Gift card deals for the upcoming Coles catalogue sale starting Wednesday 14 September.
Vanilla Visa gift cards - limit 5 cards per customer. $5.95 and $7.50 activation fee applies for $100 and $250 gift cards respectively.
TCN Kids, Teen, Baby, Him, Her gift cards - limit 5 cards per customer.
thanks, I tried searching but had no luck!
Posting an update in case someone looks in the future, yes, it did work, told the operator that I would like to pay by card and pressed Credit and enter when it asked for a PIN and worked perfectly.
| Gift Card | Participating Retailers |
|---|---|
| TCN Baby | Adairs Kids, Adore Beauty, ASOS, Baby Bunting, Bae The Label, Booktopia, Cotton On Body, Cotton On KIDS, H&M, Kidstuff, Peter Alexander, Ripe Maternity, The Trybe, Toyworld |
| TCN Her | adidas, Adore Beauty, ASOS, Aveda, BooHoo, Booktopia, Calvin Klein, Champion, Cotton On, Culture Kings, Dotti, Estée Lauder, Forever New, Ghanda, Glassons, Glue Store, H&M, Hype DC, INTERSPORT, Jacqui E, JB Hi-Fi, JD Sports, Just Jeans, Kookai, MAC, Nike, Oz Hair & Beauty, Peter Alexander, Platypus, Portmans, Princess Polly, Rubi, Scotch & Soda, Seafolly, SHEIN, Showpo., Sportsgirl, Stylerunner, Supré, SurfStitch, Temple & Webster, Thats So Fetch, The Oodie, Tiger Mist, Tommy Hilfiger, Tony Bianco, Universal Store, VRG GRL, White Fox Boutique |
| TCN Him | Academy Brand, adidas, Aquila, ASOS, boohooMAN, Booktopia, Calibre, Calvin Klein, Champion, Cotton On, Culture Kings, Drummond Golf, Edge Clothing, Factorie, Foot Locker, Glue Store, H&M, Hallenstein Brothers, Hype DC, INTERSPORT, Jay Jays, JB Hi-Fi, JD Sports, Just Jeans, Neverland, Nike, Pivot, Platypus, Scotch & Soda, Surf Dive n Ski, SurfStitch, The AFL Store, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Universal Store, Van Heusen, Xbox |
| TCN Kids | adidas, AG LEGO® Certified Stores, ASOS, Booktopia, BOUNCE, Cotton On KIDS, Culture Kings, Foot Locker, H&M, Holey Moley, Hype DC, INTERSPORT, JB Hi-Fi, JD Sports, Kidstuff, New Balance, Nike, NRLShop.com, Pivot, Platypus, Quiksilver, Scooter Hut, Skechers, Smiggle, Strike, Surf Dive n Ski, SurfStitch, The AFL Store, The Athlete's Foot, The Trybe, Toyworld, Xbox |
| TCN Teen | adidas, ASOS, Beginning Boutique, Billabong, Calvin Klein, Champion, Cotton On, Culture Kings, Factorie, Foot Locker, Ghanda, Glassons, Glue Store, H&M, Hype DC, INTERSPORT, Jay Jays, JB Hi-Fi, JD Sports, Nike, NRLShop.com, Pivot, Platypus, Princess Polly, Quiksilver, Showpo., Sportsgirl, Strike, Surf Dive n Ski, SurfStitch, The AFL Store, The Athlete's Foot, The Oodie, Tommy Hilfiger, Typo, UGG Express, Universal Store, White Fox Boutique, Xbox |
That’s 7.3% discount on the $250 Vanilla visa card? Not too bad compared to 7.48% discount on Coles Mastercard GC
I've just crawled out of my hole. Can you elaborate on that? Where/how that is possible please? The 7.48%.
That’s right, although Coles MasterCard deal runs almost twice a year so the next one could be in December
Some tips for people interested in the Vanilla Visa gift cards.
If you are going to use this prepaid gift card in person, you likely need to sign to “verify” the transaction. If you swipe the prepaid gift card on the EFTPOS terminal are asked to enter a PIN, press the Enter / OK / green key without entering anything, or press the Signature option on the screen (if that appears as an option). If you are at a merchant that mandates you provide a PIN to authorise an in-person transaction, you will not be able to use this prepaid gift card.
In my experience:
Woolworths and BIG W do not require signature verification when redeeming these prepaid gift cards in their stores. All you need to do is select Card on the payment screen, swipe the card on the EFTPOS terminal and press Enter or OK. If your prepaid gift card is active and has sufficient balance, your payment request will be approved without needing to provide a signature.1 However, for low-value transactions, you may not even be asked to provide a PIN as soon as you swipe the card, and the checkout will immediately attempt redeem the amount from the prepaid gift card.
