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

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UPDATE – JUNE 2025:  This is an old article, and the credit card information given is likely to be out of date.

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The easiest way to earn a lot of Avios points or Virgin Flying Club miles in 2013 was with 3V Virtual Visa cards – as long as your local Tesco sold them.

As with all non-Tesco branded gift cards, you earn 150 Clubcard points for every £50-worth you buy.  This meant 360 Avios or 375 Virgin Atlantic miles.  Because Tesco accepts American Express, it was also an easy way to increase your spending if you needed to hit a sign-up bonus on a new Amex card.

The deal was so great because you could use 3V cards for financial transactions.  Most blatantly, you could pay them into certain bank accounts so you got your entire £25 per card back immediately.  The only limit to the number of free Avios you could earn via this route was the number of 3V Virtual Visa cards stocked in your local Tesco.

The wheels came off the bus in December 2013.  Overnight, 3V changed their acceptance rules.  The cards are now rejected if you attempt to use them for a financial services transaction.

However, Tesco is still selling 3V cards at face value.

You still earn 150 Clubcard points for every £50-worth you buy.

If you use an Amex Gold to buy them, you would also earn 100 Membership Rewards points as it is a supermarket purchase which earns double points.

Where can you still use them?

I saw my first 3V cards for at least a year whilst on holiday last week.  I bought £50-worth and redeemed them for Amazon gift certificates at £25 each.

This is the easiest way, for most people, to redeem 3V cards.  You can order Amazon gift certificates for yourself and pay them into your Amazon account.  You then have a credit balance which you can work through for future purchases.

There are some other places that still take 3V cards.  If you have regular monthly payments to any of these companies then it is something you should take a look at:

Sky

Vodafone

BT

EDF, Scottish & Southern and E.ON

TV Licensing

Parent Pay

Virgin Media

Apple Store e-gift cards bought direct

You can also purchase gift vouchers via TopGiftCards, High Street Vouchers and Love2Shop.

If you have a direct debit for bill payment with any of the above, you can use a 3V card to make a partial payment onto your account.  The next direct debit will then be adjusted.

Some merchants may put a £1 block on your card when you attempt to use it as a security check.  The maximum you can then pay is £24.  The remaining £1 will be released within 7-10 days and can be used to buy an Amazon gift voucher.

Some merchants will also restrict the number of different card numbers that a single customer can use to 2+ in a 24 hour period.  Do not expect to be able to use up 10 3V cards with the same merchant on the same day.

Any updates to the above list are welcome.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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

Get 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Comments (355)

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

  • Paul says:

    so i bought 2 cards today and went through ther procedure. Tried to buy a gift certificate for someone else and it went through but it just say scheduled………………no further information. What have I done wrong?? I then got another card cause I thought the recipient had made an error and i paid this one to myself but again it is just sitting in the account and saying pending. I am not amused! Can’t understand what I have done wrong, any help gratefully appreciated.

    • Paul says:

      sorry, that post is probably not very clear…………….i bougght a gift cert on amazon and it went through but the recipient has not received it. When i look at open orders it just says “scheduled” but there is no other info. This is driving me nuts!

      • squills says:

        You used a 3V card to buy an Amazon giftcard and sent it to another person, who has not yet received it?

      • Rob says:

        Wierd, they usually go through immediately unless they have an issue with the card. Easier to send it to yourself by the way!

  • sarah gorman says:

    I used to use them on Asda.com but now they are refused. When I checked with 3V they said they do not participate on the Verified by Visa scheme so any company that uses this will reject the 3V cards unfortuantely

  • Jason says:

    Does anyone know of any Tesco’s, in Nottingham, that sell these?

  • Craig Vassie says:

    Can’t find any. My local Tesco in High Wycombe claims not to sell them – they just have Visa gift cards that carry the £3.95 admin fee. Suggestions anyone please?

    • Mark says:

      They say that the Visa gift card can be used anywhere that takes Visa cards!!! Reading the website it’s says that in the help section about spending it in shops and petrol stations.

      My wife’s work pays for her travel into London, which cost over £400 per month. So next month I am going to pay for her travel with these.

      Yes, it will cost us £32 on admin fees but it will get us 16p of a litre of fuel and more importantly 1,200 of Club Card points = 2,880 Avios points.

      This works out at 0.011 per Avios point, so this makes it worth it as we are only spending £32 ourselves and a better return on Credit Cards that give Avois points as rewards.

      I think that it would still be worth doing as it’s money we would have gained Avois points on unless we used Credit Cards that give Avois points as reward, but that route would only give you 400 Avios points instead of the 2,880 Club Card points.

      Maybe there are member out that get their works pay for company travel cost i.e. Rail fares, Oyster cards, taxi fares or even petrol and some of these give you the chance to double dip on the points front.

      Hope these ideas help you all

      • Brian says:

        How did you arrive at your Avios cost? Have you factored in the fuel? Because if not, you’re actually paying quite a lot for those Avios…

        It would be different if you can use £25 cards for paying for tickets etc that are less than that. That way, you avoid the admin cost.

        • Trevor says:

          Hi Mark. I think you had a few of us confused as we thought you were talking 3V cards and you wouldn’t be able to use these on petrol. Now we understand you mean the Visa debit cards, that makes more sense, but I’m still unsure if you mean you are buying petrol for yourself (in which case the 16p discount is relevant), or for your wife for work refund in which case it’s irrelevant as the cost is returned and all you are doing is saving her company money. If her travel is by travel and public transport that you can book online, then don’t pay the fee for the Visa debit cards, but use 3V cards as much as possible to reduce your costs. Not quite understanding your scenario makes it difficult to predict your outcome – on one hand you pay the admin fee for the debit cards and save the company money on petrol, so your cost is £0.011/Avios (yes, your maths is correct, but what is further confusing is your willingness to pay such a high price per Avios when most people here would value them at less than that and hence never pay that price per point), while on the other hand you could earn the Avios, pay no admin fees if buying 3Vs to spend online on public transport, and profit from 16p/litre petrol discount – quite a variation.

