Prepaid Visa/MasterCard "Gift Cards" from shops/supermarkets - does anyone still sell them?

crumpet_man

I got an Amazon GC in Sainsbury's just before Christmas.  I think it varies by store.

pecunianonolet

Been researching for this topic over the festive period to build up on rewards (air miles, cashback, etc). Am I right, that I could buy a Vanilla gift card with credit card A (rewards) and pay back the spending of A with that Vanilla card and can create the desired MS loop? Any fees in the process? Happy to receive answers or hints by PM to avoid drying out any wells ;-)

crumpet_man

Fees generally outweigh any rewards.  From memory these are the prices

£100 vanilla MasterCard costs £104.95.

£50 costs £53.95

£25 costs £27.95

Not all credit card issuers will accept payment from a prepaid debit card.

WillPS

crumpet_man said:

I got an Amazon GC in Sainsbury's just before Christmas.  I think it varies by store.

Possibly conceivable they'd simply sold out too I guess. This store definitely had some in the Autumn.

crumpet_man said:

Fees generally outweigh any rewards.  From memory these are the prices

£100 vanilla MasterCard costs £104.95.

£50 costs £53.95

£25 costs £27.95

Not all credit card issuers will accept payment from a prepaid debit card.

For 'normal spend rewards', yes it's highly unlikely to make sense. If you're short of a bonus (either sign up or some kind of annual threshold, like the BA card 2 for 1s) then it might make sense tho. Depends how tight/important liquidity is.

Fingerbobs

WillPS said:

For 'normal spend rewards', yes it's highly unlikely to make sense. If you're short of a bonus (either sign up or some kind of annual threshold, like the BA card 2 for 1s) then it might make sense tho. Depends how tight/important liquidity is.

In my case, I was able to effectively purchase the cards at a discounted price, which meant there was a slim profit in each one, provided the cards could be "redeemed" somewhere suitable. The margins were narrow, though, and I ran out of places that would accept the cards and convert them back into money. 

Fingerbobs

Yes, they're back in stock at my local WHSmith, but only in £25 and £50. To be honest, I only ever saw the £100 ones in Morrisons, and they are no longer doing them.

Just popped back to edit this post to correct myself - my local WHSmith do stock the £100 cards. They are on another display of gift cards at the back of the shop which I hadn't noticed. For some reason, the rack at the front of the shop near the entrance only has the £25 and £50 ones. So if you're looking for the £100 ones and only see the lower denominations, it's worth checking around the rest of the shop to see if there's another rack of gift cards.

But it still works; just for fun I've just cycled one £50 card round for an effective overall return of £1.40, but it's quite a palaver to achieve that. A get-rich-quick scheme it isn't

born_again

pecunianonolet said:

Been researching for this topic over the festive period to build up on rewards (air miles, cashback, etc). Am I right, that I could buy a Vanilla gift card with credit card A (rewards) and pay back the spending of A with that Vanilla card and can create the desired MS loop? Any fees in the process? Happy to receive answers or hints by PM to avoid drying out any wells ;-)

Just be aware CC may consider this a cash purchase (which it is in reality) & add fee & interest from day one.

WillPS

born_again said:

pecunianonolet said:

Been researching for this topic over the festive period to build up on rewards (air miles, cashback, etc). Am I right, that I could buy a Vanilla gift card with credit card A (rewards) and pay back the spending of A with that Vanilla card and can create the desired MS loop? Any fees in the process? Happy to receive answers or hints by PM to avoid drying out any wells ;-)

Just be aware CC may consider this a cash purchase (which it is in reality) & add fee & interest from day one.

CC company will not be able to tell the difference between a single £104.95 gift card and a full trolley with £104.95 worth of groceries. The MCC does not change based on what's being put through a till.

If you're not sure if it'll go through on the same transaction, add a single banana, onion or carrot to the gift card and check it's just one transaction for the full amount you're authorising. It isn't a necessary step tho.

Fingerbobs

The_Urbanite said:

... it got annoying when Vanilla reduced the online purchase limit to £40...

Do you know what particular regulation imposes this limit? I notice One4all gift cards also have this limit, which seems strange to me because retailer-specific gift cards are unlimited. Both Vanilla and One4all cite "regulatory requirements" as the reason for the limit; I'm just curious as to what that regulation is. 

Edit: Never mind - found the answer myself. It seems to be EU Directive 2018/843, which is concerned with money laundering and terrorist financing. The Directive sets a limit of EUR 50 for remote payments made with anonymous prepaid cards. This is interpreted as GBP 40 for the UK. 

crumpet_man

I think the £40 thing is no more, at least it is for one4all as I have made online purchases of £50 or more several times over the last year.