Coles only requires signature verification if you are redeeming above a certain threshold (approximately $35). If you are above this threshold, the POS system will print out a small slip of paper and you will be asked to sign on the paper to verify the transaction. It will be at the discretion of the staff member at the self checkout or serviced checkout whether to accept your signature and permit the transaction.
Unattended terminals (e.g. parking meters with magstripe readers) should accept these prepaid gift cards without asking for any kind of verification.
This is due to prepaid gift cards not being tied to a specific person and lacking the security features that allow a payment processor to ask for verification (e.g. a two-factor authentication code sent to a mobile or obtained from a token).
Merchants that do not accept these prepaid gift cards include Prezzee, Reward Gateway and Everyday Pay (Woolworths Group’s QR-based payment method).
A workaround is to link these prepaid gift cards to a PayPal account, then use PayPal at an online merchant (where PayPal is accepted) and select the prepaid gift card as the payment source. I have done this many times at Prezzee to get around their restrictions on prepaid gift cards.
Before anyone asks, these payments can be used to send payments to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) through their online portal. These prepaid gift cards attract a 0.4% payment surcharge and ATO’s systems will only permit you to redeem five different prepaid gift cards in a 12-24 hour period, so remember to factor this in when planning to send any payments.
Although any Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/etc card is susceptible to bank identification number (BIN) attacks (where someone tests multiple potential combinations of card numbers, expiry dates and CVV2 values), prepaid gift cards are particularly susceptible, due to a limited pool of potential expiry dates, as well as the lack of sophisticated fraud prevention and fraud detection systems you usually find implemented at “regular” financial institutions (e.g. CommBank, Westpac, AMEX).
If you notice someone manages to redeem part or all of the balance of your prepaid gift card, you can dispute transactions with the issuer (Heritage Bank).
Some merchants will request a pre-authorisation amount that is up to 120% of the transaction value. However, when the transaction is no longer pending, the amount deducted from your prepaid gift card will be settled at the transaction amount, and the additional funds set aside to cover the pre-authorisation amount will be returned the available balance.
I have noticed this happen at hairdressers and restaurants, and the terms and conditions also mention this potentially happening at hotels, rental car place, etc.
This means that you may not be able to redeem your prepaid gift card at some merchants, even though you think it has a sufficient available balance. For example, I once tried to use a Vanilla Visa gift card with $34 on it to pay for a $30 meal at a restaurant, but the card kept on being declined. The card issuer later told me it was due to the restaurant wanting to use $36 as the pre-authorisation amount (not $30), so my transactions were being declined due to insufficient available balance.
My assumption is that this is the same situation in-store at Dan Murphy’s, BWS and EG Caltex / EG Ampol / Caltex Woolworths, as their POS systems are extremely similar to Woolworths’ and BIG W’s POS system. ↩
So you found an unlimited money hack using gift cards?
if he did so then why the heck would he be here
Why different rules for different states?
Has the past few years taught you nothing?
Teach me sensei??
No idea.
I will note NSW and ACT had a similar deal in February 2022 in lieu of a nationwide 10% off Coles Gift Mastercard deal. It makes me doubt that there will be a 10% off Coles Mastercard gift card deal next month…
Or they may offer 10% off Coles Mastercard GC to other states except VIC and TAS next month!
With increasing hacks of these kind of prepaid GCs in general best to only buy amounts that you'd be using up relatively quickly.
Will definitely be thinking twice about buying the Coles MC GC again. I lost one card to hack however waiting for the issuer to get back to me.
@t25: How… I think you might be talking about the previous deal.
Unless the package was opened before you bought it which in that case is your fault.
@WookieMonster I live near SA/Vic border I know it says on Visa gift card that I cant use it to buy more Gift card from Coles but Can I buy Only prepaid visa card from Woolies and then buy 10% off gift from Coles?
It should be fine. Someone messaged me a couple of days ago saying it worked for them.
I would be surprised if Coles blocked OnlyONE Visa gift cards as a payment method for gift cards at Coles, because Coles does not sell OnlyONE Visa gift cards. It would make more sense for Coles to block the gift cards they sell from being used to purchase other gift cards.
If you were wondering, Coles can easily tell what kind of card you are using by looking at the bank identification number (BIN) embedded in the 16-digit card number. That is the same for all Vanilla Visa gift cards, so Coles can easily block all Vanilla Visa gift cards when you attempt to purchase gift cards at their stores, but this would block not affect OnlyONE Visa gift cards or other kinds of prepaid gift cards (e.g. Special gift cards). Coles also blocks Coles Groceries gift cards, Flybuys Dollars and Coles Gift Mastercards for gift card purchases based on the BIN, so it is definitely not new.
