Only 1 Visa Gift Cards with No Purchase Fee, What's The Catch?

[Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 18:11
Last edited 04/10/2021 - 18:17

Was shopping in Woolies today and noticed that some Only 1 Visa Gift cards issued by Indue don't have any purchase fee advertised on a packaging, just say $50 or $100, tried scanning them and they indeed come up as with $50 or $100 to pay.

Here's pics of packaging - front: https://imgur.com/a/Vf5L4tG and back: https://imgur.com/a/AAtVe9J

Typical Only 1 Visa cards are $50 or $100 + 5.95 Purchase fee and scan at checkout as such and these cards are sold next to each other on same display, one with purchase fee and another without.

Considering that usual Only 1 Visa card are already a major pain to find where they're accepted was wondering if anyone knows what's the catch with these? Are they even more limited in where they can be used?

Financial

Related Stores

OnlyONE Visa Gift Card
OnlyONE Visa Gift Card

Comments

  • Hybroid on 04/10/2021 - 18:14

    Are you asking why a $50 gift card doesn't cost only $50?

    • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 18:15
      +2

      Yes. Typically cards from same issuer are $50 + $5.95 purchase fee.

      • Hybroid on 04/10/2021 - 18:17
        +1

        Wasn't aware gift cards had fees on top, even less of a reason to use/gift them.

        The fee could be waived due to lack of interest to drum up sales. Shouldn't make any difference to the actual product.

        • NotAnExpert4 on 05/10/2021 - 15:08
          +2

          Gift cards usually don't have fees, because they are easily created by the retailer and have no actual real-world value, so the cost of the card itself and the distribution cost are the only costs to the business. Visa gift cards, however, are actual money, and as such the issuer (Indue) is required to hold an AFS license, comply with ASIC rules & regs, blah blah blah, which is all just stuff that costs money. When your entire business model is built around providing real-world money, just in the form of a gift card, you need to charge some sort of fee, otherwise you'll never make any profit. You can't just give someone $50 worth of Visa credit in exchange for $50 in cash - because who is going to pay for the cost of the card? The regulatory fees? etc. That's what makes this a bit unusual - but yes, regular old non-monetary gift cards (e.g. iTunes) should have no purchase fee.

  • Neoika on 04/10/2021 - 18:24

    Make sure you can use them up ASAP.

    • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 19:36
      +3

      I had a small misfortune to buy Only 1 Visa card (with fees) and struggling to use it literally anywhere I tried, except Paypal, so if someone manages to skim it quite frankly I'll be grateful to learn another merchant that accepts them.

      • djkelly69 on 04/10/2021 - 20:18

        Coles and Woolies?

    • Zachary on 05/10/2021 - 12:07

      Damn, so only buy them when you're gonna use it and not hoard them for a rainy day like everyone here when they go on sale….

      • WookieMonster on 05/10/2021 - 13:17
        +1

        In all fairness, any card that can be used for online purchases (including the Only1 Visa gift cards) are susceptible to the kinds of attacks being experienced by the Coles Gift Mastercard at the moment, because the most likely explanation for these fraudulent transactions is BIN attacks (i.e. brute force). However, if you know how a Coles Gift Mastercard number works, it is actually quite easy to brute force your way to someone else’s funds.

        • Eight of the digits of a Coles Gift Mastercard are reserved for the bank identifier number, another digit identifies the card’s denomination and the last digit is the check digit, so there are only 1,000,000 unique card numbers for each denomination and it wouldn’t be long before you come across an active card with funds.

        • Coles Gift Mastercards have specific expiry dates, so a fraudster who knows the expiry dates can reduce the number of attempts they need to make before finding an active card with funds. I think it's even worse for the Only1 Visa gift card that can be spent at any merchant, as I only ever seen one expiry date for the current batch of cards available for purchase…

        • A lot of merchants also don’t require a CVV to process a payment, so that further compounds the issue (and makes it easier for fraudsters to make fraudulent transactions).

        • [Deactivated] on 05/10/2021 - 14:31
          +2

          They not just have specific dates, those dates are even printed on a package. If not stopped it'll become a bigger issue around Christmas when people will be buying gift cards for gifts and not opening/checking balances/using them for some time.

        • Zachary on 08/10/2021 - 17:25
          -1

          So safest way would be to zero your balance and just use a debit card and transfer balance when you want to use it? Or credit card since its the banks money and you don't have to worry about it?

          • WookieMonster on 08/10/2021 - 19:09

            @Zachary:

            So safest way would be to zero your balance and just use a debit card and transfer balance when you want to use it?

            That’s what I do with a debit card, but it does also mean that I am stuffed if I need to access funds in a pinch and I don’t have internet access… I also have a credit card, so I can rely on that if needed as well.

            I see transaction accounts as places for transferring money into and out of. I don’t like saving money in my transaction account for long periods, as I like using savings accounts for saving money.

