Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Quick update on buying coins at face value from the Royal Mint using 3V

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran this article on buying 50p coins at face value from the Royal Mint.

To be honest, it was written as a bit of fun.  And the fact that the ‘free postage’ code I gave had expired before the post actually appeared did not help!

However, a new code for free postage is now available – OLDNPP

At worst, you can now buy £50 of 50p coins for £50 and get them delivered to your house for free.  Because the Royal Mint takes Visa and MasterCard, you can earn a few miles for your effort and get £50 nearer any sign-up bonus you are working towards.

It gets more interesting if you buy 3V Virtual Visa cards from Tesco, though.  The Royal Mint takes these cards, so you can immediately cash them out – whilst netting yourself 150 Clubcard points (360 Avios) for every £50 of 3V cards you bought.  (See here for more details on 3V).

Since you are limited to roughly £50 per order – you can only buy 4 of each different coin – and since someone needs to be at home to take the delivery (I assume they don’t go through your letterbox), I still put this in the ‘bit of fun’ category.  But it could prove useful nonetheless.

Comments (47)

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

  • Dan says:

    From reading the previous post + comments on this it’s clear that Amex would not be accepted.

    Currently unable to find a Tesco’s that has stock for V3 cards. Is there another alternative to buying/ topping up a Pre paid card online using Amex so I can then empty on Royal Mint?

    I have Reward goals to reach and this would be perfect.

    • Tom H says:

      I managed to make it work with amex by changing the country settings. I inadvertently got the expiry date wrong though, so had to call royal mint to correct, the lady didn’t have a problem that I was using amex, and I have since received and banked the cards.

      I was in a Boots at Westfield Stratford which had about 20 3v cards on the rack.

      Yesterday I placed an order for £100 worth, ignoring the limit of 4 per design, not sure what will happen there though.

    • Sir Stamford says:

      “From reading the previous post + comments on this it’s clear that Amex would not be accepted”

      Not entirely correct. AMEX isn’t shown as a payment method and even referred to in the FAQ.

      However, by initially changing the country to, say, USA, I was able to get Royal Mint to accept AMEX.

      Sir Stamford

      • Rob says:

        I thought someone else did that but got an email saying the payment could not actually be processed? Or am I confused?!

  • Dan says:

    I placed an order on the 7th May and the status is still showing as ‘in progress’ due to overwhelming demand!

    Have given up on the V3 cards and since they accept visa cards without any charges, the American Airlines Credit Card was a perfect alternative.

    BTW, this is a different Dan 🙂

    • Sir Stamford says:

      I don’t know if this helps – my order on 9 May was successfully delivered last week. It might be worth contacting them to find out what is going on.

      Sir Stamford

      • Dan says:

        Thank you for the info. I have sent them an email and will follow up with a phone call on Tuesday.

  • signol says:

    Norwich Tesco on the Ipswich Rd had a load yesterday.

  • Rohan says:

    I am going to urge everyone here to be careful with 3V cards. I bought 8 of them from tesco and 5 of them did not get activated online , error message saying these numbers cannot be activated . So contacted 3V . They said that it is the retailers responsibility to put them through a black hawk terminal etc. and activate it before they sell it, and to contact them. Went to tesco and as things go went from person at customer services all the way to the manager . Showed them the email from 3V . They say they dont know what a black hawk terminal is, and that on the receipt somewhere ( I have lost mine but they have tracked my transaction through clubcard) it says that these cards cannot be refunded and that my best chance is to contact 3V. I even spoke to someone at Tesco head office , told them about faulty goods etc. they were having none of it. Said nothing to do with them, so completely stuck now and out of £125 🙁 Maybe I have been unlucky and 3 of them did get activated. However seems to be risky. I have emailed 3V again and am awaiting their answer, don’t think though they will sort out

    • Mr Bridge says:

      if you bought this on amex issued amex, you should be covered by amex refund protection insurance, i am not quite sure of the terms on this insurance, but it might be worth a quick email to amex????

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      S75 only covers items with a value >=£100. It will be a big stretch to cover a bundle of £25 cards.

      Also nb that charge cards give no S75 protection iirc

      • Mr Bridge says:

        true, but section 75 covers things less than £100 if meant to be used together, for example if you buy a suit, the trousers cost £40 and the jacket £60, each item is less than £100,( and appears on the receipt as 2 items) but the items are used together so it is covered, so in this case if you bought £200 of 3v cards intending to use them together (as the max amount you can buy on 1 card is £25:- you could not have bought a £100 card), you would be covered because each part of the spend was intended to be used together, ie to pay council tax.

        Yes your right about charge cards not being covered, but amex charge cards give refund protection insuarnce, I wasnt sureif Rohan used charge or credit card.

  • Mr Bridge says:

    just ordered £25 on 3V card, as treasurer of our village fete i have to buy 50p coins any way, so i got my ccps and 1.5% cash back from amex…Not a lottery win, but (ready for the double pun) to ‘COIN’ a phrase ‘EVERY LITTLE HELPS’
    GOODAY FAIR READERS

  • Adey says:

    The Royal Mint website is painfully slow.I’ve given up, twice, trying to order – it’s too frustrating.

    On a brighter note, I notice my 3V purchases at Tesco (with Amex) are included in the double membership rewards for supermarket purchases promotion running right now:-)

    Adey

  • JenniSue says:

    FYI – Tesco in Dingwall, Scotland has lots of 3v cards available.

    • Mr Bridge says:

      thats gr8 news will only cost londers about £150 round trip!

    • BTC says:

      As do Tesco Riverside Dundee. Helpful for those not in the London Bubble 😉

  • Andy says:

    Out of all the things that I used the 3V cards with this one had to be the most tedious. Firstly buying the cards at Tesco, then activating them, then the painfully slow Royal Mint site then having to rip open 100 sealed packets to dump out £50 in coins, then taking them to my bank , I must have been mad. Makes me wonder what I wouldn’t do for 150 club card points.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.