![[NSW, ACT, VIC] 10% off $100 & $250 Coles MasterCard Gift Card ($4.50/$6.30 Activation Fee, Registered Flybuys Required) @ Coles](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/12/780612.jpg?h=f56b3227)
The gift that keeps on giving, at least for those of us fortunate enough to live in NSW, ACT or VIC.
Limit 5 Gift Cards per Flybuys account per day. 10% discount applied to value of card incl. applicable activation fee. Total cost for $100 gift card is $94.50 ($90 for card + $4.50 activation fee) & for $250 gift card is $231.30 ($225 for card + $6.30 activation fee). Offer valid in store at Coles Supermarkets in NSW, ACT and VIC only (excludes Coles Online, Coles Express and purchases via giftcards.com.au), subject to store availability. While stocks last, no rainchecks. Must present Flybuys card at time of purchase. Coles Mastercard Gift Cards cannot be used to purchase any other gift card sold at Coles. Offer valid 14/6/23 to 20/6/23. Refer to individual gift card for terms and conditions. Flybuys' privacy policy applies. Standard Flybuys T&Cs apply, available at Flybuys.com.au. Coles Mastercard gift cards issued by Heritage & People's Choice Limited trading as Heritage Bank ABN 11 087 651 125, AFSL/ACL No. 244310 pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated. For Coles Mastercard Gift Card T&Cs, go to www.colesmastercardbalance.com.au. Fully-registered Flybuys members must have joined the Flybuys program via the Flybuys app or flybuys.com.au, provided their first and last name and verified their registration with a mobile number and email address. This can be done instore via the QR codes available, following the ‘sign up’ prompts. This promotion requires full Flybuys registration and is not available for use with an unregistered temporary card or for partially registered members.
PS. The offer for all other states is 20x Flybuys points on Rebel, BCF, Supercheap Auto, Macpac and Super Adventure gift cards.
Ah 💩, here we go again.
In case there is anyone new to these prepaid gift card deals, here are some tips (and I will link out to the Gift Card FAQ page where possible):
Coles Mastercard gift cards are sold without a PIN for in-person purchases, but you can set one later if you want.
Coles Mastercard gift cards do not support mobile wallets (e.g. Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet).
Some online merchants will not accept Coles Mastercard gift cards as a payment method, but there may be workarounds.
Coles Mastercard gift cards are more susceptible to unauthorised transactions than a debit/credit card, so the recommendation is to redeem them ASAP (e.g. bills, other gift cards).
The pre-authorisation charge may be up to 120% of the original transaction value.
Make sure to carefully to check the packaging for any evidence of tampering. Someone reported a while ago two Coles Mastercard gift cards for sale at a Coles were actually duds.
If your gift card activation is declined at the checkout, the staff at the store's service desk are supposed to either refund the purchase amount to you, or exchange the declined gift card with a new gift card. Read this comment for more information.
Thanks for this comment!
Can these gift cards be bought with discounted Coles gift cards? The T&Cs in OP says you can't use these to buy other gift cards, but what about the other way around?
No.
Coles had their payment processing updated on 19 April 2023 to automatically block anyone from using any gift cards issued by Coles Group to purchase third-party gift cards at Coles.
can we use perfect eftpos cards to buy these?
@ozbargainerlife1: It is pretty much a toss up these days.
I don’t think Coles has set up blocks for Perfect eftpos gift cards when you are trying to purchase a Coles Mastercard gift card. However, you could always have a staff member stop you from using a prepaid gift card as a payment method when trying to purchase a gift card. (It can happen.)
Having said that, Blackhawk Network (the Perfect eftpos gift card issuer) has implemented redemption limits for Perfect eftpos gift cards, Activ Visa gift cards and OnlyONE Visa gift cards at supermarkets. Generally speaking, trying to redeem more than ~$390 and trying to redeem more than one of these gift cards in quick succession is very likely to trigger error code 12 (Invalid Transaction) from Blackhawk Network, but who knows what the restrictions are nowadays.
@WookieMonster: Just used eftpos card for $400 last week in some transactions and it was succeeded only for first card. Even i tried to use second card for another $100 in another machine(coles self checkout) immediately after that, it got declined. So maximum $400 or 1 card including different checkouts (did not try manned checkout). If someone used before you then bad luck.
@R n b: Own experience: tried to use perfect giftcard to buy $400 worth Ultimate card at selfcheckout without any issues. Then tried to use another perfect card on the next checkout machine showed invalid transaction.
@WookieMonster: Should we make complaints against Blackhawk Network to AFCA? Surely they can't just do what they want, especially when it's not communicated to the gift card holders.
@gengulphus: You cannot lodge complaints about Perfect eftpos gift cards (at least the ones with card numbers starting with 638947) with AFCA, because Blackhawk Network is not a member of AFCA.