@WookieMonster: Tried Using the same Coles Visa Card (7% off) brought from Vic and use them to buy 10% of 100$ Him cards it worked.
Guess i better drop down to VIC
Yep… time to move.
Dont do it, that useless piece of garbage Dan Andrews is here.
Bet the local supermarket workers are going to hide them again…
It’s a consolation prize for not being able to salary sacrifice their iPhone 14 Pro Max
Time to hide them in freezer
Supermarket workers?
Please don't hide Supermarket workers in the freezer
Other methods don’t sufficiently delay decomposition
Oven is better
There is always very limited stock of Vanilla visa than Coles Prepaid Master
it's just my observation across multiple Coles stores, with or without of 10% off/ 2000 pts promotion.
I wouldn't waste my time hunting them on Wed.
It’s OK — my time is a lot less valuable
Ditto. If my time was valuable, then there would be a lot of bargains not worth chasing.
I guess it depends on what local stores end up doing during this deal.
During the last 10% off Vanilla Visa gift card deal, three stores in my area always had at least 100x $250 gift cards on the gift card shelves, whereas most other stores had basically no stock throughout the entire deal.
The factor that would help with stock levels this time is that you cannot easily use Vanilla Visa gift cards to purchase other Vanilla Visa gift cards at Coles, due to Coles requiring you verify your transaction using a signature for purchases $35 or over. This means that a staff member would need to look at the card you are trying to use as a payment method before deciding whether to approve or decline the transaction. Considering the deal terms make it clear that you cannot use a Vanilla Visa gift card to purchase any gift cards at Coles, you’ll likely have staff declining transactions in that situation.
Good point. So no inception with these
That rules out that idiot with a Tesla bragging about the amount of GCs he was rinsing through multiple stores. ;-)
I mean, if you get an ill-informed staff member, you’ll be fine. However, I suspect they will be hard to find.
I saw one incident during the aforementioned February 2022 deal where a customer had an argument with a service supervisor as to whether they could use a Vanilla Visa gift card to purchase another Vanilla Visa gift card. The customer eventually said some very nasty words and stormed off after the service supervisor stood their ground and basically told them to either pay another way or leave the store.
But yes, do not expect inception to work for this deal.
I suspect that stores will be good with stock, probably due to negative feedback before. For the last Coles Mastercard deal my local had a large centre floor display of just Coles Mastercards that were on special.
you cannot easily use Vanilla Visa gift cards to purchase other Vanilla Visa gift cards at Coles,
cannot be used to purchase any other gift card
Does anyone know if I can pay council rates in split payments using these gift cards (Monash)
Yep. Just enter the amount you wish to pay
Thanks for your help!
Did you succeed? Could you please share a bit more experience?
I tried to split it on the self service machine and the giftcard was not accepted.
I then spoke to the staff and was told council rates being a government can't be paid by giftcard.
Pay it online
I prepaid my entire year. It took quite a while and a fair few cards though!
Does it take some time to process each payment?
Could you please let me know if any success?
I just left post now and was told council rates don't accept gift card as it's government.
I tried to split on the self service machine, and the machine didn't accept the card.
Any easy way to liquidate these? A while back, I managed to cash them all out via Western Union, but they seemed to shut that down pretty quickly afterwards.
hmm you could buy bitcoin using these but the fee on binance for credit card purchase is like 2% so your discount goes down quite a bit.
Self eftpos machines? What’s the rate on those??
Any easy way to liquidate these?
Very simple. DON'T BUY GIFT CARDS.
You cash will then remain liquid. ;-)
Pay the ATO 5 cards per day.
Theoretically speaking, given that the $250 gift card gives you a 7.3% discount,
any platform with a transaction fee lower than such a threshold might be financially beneficial.
I have never tried to do so and have not explored the potential platforms, but I am sure there will be heaps of possibilities.
For example, Stake, one of the OzBargainers' favourite brokers, charges 2.5% for credit card funding while no fees for withdrawing.
As far as I am concerned, this could be the liquidity you are after.
Disclaimer The above reply is designed to be general in nature for academic discussion rather than personal financial product advice. Particularly, one should refer to the relevant product disclosure statements (PDS) prior to making any investment decision.
Edit Proofread
Very creative thinking. Great stuff, appreciate it.
Wonder if Stake would treat as credit or debit card? Debit card is a 0.5% fee
Nah, doesnt work.
Thank goodness I saw this comment before buying few grands worth lol. Is this the case only for vanilla visa or any prepaid visa/MC card?
