Free Avios with 3V Virtual Visa – our list of places where you can use the card

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• James says:

  8 May8 May 08:07

  The only other way I think is to add them to your paypal account and then email 3V to reverse paypal’s £1 authorisation, but then you must spend them with an existing paypal balance

• Ben E says:

  8 May8 May 08:12

  anyone had success with Oyster yet?

  • jonny says:

    8 May8 May 09:48

    it has been reported as working, see comment above from jamie

• Ed E says:

  8 May8 May 08:18

  Do you know if you can use these for cardholder not present transactions over the phone? I have some boat things, such as marina fees, where they haven’t got online processing but they will put the number in their machine with the expiry date and CVV. I will also see if they guy is nice and will let me put £1500 of next year’s mooring fees on there but I think 60 transactions might be a lot of paperwork for him.. can’t help but ask though!

  Does anyone have any experience of these Cardholder Not Present transactions?

  • Ed E says:

    8 May8 May 08:22

    Sorry,

    I found a new page on the the 3V site which I hadn’t found before!
    “To shop online, by mail order or by phone, you need your 3V Visa Number, the expiry date and the 3-digit security code.”

    So from this, I would say that it should be absolutely fine!

    Ed

  • Rob says:

    8 May8 May 08:59

    In theory they should work for phone and mail order transactions, anything which is set up as ‘cardholder not present’

    • jonny says:

      8 May8 May 09:50

      yes you can do it over the phone, I have done it no problem.

      the only reason it does not work in store is there is no physical card just a virtual number on an email.

      the retailer does not have to be an “internet retailer”, just willing to take details over the phone.

• Max says:

  8 May8 May 08:37

  How about a new post which lists the Tesco stores with stock of 3V cards? 🙂
  Let’s begin with London 😉

  • Ed E says:

    8 May8 May 09:03

    Hammersmith – Shepherd’s Bush Road, empty rack. (Should have bought them last week!)

    • Max says:

      8 May8 May 10:08

      Ha Ha!…now re-read my post…emphasis on “stores with stock”

      • Trevor says:

        8 May8 May 17:40

        There is a link on the Tesco giftcard page to find stores that stock giftcards, though I found the link didn’t work. After scanning the HTML code, I did manage to get the search working, but of course you cannot specify which giftcard you would like, and it shows almost every store as stocking giftcards, even if they are only (from experience) Tesco and iTunes giftcards.

        So, using the tool is pointless, and hoping to find stock is wishful thinking 😉

• Squillion says:

  8 May8 May 09:19

  Here’s an interesting one 😉

  Just spoke to my council tax people to check the balance. I’m now in 3V credit for the year, all as I expected.

  Nice lady asked if I’d like a refund of the credit back to the a/c where my direct debit goes out from.

  Not just yet, I replied 😉

• Squillion says:

  8 May8 May 09:20

  That’s because you get 150 points per 2x£25 3Vs 😉

  • flyingflea says:

    8 May8 May 09:22

    You’re so right!!! I feel so stupid now!

    • Trevor says:

      8 May8 May 10:07

      Didn’t wanna say it 😉 lol
      That said, I have read that there is a 5 card limit, so interesting reading that so many people have bought so many at once.

      • Sinizter says:

        8 May8 May 11:37

        I have bought 8 at once. No problems at all.
        4 more in another transaction a few minutes later.
        All on the same clubcard. Points were credited correctly too.

• Jamie says:

  8 May8 May 09:40

  Anyone tried using the self scan tills yet ?

  • Gordon says:

    8 May8 May 09:43

    You cant put any gift cards through at self scan

• Gordon says:

  8 May8 May 09:48

  Does anyone know how often these cards get refilled. Its been a week since my two local stores sold out and there’s no sign of them getting replaced. They have split the paid cards across the holders where the 3v ones used to be.

  Do we have a definitive list of which shops sell the cards. I know there is a list on the 3v website but tesco doesnt appear on it. Has anyone seen them in boots? I also found a page on homebase saying they sell them but again no mention on the 3v site

  • Squillion says:

    8 May8 May 09:57

    In my part of the world, Tesco staff said the card racks don’t even get refilled every 2 weeks.

    • Fidelityutensils says:

      8 May8 May 12:04

      And apparently not by Tesco themselves. We were told the “Giftcard Store” shelves are restocked by a “guy from the Giftcard company”?!

  • Colin says:

    8 May8 May 10:06

    But only Tesco will give you the clubcard bonus, so buying them in other shops wont be much use.

    • Trevor says:

      8 May8 May 10:09

      Exactly! Then you’re just swapping one payment method for another, more complicated one.

      • Neil Spellings says:

        8 May8 May 10:20

        There is still a benefit buying these from other stores than Tesco if you find them, it’s just not as lucrative.

        You can buy the 3V cards from the retailer using a CREDIT card, thus accumulating points on your spending, and perhaps meeting spending targets to gain bonus points.

        I visited 5 shops at the weekend including many that 3V list on their website as stocking them (WH Smiths, Boots, Clintons, Sainsburys) – none had any stock of the 3V cards.

        • Trevor says:

          8 May8 May 10:33

          You’re right, Neil, you could still use as advanced spend for churning, or paying some bills to earn points, though the mission to pay in lots of £25 is annoying and in many cases not possible, and to transfer credit between cards will wipe out any points gains (ie to join 2 cards at £1.75 to pay a £50 bill means paying £1.75 for possibly only 50 points on the original credit card, or paying 3.5p/point!) or cost you 7% per extra £25 spent in a single transaction. You can buy Travelers Cheques to churn cards through Amex’s site and pay only 1.5%.

    • Rob says:

      8 May8 May 10:26

      But it still lets you earn credit card points – and work towards a signup bonus target if applicable – at retailers who only accept debit cards or don’t take Amex or charge a fee for credit cards.

      Not so generous that I would go out of my way to find them in other shops, but if I came across them I would buy them.

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