Mattyb44

Anyone having issues with Santander Billpay not taking 3Vs today?

flashware

For which merchant specifically? I've found that sometimes the best way around that is rather than using the merchants site, do it directly via Santander Billpay.

xls999

It has worked fine for me tonight paying £175 of council tax.

Not sure I understood Flashware's comments.

FastTrak2Elite

Quick 3V question - when paying local authority (e.g. Council tax) bills that are > £25, is the technique to make multiple £25 transactions until you've reached the desired value, or is there another/better way?

flashware

That's about the long and short of it. Other way is to consolidate 3V cards, but that will cost.

FastTrak2Elite

Great! Thanks flashware. Lots of copy/pasting coming up I think

northernsoul

Hi all,

Well that took a while to wade through... 103 pages in four days.

Anyways, new to this and looking into possible ways to approach MS. Hopefully I'll be able to offer some input.

Always nice to offer a potential method though, I think, in order to ingratiate yourself in a community. I noticed a lot of people discussing a the 'iZ*****' credit card processor. SumUp may actually be better as it has lower rates, and you can do it through a smartphone app rather than a terminal. Worth a look for some maybe? It's a little on the pricey side for me though.

Anyway, hopefully we can help each other out.

Tom

eshaq786

The rates are between 1.5%-2.75%. Goal is to try to get that down to 0% if possible.

northernsoul

Oh I appreciate that... and I may have managed it. Just needs some extended testing with regards to scalability, and whether an influx of people might ruin it... if it does work (and I think it might) we're talking NS&I all over again :-)

Steve Oh

Expect an influx of emails very soon!
Do not give your secret away otherwise you can guarantee it will end up the same was NS&I went

StephenC

SumUp doesn't take 3V's though?

northernsoul

That's useful to know. The method I'm exploring doesn't use SumUp - I already discounted that on the grounds of it being too expensive!

the_real_a

You will get shut down within 2-3 weeks unless you can mix with legitimate business use. It flags a report of too many "same" card providers. They will freeze your account but you will get your money if you are honest about your actions, but they will shut your account and you will lose any money you spent on the machine.

cron7

Hi everyone, first time poster here. Just stumbled upon this site last week and heard of this idea of manufacturing spend and got really intrigued lol.

I've tested a method and it works but currently it involves paying £40 for 9,200 avios. Thats 0.43p per avios which isn't great imo. What do people think of earning at this rate? To be honest, I'll be converting clubcard to virgin airmiles and then to hilton as I prefer spending money on hotels rather than first class fares but is this a decent earning rate?

After spending quite a while thinking, I now believe I've found a method which would get me 9,200 avios per £1,000 spend whilst actually making a £20-30 profit so will be testing that soon. It's the same thing but involves another step saving a decent amount. Best part is that I went to my local Tesco a few days ago and they had hundreds of 3V cards.

Thanks to everyone for discussing this in good detail as I literally had no clue what MS was a week ago. I think if you read this thread properly, there is some excellent advice out there.

xls999

Assuming you are intending to buy 3v cards in Tesco you should be able to get 16,800 avios for £1000 spend up 31/12/14 if you use the 100 point vouchers in the magazine. Plus whatever rate you earn for your credit card spend