

[exceladdict]

Warringah Mall

None at Midland (wa).

 

[zzzhobbes]

@ Coles starting Wednesday buy $100 Flight Centre Voucher and receive a $10 Coles Myer Gift Voucher
deductions $5.95 fee to activate Flight Centre card
PROFIT
3 point per dollar AMEX
1 point per dollar Flybuys
$0.04 petrol voucher
$4.05 Coles Myer Gift Voucher

What are people's thoughts ?

 

[albyd]

Sounds interesting. Is this the FC Visa branded gift card that we can use everywhere or FC specific voucher?

 

[Shanye2233]

Fight centre GC can only be used at flight centre . The only one Visa cards are the ones you can use anywhere including back into Coles GC's

 

[quokka77]

This offer has been around previously. It is basically 5% off, and triple Amex MR, for Flight Centre purchases, for someone with significant existing regular spend at Coles. Last time it came around, the agent at my local FC told me she'd helped a customer redeem his entire USA family holiday with these cards. I think she said it was more than 20000 dollars worth. In my experience FC is a little more expensive than Hello World for US domestic flights.

 

[RAM]

This offer has been around previously. It is basically 5% off, and triple Amex MR, for Flight Centre purchases, for someone with significant existing regular spend at Coles.

The last time around it was offered for Woolworths with "10% off" prior to 31 Dec. The 10% off was instant not in the form of another gift card. There was a limit to 10 FC gcs per transaction but no limit to the number of transactions.

So by purchasing WoW gcs online at 5% off using AMEX cc and using these e-gcs to purchase the FC cards - worked out quite well.

As:

• I earnt VFF points on the AMEX transaction.
• I earnt QFF points on the FC transaction at WoW.
• After accounting for the 5% fee added to the FC gcs being offset by the 5% discount on the WoW gc purchase and then the 10% discount on the FC purchase.

It was well worth the 20 cm high stack of FC gcs. Lucrative even.

Last time it came around, the agent at my local FC told me she'd helped a customer redeem his entire USA family holiday with these cards. I think she said it was more than 20000 dollars worth.

However, it is no where near that time consuming for the FC person to redeem the cards as they can do what is called a 'bulk' redemption.

What is time consuming though is scratching the silver panel off every card to reveal the card id number and pin. Eventually after trying multiple different scratching tools - I found that the old 'Bambi' mini stapler to be the best. Got the scraping time per FC gc down to 4-6 seconds. Clearing away all the remnant scrapings along the way is tedious. You can send them an email/file (password protected if you like) with the card numbers and pin numbers listed on it. Of the card number - 12 digits are identical and 6 digits are serial numbers going up by one (if you get a wad of cards) - so simple to create the list. Really only typing in 4 or 5 numbers per card.

If anyone wants a simple excel file that makes it even easier just PM me.

Overall the $$ savings and earning both QFF and VFF points are rewarding.

In my experience FC is a little more expensive than Hello World for US domestic flights.

FC offers (so-called guarantee) to beat any quote. Even if they only beat it by $5.

For the first redemption of the FC gcs done last week they beat the airfare quote (screen shot) and accommodation quote (screen shot).

What I always do is my final research for a day or two (admittedly I keep an eye out through email alerts for falling accom or airfare prices ongoing). Find the best deals going and then get FC to beat the offers so I have it all under the one 'physical' TA if anything goes wrong.

Have been doing this for many years and FC ALWAYs beat the best quotes I have even if it is under what they originally offered for the same itinerary. Most recent example was a $1,200 saving on 3 weeks accommodation vs the FC quote. It pays to do some looking around.

 

[RAM]

@ Coles starting Wednesday buy $100 Flight Centre Voucher and receive a $10 Coles Myer Gift Voucher
deductions $5.95 fee to activate Flight Centre card 
PROFIT 
3 point per dollar AMEX
1 point per dollar Flybuys
$0.04 petrol voucher
$4.05 Coles Myer Gift Voucher

What are people's thoughts ?

Are you sure it is $5.95 per $100 FC gc? The $150 FC gcs I am looking at as I type state it is a $7.50 fee (5%).

Sounds reasonable but not as good as the WoW offer for me was late last year. That gave you 10% off the total cost (including the issuing fee).

Do you have the T&Cs?

• Is it limited to $100 or is that just an example?
• Is there a limit on how many transactions?
• Is there a shorter time limit on the CM gcs or are they just the normal ones?
• .....

Provided you can get the Coles gcs for a discount (normally 5% if accessible) then it works out quite lucrative.

