Get 150 Clubcard points per £50 Amazon purchase with 3V cards

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• Waribai says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:40

  Npower take them and if you have any financial services that involve worldpay.com you can also use 3V. For example our nursery fees are paid online via worldpay so as long as I can find the 3V cards, that’s an extra 7200 avios per month!

• Nathaniel says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:44

  3 and Co-op energy accept it directly.

  Via Santander Bill Pay: ST Water, Nuneaton council.

  Unfortunately student loans company don’t accept it.

  • Graham says:

    8 Aug8 August 10:16

    That’s sad news regarding the student loans company, I’ve just entered overseas repayments. Have you found any way of earn points of any kind whilst avoiding the ~1.5% credit card fee?

    • squills says:

      8 Aug8 August 10:20

      You’d be OK using the Tesco debit card, presumably. Clubcard points.

      • squills says:

        8 Aug8 August 10:22

        Debit or credit card

        You can make card payments using Maestro, Switch, Delta, Visa, Visa Electron and Mastercard.

        There will be approximately a 1.5% surcharge added to payments made by credit card.

        Debit cards will not have this surcharge applied.

        • craig says:

          8 Aug8 August 12:01

          Am pretty sure Tesco Debit card for new Tesco bank account excludes clubcard points from payments to financial institutions – they’re just for purchases.

    • Nathaniel says:

      9 Aug9 August 09:18

      The solution to 1.5% is simpler than you think.

      On the website you simply choose Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit. Then punch in your credit card details anyway. This bypasses the charge 😀 So nowadays I use my Virgin Atlantic white card like this.

      The other method to avoid it was to wait until you were in arrears, call up, get transferred to arrears department. They want your money ASAP, so they waive the 1.5% fee.

• Paul says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:46

  Am i correct thinking points collected for £50 spend of 3V pre paid cards bought from Tesco =

  150 clubcard points bonus
  50 clubcard points regular
  100 Amex MR points (paying with Amex Gold Card which has x2 supermarket bonus in 1st year)

  • avidsaver says:

    8 Aug8 August 07:49

    If I remember I think the 150 bonus is instead of the regular 50. Still get the Amex 100 if your Gold Card is in the first year.

  • Simon says:

    8 Aug8 August 07:49

    Not quite you don’t get the regular points so it’s

    150 clubcard points bonus
    100 Amex MR points (paying with Amex Gold Card which has x2 supermarket bonus in 1st year)

  • Polly says:

    8 Aug8 August 07:53

    Hi Paul, no you ONLY get the 150 cc points, not an extra 50. Plus whatever amex you use to pay get you the MRs also, so it adds up nicely.

    • craig says:

      8 Aug8 August 12:09

      You also get 2p off a litre of fuel per £50 spent at Tesco, inc giftcard purchases.

      As I tank up weekly and tend to buy £100 giftcards/week, that gets me 4p/litre off, plus I get the same again for my shopping purchases. On 35 litres that 4p discount is £1.40, better than a kick in the chops.

• PJK says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:47

  It seems I must be the only person here not to have ever bought a 3V card (or 50!) – perhaps someone can explain briefly the procedure or point me to it – locate on shelf / buy at till / validate (how?) / pay to vendor (how?) …
  Please excuse the basic question!
  Thanks

  • Polly says:

    8 Aug8 August 07:57

    Best go into raffles original blogs on 3V and study them. It’s quite a detailed process once you get the hang of it, but finding the cards can be hit and miss.

    • PJK says:

      8 Aug8 August 08:10

      Thanks Polly

      • Col A-B says:

        8 Aug8 August 08:25

        I’d point out that you cannot buy any gift cards at a self-serve till in Tesco. You need to go through one with a human attached.

        • craig says:

          8 Aug8 August 12:03

          And, as a rule, you should avoid buying >4 at a time. Some people have had problems when they’ve tried to buy loads in one go. If you want more it’s better to just go back into the shop and do another transaction.

    • Dave B says:

      8 Aug8 August 16:38

      It can take some time to do it if all goes well, then the hassle of faulty/ non activated cards. I would buy £100 plus at a time as I’m not sure what the 3v bank make out of it. (for credit card protection)

    • Dave B says:

      8 Aug8 August 18:28

      Detailed and time consuming!

  • squills says:

    8 Aug8 August 08:28

    Go to Raffles’ original threads as suggested, for sure.

    BUT THE ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE! –
    – make sure each 3V card is activated at the till – and this means you will get an activation slip for each one, ie another till receipt
    – don’t try to buy in high quantities. If you buy in 2s or 4s, it normally works. Once you start to buy in 6s and definitely 8s, it all goes pear shaped 😉

    • Erico1875 says:

      8 Aug8 August 08:42

      Yes . Happened last night. I bought 8 Argos gift cards. 1 didnt activate. I normally only do 4 at a time.

      • craig says:

        8 Aug8 August 12:04

        You need to be careful with the store giftcards – I bought Argos ones and then went to buy what I wanted in Argos, to find that you need to wait 1-2 days for them to activate!

        Also tried to buy giftcards at Argos (M&S ones I think) using Argos giftcards bought from Tesco – they were having none of that either, ho-hum 🙂

• PJK says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:51

  By the way it also looks as though they need a new tagline for the cards – “Buy anything anywhere online that accepts Visa” clearly isn’t true any longer is it?!

