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

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My article last week on buying the fee-free 3V Virtual Visa giftcard in Tesco has attracted a huge number of comments, over 170 at the time of writing.

(If you missed the original post, you can buy 3V Virtual Visa cards in Tesco for £50, earn 150 bonus Clubcard points – 360 Avios points – and then use the cards to pay off online bills where only debit cards are accepted.  My main 3V Virtual Visa article is here.)

I have been through all of your comments on 3V cards.  Here is a list of places where they definitely can and cannot be used online:

Works fine:

Amazon (Amazon sells online gift vouchers from 10p.  Ordering a voucher to be sent to yourself is a great way to empty your 3V card if you have a small balance left.  You can then add your gift voucher to your Amazon account as a credit, and it will be used next time you order.  If you use our Amazon link here, Head for Points gets a commission when you order a gift voucher.)

Barclaycard (works to settle Priority Club and Hilton HHonors credit cards, does not appear to work with standard Barclaycard bills)

Council tax (varies by authority, of course, but most accept debit cards these days)

EDF

E.ON

Freemans

Hargreaves Landsown

highstreetvouchers.com (lets you use the cards for a wide range of vouchers eg John Lewis)

HMRC (treated as a debit card so no 1.4% fee to pay)

Next (to pay off account balance, although you can also use Next gift cards from Tesco for this)

Npower

O2

Orange

Sky (Sky also lets you prepay online, using that balance up before recommencing your normal direct debit)

South West Water

TalkTalk

Virgin Media

With caveats:

Scottish Power (will take it but treat it as a credit card with a 1.4% fee)

TV Licence (cannot split payment, so would need to pay the £1.75 per card transfer fee to move £150 onto one 3V card)

Does not work:

American Express (to pay bill)

British Gas

MBNA credit cards (to pay bill)

Scottish Gas

Selftrade

Tesco online shopping (surprised by this, any other reports?)

Tesco savings account (when depositing using a debit card)

Please continue to add your own experiences with utility companies, credit card companies etc.  We know that they should work as ‘normal’ with online retailers so that is less important unless there is a special tweak involved.  Other ideas apart from Amazon for cashing out very small remaining balances are also welcome.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (129)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Louie says:
    9 May9 May 20:48

    I managed to use two 3V cards to pay off some of my Priority Club visa balance but then got an error message “Sorry, but you’ve reached the maximum number of debit card payments”. Does anyone know if I can use another two tomorrow or is it two per statement period?

    • mitpat474 says:
      10 May10 May 00:20

      your only allowed 5 payments within a month, so effectively 125 a month is “churnable” then you need to know what date it is reset on. Call them and ask.

      • Jovan says:
        10 May10 May 13:07

        I got the same message on both PC and HH cards – after two.

  • Alan says:
    10 May10 May 00:03

    Another datapoint – paying for airport parking at Edinburgh worked fine with 3V card. They charge a £2 surcharge for using credit/charge card but no fee on debit card so nice to effectively pay using Amex via 3V 😉 Total for booking was £23.99 so bought myself a £1.01 Amazon voucher to use up the balance, this also went through successfully and is already in my Amazon gift cert balance.

  • Alan says:
    10 May10 May 10:10

    O2 online PAYG top-up doesn’t want to work for me. Tried Visa Debit and was told “Your card number does not match the card type selected. Please either check and re-enter the number or go back and change the card type. Note that you will have to re-enter all details for security reasons.” Tried Electron – same error. Tried Visa Credit and it would let me get to the next page but then declined the transaction 🙁

    • flyingflea says:
      10 May10 May 10:12

      Try Delta if that’s an option. That’s what some council payment systems have interpreted it as.

      • Alan says:
        10 May10 May 10:14

        Nope, it wasn’t. Just used my bmi mastercard and got 20 Avios instead, so not a major problem – just frustrating!

        • Roger says:
          10 May10 May 11:48

          O2 Pay monthly worked fine for me.
          Managed to pre-pay equivalent of three month of my contract, so my account is now in credit.

          • Alan says:
            10 May10 May 11:50

            Interesting – I wonder if pre-pay top-ups are handled differently?

          • Alan says:
            10 May10 May 12:03

            T-Mobile (contract) not working well either – “The card number you have entered is either incorrect or has been issued by a non UK bank. Please try a different card or re-enter the details.”

    • Iain Beale says:
      10 May10 May 16:48

      O2 worked fine for me. Put £100 on.

      • Alan says:
        10 May10 May 21:23

        Hmm, interesting Iain – I take it that was PAYG? If so which option did you pick when topping up? This was a new SIM I was activating (to make use of their travel bundle pricing on data!) so perhaps that was why it didn’t go through? Perhaps it will work now my account is up and running?

  • Dev says:
    10 May10 May 11:18

    I found 9 cards in my local Tesco. The lady behind the counter asked me why I wanted so much. I told her it was for gifts. She then called a manager who ok’ed it. The lady then told me to withdraw cash and pay for them. I refused and she called the manager. I explained that I am not going to withdraw cash from a credit card as I would have to pay for it. The lady then insisted on calling American Express to pre-authorise the amount. I think Amex scolded her because she looked embarrassed on the phone and was shocked when authority was granted in a matter of seconds. The cards were purchased along with some Cafe Rouge and Pizzaexpress ones (as I frequent those establishments). A bit of a palava but considering these work for Sky and O2 (I have 4 contracts in my household) so it was worth it for the couple hundred pounds that I have knocked off the 10k voucher target. Will do it again in a few days time at another tesco.

  • John says:
    10 May10 May 12:56

    Hi,
    Anyone any info on whether I’d be able to use these (fee free) to transfer money onto a Kalixa prepaid debit card?

    Thanks
    John

  • Colin says:
    10 May10 May 22:15

    One oddity with Sky was when one of the cards i tried to use had a 3 digit security number which started with a zero. Sky refused the card completely despite numerous attempts. However card worked fine for council tax.

  • Londonbus says:
    10 May10 May 22:47

    Was in my local big Tesco and these are back in stock. I might buy a couple next month for my Orange bill…

  • DANIEL says:
    11 May11 May 09:15

    I am so loving this! 3000 tax bill … popping in and out of tescos as i travel… clubcard/cc points to easily make the lloyds 500/month task … oh and the petrol vouchers…. love it!

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