If not limited to $100 (hopefully) then buy the largest possible denomination you can. With the WoW offer that was $150 face value. There used to be $500 face value ones around but have not seen them for a while now.

REMEMBER: There is a time limit for using the cards. If you forget or things get in the way so you do not use them - then you've lost the lot.

Check the cards at Coles to see what the time limit is. Do not assume it is the same as the last time....

 

[Shanye2233]

Or they close down . I lost $12,000 buying dick smith gift cards with discount Coles gift cards which Coles won't recover because I don't have the reciepts and paid with visa which said was too far along to put in a dispute

 

[kpc]

Or they close down . I lost $12,000 buying dick smith gift cards with discount Coles gift cards which Coles won't recover because I don't have the reciepts and paid with visa which said was too far along to put in a dispute

Ouch...Ouch!!

 

[zzyss]

Or they close down . I lost $12,000 buying dick smith gift cards with discount Coles gift cards which Coles won't recover because I don't have the reciepts and paid with visa which said was too far along to put in a dispute

OMG! Chargeback through Visa? Or did you mean that you bought them a long time ago? If so... why???

 

[Shanye2233]

I brought them along time ago at the 10% discount sale using 5% discount Coles gift cards. Then I was using those dick smith gift cards to buy iTunes gift cards at 20% sales to get my money back at a small loss

 

[burmans]

OMG! Chargeback through Visa? Or did you mean that you bought them a long time ago? If so... why???

Shayne is somewhat well known for those who have been around for a while, as the guy who will take an idea and push it well beyond the limits of what most would regard as reasonable. The downside of such an approach (beyond what the normal accusation is - of ruining it for everyone else), is that sometimes you get caught with your pants down. This would appear to be just such a case.

 

[Shanye2233]

What he means to say is shanye likes to help others and not keep secrets

 

[Pleb Status]

T&C's of the upcoming Coles FC GC offer.

 

[quokka77]

Hi RAM, when I tried to price match some USA domestic flights (Delta) vs Hello World, they told me that price match was only available for itineraries booked ex Australia (my international legs were award tickets). So they caught me out. The seats ended up being about the same price I could have booked them direct (voucher discount offset the higher FC sticker price).

 

[RAM]

Offer now up online in catalogue - available to anyone, not targeted promotion.
http://www.coles.com.au/catalogues-...ogue2&saleId=11719&areaName=c-nsw-met&page=37

That's a real pain. Limit of one $10 free CM gc per transaction.

So, technically, I get my pile of $100 FC gcs and go to the service desk with a pile of CM gcs (and a Bambi stapler...).

I buy the first $100 FC gc with a Coles gc (purchased elsewhere @5% off) and get a $10 CM gc.
I then buy the 2nd $100 FC gc with a Coles gc paying $90 (purchased elsewhere @5% off) while using the CM gc from above and get another $10 CM gc.
and so on.

The WoW offer was much superior - max 10 FC gcs per transaction at 10% off price there and then.

However, in the interests of some additional flight price matching - I probably will get 40 more cards. Shame about the $100 face value.

I will not use each CM gc then and there but stockpile them for use at Coles Express for petrol.

An after-dinner walk to Coles coming up shortly.

Better activation fee (marginally) - so $100 FC gc cost
= $104.95 - $10 (Cm gc) - $5.25 (5% off $104.95 using Coles gcs)
= $89.70 plus points on purchase of Coles gcs originally using cc.

 

[RAM]

SUCCESS!

First large tranche completed early this morning, flights to Europe booked shortly after for family. Need to buy some more Coles e-gcs for the last tranche (took the number of FC gcs for the balance with me in case they run out).

Not sure whether Fly Buys points will come into the equation, if they do then cost per $100 face value drops to $89.18 or thereabouts + all those AMEX points.

Staff thought it would work by putting all FC gcs through in one big transaction but I directed them to the T&Cs. Unhappy CSM at that Coles - "Who is only going to buy just one Flight Centre card, you get next to nothing from a travel agent for $100. We are going to have many unhappy customers stuck in queues with this. The bods in head office do it to us yet again!"

There is a LONG delay for the activation to process in each transaction. Well, compared to a normal transaction - added around 20-30 seconds after payment accepted. That was at a little after 7am when store volumes (Aust-wide) would be minimal. Just 1 checkout and service desk open where I was out of 38 terminals. Service desk was were I went.

 

[Happy Dude]

Has anyone seen Drummond Golf giftcards at Coles or Woolies?