Update on generating free Avios from 3V Virtual Visa cards

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• Shaun says:

  26 Jun26 June 08:43

  Are these only available in tesco Metro stores or has anyone located these at the tesco superstores and extra stores?

  Thanks

  • Dave says:

    26 Jun26 June 08:49

    I’ve only ever seen them in Extra stores, they could in theory be in any that stocks gift cards though.

  • stu says:

    26 Jun26 June 09:22

    I’ve seen plenty of regular Tesco and Tesco Extras that stock these in addition to the Metros. Never Express though.

• Mr Bridge says:

  26 Jun26 June 08:52

  TV licence,
  I have now paid next years tv licence, by using the tv licence savings card
  I have £100 credit on my bt account ( it wont let me pay more than that)
  and prepaid sky 1 year in advance.
  And have £500 credit with amazon.

  Why spend in advance? well the 1.5% cash back i get from my mbna, is worth about 1.9% gross equivalent in savings account or 2.5% if you pay high rate tax, so in theory, not am i earning the CCP i am also saving money on tax!!

• Gordon says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:13

  Has anyone sent 3v proof of id after their account was suspended /reached the 1650 limit? Are their any further limits above that once the account has been verified?

  • Dan says:

    26 Jun26 June 09:54

    I’ve been in touch with them and found out the requirements. I’ve got as far as making photocopies of my driving licence but not yet got round to getting them certified by the Post Office. My suspension from 3V didn’t occur until I had spent £1725

    • Dave says:

      26 Jun26 June 10:06

      Surely the easiest way to avoid hitting limits is to use different names/emails/addresses for different things. Some things will need your correct home address registered for it, but others you can use friends addresses.

      • Dan says:

        26 Jun26 June 10:09

        I’ve set up an account in my partner’s name (with their permission) which is below the limit so far. I’m wary of setting up fake accounts as this could be fraud? I’m not sure what’s the worst that could happen if they found out and pursued it. Does anybody know?

        • Rob says:

          26 Jun26 June 10:24

          I apply for credit cards on a regular basis in my partners name, then do the minimum spend myself (no-one checks the card name with chip and pin!) …..

        • Trevor says:

          26 Jun26 June 12:17

          I had cards checked once – at Harrod’s! Caused a headache as the entire transaction for the gift cards had to be cancelled since I didn’t want to put more than the required £50 on any one card. Ended up buying less than wanted, then took partner’s cards and visited downstairs Concierge to approach new helper and complete required gift card purchases.

    • Gordon says:

      26 Jun26 June 13:02

      The account does not appear to shut you out until the next time you log in. For example, if you log in when your balance is £1600 I think you can register new cards as long as you remain logged in. You must make sure you use the cards immediately whilst you are logged in. I managed to run the balance up to around £2000 and spend it all but as soon as I logged out, this triggered the account to be suspended.

    • Rich says:

      26 Jun26 June 19:59

      I’ve sent ID- you need certified ID but got mine done and sent off- received a mail back a few days later saying all was received.

  • Toddy says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:52

    I have sent them a certified copy of my passport and my account has no limit on it. Have managed to put about £2,500 of 3V through.

    • Gordon says:

      26 Jun26 June 12:57

      Thanks Toddy that’s good to here

• Dave says:

  26 Jun26 June 10:24

  Do any of the WH Smith’s at LHR have these gift cards and if so are they eligible for Heathrow Rewards (WorldPoints)?

  • Rob says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:26

    Never seen them in a WH Smith, although they do sell (although never seen in LHR) Visa gift cards with the £3.95 fee, the sames ones Tesco sells.

    My local Boots has the £3.95 fee cards as well.

    • E14 says:

      26 Jun26 June 11:45

      They are available in Whsmith, not sure about the Lhr ones

• danksy says:

  26 Jun26 June 10:27

  I’ve held off until now because I didn’t want to get stung with having bucket loads of visa cards with no way of spending them! I like the idea of funding National Savings, if you purchase at the right time in the month, then top up National Savings accounts then in theory you should be able to withdraw before the credit card bill becomes due!

  Danksy

• John says:

  26 Jun26 June 10:38

  It says on my NS&I / Premium Bonds account that the minimum deposit is £100?

  Would we have to pay the fee to combine the cards before we can make a deposit?

  • Chris says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:20

    I have funded my new NS&I account with £100 separately and am planning on using the 3V cards to add to that.

    • Chris says:

      26 Jun26 June 15:38

      I’ve now got access to my new NS&I account online. Unless I’m missing something, even after the initial deposit of £100 you need to deposit at least £100 each time via the website. That makes the 3V cards less useful in this instance.

      • tangey says:

        26 Jun26 June 15:49

        You opened the wrong type of account. A direct saver account has a minimum deposit of £1.

        • Chris says:

          27 Jun27 June 09:06

          I wanted premium bonds but obviously didn’t pay attention to the payment restrictions! I don’t really want/need another savings account.

  • Dave says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:35

    It’s not just Premium Bonds NSI also has savings accounts with minimum investment of £1 which can be topped up with a debit card.

    • John says:

      26 Jun26 June 11:39

      Is that the NS&I Direct Saver account?

      • Dave says:

        26 Jun26 June 12:07

        Yes, although if you don’t have one already they will send you a form you need to sign and post back before the account becomes active, but still a good option as long as you can wait a couple of weeks for the money.

        • Ed E says:

          26 Jun26 June 16:00

          Yep, you can deposit any amount over £1 into a Direct Saver or a Direct Isa account at http://www.nsandi.com.
          Once you have the funds in these accounts you can then move them to Premium Bonds if you so wish or cash them out once the funds have sat in there for seven banking days. The funds will show in the account as soon as you have made the deposit but you cannot take them out until they have cleared 7 banking days later.

• Chris says:

  26 Jun26 June 11:21

  I can confirm (if nobody else has yet!) that you can use the cards to pay off/add to the credit on your Next account.

• stu says:

  26 Jun26 June 12:58

  Does anyone know the restrictions on paying off HHonors and Priority Club Visas?

  I managed to get one £25 payment through online and a further 2 payments through the automated telephone service but it’s now rejecting.

  Will this reset at the end of the month? Anyone tried calling them to remove the block?

  • ComeFlyWithMe123 says:

    26 Jun26 June 12:59

    Did you try this on Hilton or Priority Club?

    • stu says:

      26 Jun26 June 13:27

      Priority Club – although I gather they both use Barclaycard

      • ComeFlyWithMe123 says:

        26 Jun26 June 13:34

        I managed to make 2 payments on 18th June, 2 on the 25th June and 1 today. I did try to do a 2nd payment today but got rejected. Didn’t mention the reason – I did it very quickly so I may have entered something incorrectly. Will try again tomorrow.

        • ComeFlyWithMe123 says:

          26 Jun26 June 13:35

          all over the phone btw – Yesterday I got rejected online so perhaps over the phone allows more payments

        • stu says:

          26 Jun26 June 14:12

          Hmm, possibly the restriction is weekly then? It was last week when I last gave it a go so I’ll try again later.

        • stu says:

          28 Jun28 June 18:37

          I spoke to Priority Club/Barclaycard and they confirmed there’s a limit of 5 payments to a credit card account per month (I presume this must be 2 online and 3 by phone going by people’s experiences on here?). The restriction resets at the end of each calendar month.

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