You can try to complain about OnlyONE Visa gift cards or Activ Visa gift cards with AFCA by lodging complaints against Indue or Heritage Bank (respectively), but the terms and conditions for OnlyONE Visa gift cards and Activ Visa gift cards both state that they can implement spending restrictions for “security reasons”:
@ozbargainerlife1: Not sure why this was downvoted. It's a perfectly good question. I have one of these I'm looking to offload and this deal essentially allows you to use the money on it online and get $5 extra.
@ozbargainerlife1: I ended up using my perfect eftpos card to buy it. Had $5.50 left over so I got some KFC. The coles mastercard doesn't work on much, but it did work on the DCS estore using paypal as the processor. Every other website failed or complained it doesn't have 3D Secure.
Interesting, that's quite recent. Thanks for the information.
The oracle or gift cards is in the house! 😊 Highly appreciate your wealth of knowledge with respect to GC's.
@WookieMonster Apologies if asked elsewhere - I tried to look but wasn't successful. Would this apply to Apple GC's being purchased from places like Woolies?
@KangaDrew:
Not necessarily.
I interpret Coles Mastercard Gift Cards cannot be used to purchase any other gift card sold at Coles as a Coles policy, not an InComm policy. I don’t think InComm are as bothered about their gift cards being used to purchase gift cards as Blackhawk Network is… I mean, Blackhawk Network printed in big writing on Activ Visa gift card packaging produced in December 2022 Cannot be used to purchase Gift Cards.
You should be using Coles Mastercard gift cards to pay for Apple gift cards at Woolworths (and BIG W), but:
You may have a staff member stop you if they notice you trying to use prepaid gift cards as a payment method and they don’t want you to do that.
Woolworths could one day implement automatic blocks (much like what they did for Activ Visa gift cards and Perfect eftpos gift cards last year when trying to use those to pay for some gift cards sold at Woolworths). I would be a little surprised if that actually happened one day…
@WookieMonster: Mastercard can use anywhere, why do you need to buy gift card?
@babeface:
Nope.
You can only use the Coles Mastercard gift cards in this deal at merchants that choose to accept prepaid Mastercard gift cards. That means:
The merchant must accept prepaid Mastercard gift cards as a payment method. For example, some online merchants (e.g. Prezzee, Woolworths Group gift card portal, Reward Gateway) may refuse to process payments from Coles Mastercard gift cards, because they are not tied to a specific cardholder and are missing security features usually found on debit/credit cards. Additionally, if you are instore and the staff member sees you wanting to use a Coles Mastercard gift card, they could always say no.
For card-present transactions, the merchant must accept swipe payments. For example, I was at a cafe earlier this week where they only accepted contactless payments, which means this prepaid gift card would not be accepted.
You don’t need to buy gift cards using Coles Mastercard gift cards, but there are two main reasons I can think of where someone may want to use Coles Mastercard gift cards to pay for other gift cards:
Prepaid gift cards - especially Coles Mastercard gift cards - are particularly vulnerable to fraudulent transactions. Some people really do not want to put up with the hassle of lodging transaction disputes and waiting a number of weeks for a replacement gift card to be sent to them.
You can use Coles Mastercard gift cards as a payment method for purchasing discounted gift cards at plenty of merchants, which allows you to stack the savings (or stack savings and bonuses). For example, the commenter above probably wants to use Coles Mastercard gift cards to purchase Apple gift cards the next time Woolworths runs a 20x Everyday Rewards points promotion on Apple gift cards in-store.
that's no good. i was only interested in these 10% off deals to convert gift cards i got from flybuys.
Also, these card can be easily hacked,
follow the below steps to get a replacement card.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13264538/redir
you will get one, it just takes time.
I'm awaiting a dispute resolution on a card but it may be declined as it was a little over 60 days in reporting. I hadn't used for a while before noticing.
Disputing transaction will result the remaining of the card balance block while investigation on going.
@a1234my: That's just one reason to spend all the balance as soon as you notice a fraudulent transaction.
@WookieMonster thanks for the tips super helpful! To activate the card can you just do that yourself at a self checkout or do you need a staff member to do it? Thanks!
The checkout automatically requests approval for the gift card purchase from the gift card issuer after you successfully pay for the gift card at the checkout. If the purchase is approved, the gift card will be automatically activated, although there may be a delay before the gift card is actually activated and you can access/redeem the balance on the gift card.
Hey @WookieMonster , do you know if there are any issues with using these Coles MC to buy Ultimate/TCN Gift Cards at Woolworths 20x Points promo? Hoping I can double stack Coles MC > Ultimate for an upcoming purchase.
I have not heard of anyone being blocked by a Woolworths checkout for using Coles Mastercard gift cards as a payment method for Ultimate or TCN gift cards, but it something Woolworths could implement at any time.
Nice one, cheers :)