Are there any limit to use at JB Hifi?
Online: JB Hi-Fi should accept Vanilla Visa gift cards online, as it accepts other prepaid gift cards online (e.g. Ultimate gift cards). However, you can only redeem 1x Vanilla Visa gift card online, because you can only redeem 1x Visa card in one online transaction (in conjunction with an unlimited number of JB Hi-Fi gift cards).
In-store: I'm not entirely sure, as I don't know whether JB Hi-Fi accepts signature verification (or even requires you to provide a signature). JB Hi-Fi should accept signature verification, because signature verification is still a verification method supported by Visa and Mastercard (even though it is not possible to sign for purchases in most circumstances in Australia nowadays). If JB Hi-Fi's system allows signature verification and the staff member is comfortable allowing it, you can redeem multiple Vanilla Visa gift cards in one in-store transaction. (The OzBargain record for the number of Visa/Mastercard/EFTPOS cards redeemed in one transaction in-store at JB Hi-Fi is 81.)
Alternative suggestions:
Go to a gift card portal that accepts Vanilla Visa gift cards (especially one that offers discounts or cashback, e.g. Shopback, HCF Thank You) and use it to purchase JB Hi-Fi gift cards. Be mindful of the fact that there are usually spending limits on gift card portals. For example, I once made the mistake of redeeming three different Vanilla Visa gift cards across three different purchases in the space of two days on HCF Thank You and had my HCF Thank You account blocked.
Go to Woolworths or BIG W and purchase JB Hi-Fi gift cards or TCN gift cards or Ultimate gift cards using Vanilla Visa gift cards as a payment method. I mention them, as you can do split payments when purchasing gift cards at a self-service checkout, plus you do not need to provide a copy of your signature when redeeming a Vanilla Visa gift card. You will not earn any Everyday Rewards points on purchasing any gift cards at Woolworths or BIG W, unless there is a specific deal advertised where you will earn bonus Everyday Rewards points on specific gift cards.
Go to Kmart and purchase Ultimate gift cards. (I don't think Kmart sells JB Hi-Fi gift cards, and I have never seen TCN gift cards stocked at Kmart.) I mention this, because you'll earn 1x Flybuys point per $1 spent on third-party gift cards at Kmart, plus there should be no rules around whether the store accepts Vanilla Visa gift cards as a payment method. However, I'm not sure if Kmart accepts signature verification nowadays…
Sorry, I forgot there were two separate gift card deals in this deal post!
If you were referring to the TCN gift cards…
Online: You cannot directly redeem any physical TCN gift cards on the JB Hi-Fi website, as they operate on the EFTPOS network, and the EFTPOS network only supports in-person transactions. However, you can exchange a TCN gift card (with JB Hi-Fi as a participating retailer) for a digital JB Hi-Fi gift card that is emailed to you. To do this, you need to go to the webpage on the TCN website for your TCN gift card, go to the How To Use section and then follow the redemption instructions. (If you were wondering, you can redeem an unlimited number of JB Hi-Fi gift cards on the JB Hi-Fi website.)
In-store: JB Hi-Fi does not have any limits or restrictions for the use of TCN (or Ultimate) gift cards in their stores, except for the fact that you cannot use them to purchase JB Hi-Fi gift cards. Another OzBargainer once redeemed 81 TCN/Ultimate gift cards in one in-store transaction at JB Hi-Fi last year. However, if you are going to try and replicate that, I would suggest you remove the gift cards from all packaging and scratch to reveal the PIN on each gift card before you get to the store. I would also suggest trying to go to JB Hi-Fi when there are fewer customers around, so you don’t have staff getting grouchy with you for tying up a staff member for a few minutes whilst you try and redeem a fat stack of gift cards. Btw, if you redeem a TCN (or Ultimate) gift card in a store, tell the staff you’d like to pay by card, not gift card.
Thanks.
Just noticed, the poster said this deal starts on the 19th, which is incorrect. Upon observation of the fine print in the image advertisement (IMGUR LINK) he's supplied for the Coles TCN cards, it says deal starts from the 14th.
Quick question, I heard these cards can be converted to digital JFHIFI eGift cards which is perfect for me. How do I do that, and how quickly will those cards be supplied? Thankyou
You can currently exchange a TCN gift card for a digital JB Hi-Fi gift card. To do this:
I don’t have any recent experience with doing this (as I prefer to redeem TCN or Ultimate gift cards directly in-store at JB Hi-Fi), but the gift card should be emailed to you in a matter of minutes.
Keep in mind that the option to exchange a TCN gift card for a digital JB Hi-Fi gift card on the TCN website can be removed at any time. This happened for a period of one month late last year, and it happened without any warning. When I called TCN about this, they told me they had no idea when TCN would return.
is the activation fee due at coles checkout or online? never bought this before so not sure how it works.