          • squills says:

            OP means pay upfront then claim back @ 40p a mile or similar

          • louie-m says:

            Mark – I mentioned East Coast because you can buy tickets for any journey from them, not only EC trains, but I don’t think that extends to season tickets.

        • Mark says:

          Unfortunately we are on the Greater Anglia train line and they donot seem to do gift vouchers unless any one else can tell me different.

          You cannot order a session ticket over the phone, so the need to buy it at the counter.

          If anyone is on the same line I have found out that you can buy a session ticket online, so you could use the V3 card but you would have to combine the cards to the value you need plus the £1.75 fee for combining each card together.

        • Brian says:

          To be honest, Mark, I think you need to reassess. Paying more than 1p per Avios is actually a lot, since it’s difficult to get more than 1p in value, unless you use them solely for business/first class travel. And in order to do that, you need to earn quite a lot – which is probably rather difficult without AMEX.

          If I were you, I would get 3V cards and use them for transactions under £25, meaning that there would be no fees. I’d also get an AMEX card of some kind!!

          Obviously, every person values Avios at his or her own rate, but you need to be very careful that you are not paying more than you’ll get back. Otherwise, it simply isn’t worth it. Even if you’re breaking even or making a small ‘profit’, it’s not worth the hassle.

          • Louie says:

            The 16p per litre fuel saving on say 50 litres would bring the cost down to 0.83p per Avios – better but not outstanding value.

      • Col A-B says:

        Just a heads up – the Tesco fuel save thing expires next month.

    • squills says:

      You may have to look in more than one Tesco.

      • Craig Vassie says:

        Have tried two stores. in the gift card racks they only have standard Visa gift cards, £50 value, with a £3.95 admin fee. Customer Services had no knowledge of a Visa 3V card at either store – it wasn’t like “we’ve run out….” Cheers

        • squills says:

          Customer Services generally don’t have a clue about 3Vs: 3Vs are serviced by an outside stockist.

          I’ve often found Tesco stores with zero 3Vs on occasion but I’ve never found any Tesco stores with zero 3V cards over time.

          The dinky little city-centre ones being the major exception – but they don’t have the space.

          • TimS says:

            One store near me has every other gift card except 3v and no free spaces (every visit) but another one a couple of miles away always has dozens!

            I think store A genuinely d

          • TimS says:

            One store near me has every other gift card except 3v and no free spaces (every visit) but another one a couple of miles away always has dozens!

            I think store A genuinely doesn’t stock them anymore but store B gets extra!

        • Louie says:

          There’s plenty of non-Express stores round my way which definitely do not stock 3Vs. Fortunately there are a couple of larger stores that usually do though…..

  • Waffles1 says:

    The Tesco Fuel Save has been extended into 2015

    • mark says:

      Waffles, that great news, thanks for the info

    • Waffles1 says:

      Trust me. We’ll hear about in the next couple of weeks.

      • Mark says:

        Waffles, I am guessing that’s a bit of insider trading / knowledge….

        We shall not ask any question then 😉

    • Col A-B says:

      I just tweeted Tesco & they confirmed it has been extended until end of Feb 2015

      • Trevor says:

        I’ve heard the rumours and glad to know it does appear to be true. Though that said, I was benefitting a lot when I was still buying 3V a lot, but now not so much since seldom shop much at Tesco – certainly nowhere close to the £500 required to get max discount. Yet previously I was earning this twice a month.

        • ComeFlyWithMe123 says:

          You can actually benefit from more than the 20p per litre discount. That limit applies to per transaction. So if you fill up the car more than once per month you will reap the rewards 🙂

          I’ve had over 60p showing on my receipt from 3v buying and pass my c/c to family n friends to benefit before they expire.

  • Mark says:

    Talktalk seems to accept 3V (will find out later if the transaction is reversed). Paying within 24 hours of being emailled the bill gives a 25% discount (I think this has to be paid in one transaction so those with larger bills may have to make a prepayment to reduce the amount required.

    Talktalk (and EDF) let customers choose how much to pay (I don’t know what the minimum is) so could be useful for dumping part used cards as an alternative to Amazon.

    • squills says:

      15%

      What is the Speedy Payment discount?

      The speedy payment discount is a reward for customers who pay their bill early. Simply pay your bill within 24 hours of receiving your bill notification email and receive a 15% discount.

  • Steve says:

    Hi, also posted on PTS earlier but had problems early in Tesco trying to buy 4 3V cards, once scanned the till kept deducted them, I was told that they now only allow one per transaction. Has anyone purchased any today who can confirm this is not the case?

    • Waffles1 says:

      There isn’t a policy limiting the number you can purchase. If the till keeps deducting the card from the bill it’s because it can’t activate the card, so it doesn’t want to charge you for it. More likely that the checkout had a problem connecting with the server to activate the card.

      • Steve says:

        Thanks for the quick response, will try again tomorrow, the cashier did say they had been having other problems with giftcards but was then told it was a restriction.

        • louie-m says:

          I bought four in one transaction at about 8pm this evening without any issues.

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    I don’t know if anyone is following this thread, but do DVLA accept 3V? My road tax is coming up….

    • Trevor says:

      I renewed mine last month and looked into it briefly, unsuccessfully. But just seen a comment on PTS forum that confirms it’s no longer an option.

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