            • Zachary on 11/10/2021 - 17:36
              +1

              @WookieMonster: Yeah fair enough. So then a credit card is your best bet then…if you can get one…

  • WookieMonster on 04/10/2021 - 18:27
    +15

    The catch is that the gift cards you photographed are category-restricted Visa cards that can only be used at merchants with specific merchant categories (in your case, festivals, bars and concerts). It is similar to (and is in direct competition of) the category-restricted TCN EFTPOS gift cards.

    Being able to use these gift cards is wholly dependent on the merchant correctly coding their EFTPOS terminals with the correct merchant category, so (for example) you may find that you cannot use this gift card at a particular bar, because they set up their EFTPOS terminal to have a different merchant category.

    You may also struggle to use up all the balance on a particular gift card, as you may have problems finding a merchant with the right category being willing to do split payments.

    The Only1 Visa gift cards with purchase fees you are thinking of are these ones. (Sorry, I only have a link the Officeworks website.)

    • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 18:58
      +1

      Yes, that's what I though, thanks!

  • avoidfullprice on 04/10/2021 - 18:28
    -1

    Good find. That could almost turn Amex into Visa with no fees!

    • Neoika on 04/10/2021 - 18:31
      +1

      The Visa is more likely to be a restricted Visa, though.

  • Neoika on 04/10/2021 - 18:28
    +1

    It says "select merchant categories" at the bottom, which may mean not everywhere, like TCN Bar & Pub card.

  • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 21:51

    Speaking of these Visa cards, anyone knows why they fail to work with Revolut? It accepts card number and tries to load finds but fails in few minutes.

    • Trance N Dance on 04/10/2021 - 22:00

      Because the one show in your picture are category restricted by most likely merchant category codes. Revolut won't be using a category code that falls under pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, etc.

      As for other Visa and MC cards (the ones with fees) Revolut would be categorised as a financial institution and those cards won't work for financial transactions.

      • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 22:03

        Well, the thing is that it sorta goes through and sits in pending for few minutes and then fails. Never seen Revolut doing it to any other accounts, it's usually instant confirmation. It's for $50+5.95 card BTW.

    • Neoika on 04/10/2021 - 22:01
      +1

      Coz Revolut is not eligible merchant! You did read comments above.

      • [Deactivated] on 04/10/2021 - 22:02

        I'm trying Revolut with https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/only-1-vis…

        • Neoika on 04/10/2021 - 22:41

          Card issuer can block a certain merchant, too. ATO was blocked by Only 1 Visa, but some people think it is the other way around.

          • cwongtech on 05/10/2021 - 16:03

            @Neoika:

            Card issuer can block a certain merchant, too. ATO was blocked by Only 1 Visa, but some people think it is the other way around.

            That's good info.

            Coles MC is accepted by ATO, but appears to decline any further Coles MC after 4-5 transactions.

            Takes a few hours before it allows it to be accepted again.

    • avoidfullprice on 04/10/2021 - 22:22

      Had your card been activated for over 24 hours, as per instruction on the back?

  • timthetoolman on 04/10/2021 - 22:10

    Is there a logical reason someone would pay $6 to buy a card that limits your options of where you can spend it? Serious question.
    Tax write off or something like that?

    • daanish on 05/10/2021 - 14:55
      +3

      Privacy of transaction from your bank or anyone who sees your card statement.

      Use the card somewhere that could potentially be dodgy to put an extra security barrier between your actual card details and the merchant.

      Meeting minimum credit card spend. (not the best way as there are $0 extra cost gift cards you could buy instead)

      Allows you to spend with your card at a merchant that doesn't accept your card - ie buy Visa with your AmEx and collect AmEx points then use Visa card at retailer that doesn't accept AmEx.

    • cwongtech on 05/10/2021 - 15:43
      +1

      OnlyFans

    • scanuck on 05/10/2021 - 19:43

      Usually buy them when on discount only

  • [Deactivated] on 08/10/2021 - 22:03

    Unlike Coles master cards that have 6 unique digits, Only 1 Visa cards have 7. So it's 10 million combinations instead of 1 million.

    • Neoika on 08/10/2021 - 22:14

      The other problem is the sale having no limit set by Coles, which leads to huge numbers of card being activated in a short period of time. It is a good target pool to fish whereas only a handful of them were activated gradually before due to the sale limit.

      • [Deactivated] on 08/10/2021 - 22:15

        If you check serial number of the card on package it's low thousands for each batch.

  • PeeDee on 24/09/2022 - 14:49

    Hey guys, I'm wondering so with these cards you can check your balance online, and register your card online. Has anyone registered find any benefits of it being registered? I feel these visa card poses greater risks to hacks compared to securities in place by banks and am wondering what other security measures I can do to protect my cards? besides telling a person not to buy visa gift cards.

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