Checkout
Thx champ
Wondering whether you can use those coles prepaid mastercard to buy the vanilla ones?
You can’t do part payments to buy gift cards though.
You cannot do that at a self checkout when purchasing gift cards at Coles, unless you first pay by cash and then you pay the remaining amount using one card.
You can do split payments at a standard checkout when purchasing gift cards at Coles, but this is at the discretion of the staff member operating the checkout.
Thanks mate. It worked at standard checkout. The lady was nice. She said oh I don't think you can buy gift cards with gift cards and then the payment went through. Its just they checked my id and every split payment needs signature. I guess you'll just never finish your gift cards this way lol.
@hge: Another made-up requirement. Out of numerous GC purchases at Coles, I have never been asked to show ID. But have been once at Liquorland.
@Yola: Yeah probably. Quick update: I've already got one card stolen. Cant access the balance online. Called customer service and they advised card was activated last year and there is 0 balance.
@Yola: I literally bought it today. Customer service very poor and advised me to submit a dispute form and wait. I guess it has been hacked long ago.
@hge: Would it make more sense to go back to the Coles where you purchased it from and tell them that the gift card you purchased was actually activated a year ago and has already been used? My interpretation of Australian Consumer Law is that the store is obliged to help you… although you may need to speak to a manager before you may be able to get a refund.
I hope your gift card does not look like this… (Here’s the original Reddit post for reference.)
@Yola I’m not sure whether you think it is better to go back to Coles or to ride it out with InComm (the owner of the gift card scheme)…
@WookieMonster: Second that, even though you might need to insist on talking to the manager and invoke the ACL multiple times. I've got a store to refund a fake/tampered card that way previously. Still much easier/faster than calling the customer service I suppose.
Bottomline is, the actual physical store sold you the card and it should be fit for purpose. Otherwise they have to refund according to ACL instead of pushing you somewhere else.
@WookieMonster: This is probably with the previous packaging design but with the current packaging half of the barcode is on the outside package and half is on the card itself.
Even with the previous design the package is fully sealed so it is quite hard to take out the card without visible sign of tampering on the package.
@WookieMonster: A few years ago, I had several of the old Coles Mastercards sold by Coles Financial services physically tempered with and spoke to 2 stores, one of which I had purchased from, and they both said I had to contact CFS. They requested pics of receipts, cards, and envelopes. I did get all my money back. But if anyone can get a refund from the store it may be easier and quicker, but I doubt they would be successful. Even though the store is the seller and the product should be fit for purpose.
@Yola: I have been asked to show ID when verifying a transaction using a signature in the past (and no, not at Coles), because the staff member wanted to see whether the signature on the ID matched (or was close enough to) the signature on the back of the card and the slip of paper I was asked to sign on. (That makes sense to me.)
And yes, I was once asked to provide ID when purchasing a gift card from First Choice Liquor, but that was apparently due to a lot of fraudulent transactions involving stolen credit cards happening recently through that store, and the staff member wanted to make sure that the name on my AMEX matched the name on my ID.
@WookieMonster: This can be a pain for me when using AMEX offers because I may be using an offer on a family member's card.
No 4 hour delay this time?
Edit. Nevermind haha
is that 4 hour delay an actual 4 hour delay or just to cover their arse? like it usually takes 10 minutes but they just saying 4 hours?
Yes, they turn it on before the promotion to stop people rinsing and repeating
that sucks :( btw would buying these prepaid visa/MC cards using credit card be considered 'cash advance' or normal purchase?
@twistedbow: On my AMEX it is a normal purchase. Being a Charge Card I cannot get cash advances on it!
@twistedbow: All the previous gift cards that were 10% have never flagged as a cash advance for me, but i havent done these vanilla cards before
Dude really want to go to VIC now,
To save up on license renewal cost, bloody SA government's extraordinary pithole charges, will likely ditch that and get VIC one, at least for 6 months.
Often problematic, "should I swipe my Flybuys card when buying these or not?"
Despite others saying it didn't affect their spend amount for bonus points, it did for me so YMMV.
But I mean you’ll make a lot of points from this if you play your cards right.
So you will get flybuys when you buy them, and flybuys when you use them at flybuys venues???
![[VIC, TAS] 10% off Vanilla Visa Gift Cards (Activation Fee Applies) | [Elsewhere] 10% off Kids, Teens, Baby, Him, Her GC @ Coles](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/18/724018.jpg?h=d267df63)
can these be used at VicRoads/ VPlates? looking at getting some custom plates