  • SingingDwarf says:

    8 Aug8 August 08:17

    I keep wondering whether it’s worth a complaint to the FOS

    • Sully says:

      8 Aug8 August 10:45

      I’ve registered a complaint with them, don’t see it going anywhere though as they’re not a UK company.

      • Singing Dwarf says:

        8 Aug8 August 10:48

        3V Transaction Services Ltd are not registered in the UK, but the Visa numbers are issued by R. Raphael & Sons plc who are based in Shaftesbury Avenue.

        R Raphael & Sons PLC is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

    • Avioso says:

      8 Aug8 August 12:03

      Is there really a need to complain. Please don’t spoil it for everyone…..

      • SingingDwarf says:

        8 Aug8 August 13:35

        Potentially, yes.

        There is a possible case of false advertising here. It is not possible to use the cards “anywhere online Visa is accepted” as the packaging claims, prominently, in two places on the front and twice on the back.

        A small proportion of the sites rejecting the cards may be doing it themselves, but by far the vast majority are being rejected by 3V.

        Innocent – and by that I mean not the MS or point collecting – members of the public are being misled.

        How would you feel, if you were in the former category, could not get a credit or debit card for whatever reason and did not want to pay the exorbitant fees charged for prepay debit cards – when you found you could not pay for something online you believed you could, based on the advertising?

        IMHO there is more chance of Tesco closing the loophole due to ‘abuse’ than any complaint causing the cards to be withdrawn.

        • Avioso says:

          8 Aug8 August 14:54

          Fair enough, I do see your point. However there slogan did hold true until they decided to blocking certain institutions e.g financial services etc.

          Realistically the logistical process of taking back what’s on the shelf and re branding is not going to happen, so let’s enjoy them while we can.

        • Singing Dwarf says:

          8 Aug8 August 16:47

          The slogan is still applied to card stock that was produced in January 2014, after the financial institutions loophole was closed.

        • Avioso says:

          8 Aug8 August 19:04

          Yes and as I said a re brand is realistically not going to happen. How many of the non Avios / manufactured spend brigade are really going to complain. None or very few.

          There regular customers I doubt give damn about the changes and most likely use it for its intended purchase. To “Shop” online.

        • Singing Dwarf says:

          8 Aug8 August 22:20

          The very point that a re-brand “will not happen”, is the very reason to lodge a formal complaint!

        • callum says:

          8 Aug8 August 18:11

          What have they stopped you from “buying” though? Paying off bills and debts are certainly not purchases.

        • Fenny says:

          8 Aug8 August 19:43

          I’ve had a few issues with them. Blinkbox books won’t take them, blinkbox films will sometimes, but not others. There have been a few other places where they just wouldn’t work and I’ve ended up having to use my normal CC. At least I can top up my Starbucks card and pay for cinema tickets with them.

        • Singing Dwarf says:

          8 Aug8 August 22:19

          Callum, one can “buy” or “shop” for, or “purchase” goods and *services*.

          Services include things such as the collection of my compostable waste, which I was able to pay my local council for using 3V cards – until 3V started blocking the MCC for Government Services (because NS&I transactions are wrongly coded as such).

          There are other places which have been blocked by 3V – but I won’t bore you with the details of places which don’t work here.

          Fenny – Blinkbox book will take them, just don’t try to save the card details as you check out, then it works fine.

        • Erico1875 says:

          8 Aug8 August 22:23

          I used £60 worth of 3Vs at Blinkbox Books. You have to uncheck the box “remember my card details”.
          Makes it a bit of a pain having to fill all the details in for each £1 purchase.
          Thank goodness for auto complete 🙂

  • Simon says:

    8 Aug8 August 08:33

    The picture in the article is quite an old 3v card, the tag line on them now is ‘Shop anywhere online that accepts Visa’

    The 3v website still uses the image with the old tag line on though I notice.

• Tony says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:51

  Is there a maximum amount/number of these cards that Tesco will sell to you in one transaction?

  • Zoe says:

    8 Aug8 August 07:58

    Individual stores seem to make up their own rules. My local will allow 6 per customer per day when one particular till supervisior is working. I have done £900 worth in one go at another local one ( 9 transactions of £100, consecutively at the same till)

    • Sully says:

      8 Aug8 August 10:46

      I’ve never had an issue buying as many as I want in one go, but to make it easy for you to check the activation slips match the cards, stick to less than 8 in one go.

• Isolde says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:54

  I’ll add a couple to that list
  – Affinity Water when paid through Santander Bill Pay
  – Squid Card (a school cashless payment system so I guess similar to Parent Pay)
  Hope they are useful.

  • Trevor says:

    8 Aug8 August 13:13

    Affinity Water can be paid direct IF you use the automated phone payment system – go online or speak to a real person and it fails.

• Fenny says:

  8 Aug8 August 07:55

  Yesterday in Sainsburys I saw £25 Amazon gift cards on sale at the till. I had previously wondered if you could buy Amazon cards from anywhere but Amazon, as this would be useful for the clubcard bonus and remove the need to put 3V through Amazon. But I’ve never yet seem Amazon cards in Tesco.

  • Scott says:

    8 Aug8 August 08:02

    Think it’s to due with them being competitors.
    i.e. Direct Vs. Amazon

    • Scott says:

      8 Aug8 August 08:03

      ….but then again they do sell vouchers for clothes shops etc.

      Might be some lack of agreement or popularity?

    • Fenny says:

      8 Aug8 August 17:15

      Sainsers online shops sell similar things to Direct.

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