Gift Cards - Credit Card (Barclaycard & M&S)

adamL

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

Mark_d

Barclaycard Avios credit card treats gift vouchers as regular transactions from my experience - but I've never used Reward Gateway.

MattMattMattUK

adamL said:

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

It entirely depends how the merchant reports it. Amazon for example do not differentiate between "cash like" transactions, which are vouchers and purchases, some third party sites do. 

DullGreyGuy

adamL said:

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

When a merchant wants to be able to take payments they approach a merchant services company and sign up for one or more accounts (they may want to split up their business for various reasons). Against each account the merchant services provider will apply a code (MCC) which basically says what the merchant does and in the case of multiple accounts it may be different. So Thomas Cook may have one merchant account identified as a travel agent and a second identified as an FX company for their travel money business. 

When a merchant asks for payment the merchant services company applies to the request this MCC and your bank can then decide how they want to treat it, so with the TC example above the first will be treated as a the purchase of services and the second will be a cash advance because buying Euros is a cash like transaction. 


So, buy a gift card with your normal weekly shop at Tesco, it will go through their tills and present as a supermarket purchase so a product. Go to an online vendor that does nothing but sell gift cards and their MCC will be something more focused which your bank may have decide to categorise as csh like. 

There have been some reports of cash like fees being applied to some credit cards when buying gift cards online, I just use my AmEx card which doesn't have cash like fees so is a non-problem.

born_again

Nice to see a retailer has realised & puts a web page up.

http://rgvouchers.co.uk/

35har1old

DullGreyGuy said:

adamL said:

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

When a merchant wants to be able to take payments they approach a merchant services company and sign up for one or more accounts (they may want to split up their business for various reasons). Against each account the merchant services provider will apply a code (MCC) which basically says what the merchant does and in the case of multiple accounts it may be different. So Thomas Cook may have one merchant account identified as a travel agent and a second identified as an FX company for their travel money business. 

When a merchant asks for payment the merchant services company applies to the request this MCC and your bank can then decide how they want to treat it, so with the TC example above the first will be treated as a the purchase of services and the second will be a cash advance because buying Euros is a cash like transaction. 


So, buy a gift card with your normal weekly shop at Tesco, it will go through their tills and present as a supermarket purchase so a product. Go to an online vendor that does nothing but sell gift cards and their MCC will be something more focused which your bank may have decide to categorise as csh like. 

There have been some reports of cash like fees being applied to some credit cards when buying gift cards online, I just use my AmEx card which doesn't have cash like fees so is a non-problem.

No discount on gift card purchased in Tesco 

35har1old

adamL said:

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

Used to purchase gift cards via electric suppliers reward platform using Chase and received the 1% cash back.but they changed to your-savings Chase did not payout but the Barclaycard cash back card did with no fees applied.
I asked the same question of the Santander cash back card and as yourself didn't get any clear answer.
What counts as a quasi cash payment 

safe_hands2

adamL said:

Hi, 

This has never been an issue with my old credit card (Santander 123) but after reading some stuff online, I'm now not sure whether I need to be concerned. Basically, does a purchase of a gift card or e-voucher (the platform is Reward Gateway and shows up as "your-saving.com" on account statements).

Does this count as a cash transaction for either the M&S Credit Card? Or Barclaycard Avios Credit Card? Both are MasterCard. 

The fine print is non definitive. And I didn't a get straight answer when I called. 

Thank you very much
M

I have Barclaycard avios and that treats them like normal transactions. Don't know about M&S

Heidiho

born_again said:

Nice to see a retailer has realised & puts a web page up.

http://rgvouchers.co.uk/

Is there a way of finding out when this page went live? I’ve been using credit cards to buy instant vouchers etc from Rewards Gateway for years (as recently as this month for currys & Halfords) and never had any fees charged. I’m wondering if this is something that has only just started happening in which case I’ll probably need to switch to using a debit card , although that would be a bit of a shame.

MrFrugalFever

In my experience Barclaycard is the one CC provider that treats very little as 'cash like transaction' and has proven to be very beneficial to me in that respect. Can't speak for M&S as never had their card. 

The only way to find out is to do a £10 gift card and wait for your payment to be processed fully and then check transactions and statement.

Heidiho

Ah I see - so it’s not Rewards Gateway who decide if it’s a cash transaction but the card issuer? Good to know that about Barclaycard as I’m planning to use one of those for my next instant voucher purchase later tonight