Last edit by: Steve Oh
*** NS&I & HMRC NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR 3V USE ***
Introduction 3V cards and Avios
Tesco gives 150 Clubcard point (convertible to 360 Avios/375 Virgin Miles) for every £50 spent on gift cards. These include the 3V 'Internet Shopping' Visa gift cards (which carry no fee) and have the ability to be recycled back into cash or to pay off bills where an Avios earning card is not accepted. To earn the points just purchase in multiples of £50; you combine with other gift cards (e.g. iTunes, Prepay Visa cards (with fee), Nandos etc).
Spending 3V cards
The original loophole of recycling 3V cards via NS&I direct saver accounts appears to have been closed as of 12/12/13. Other potential routes to dispose of cards can be found here, although this list is now out of date and some disposal methods listed are no longer available.
Current Disposal Options
Following the discontinuation of the NS&I loophole the following websites are still accepting payment by 3V and may be an ongoing useful source of 3V spend to collect points:-
Sky (but there are reports of Sky reversing the transactions); Orange/EE; BT; Virgin Media;Talk Talk, topcashback.co.uk (gift cards); PayPal; Highstreet Vouchers; ParentPay, United Utilities, EDF Energy, Scottish Power, Npower, Amazon (via giftcard), VoucherExpress
Purchasing cards at Tesco
It is strongly recommended when purchasing 3V cards at Tesco that a maximum of 4 cards is purchased in any one transaction (and ensure you have all four activation slips before leaving the store) due to the system limitations of Tesco's checkouts giving rise to potentially being charged for cards which haven't activated. Official Tesco advice to stores is for a maximum of 5 cards (although in this scenario no Clubcard points would be earned on the fifth card). Store policy on how many cards you can take away in one visit is variable although in an unknown store it is wise not to immediately draw too much attention to your activity - if staff are happy to proceed then you can always build to larger quantities before they decline to sell you more.
Non-Tesco 3V outlets
3V cards can also be found in Morrisons, Boots & Homebase. With Morrisons usually having large quantities, sometimes in excess of 100 cards per store and the offer of 1p off of every litre of fuel for every £10 spent makes this is a very good alternative if you're having problems locating stock at Tesco.
Introduction 3V cards and Avios
Tesco gives 150 Clubcard point (convertible to 360 Avios/375 Virgin Miles) for every £50 spent on gift cards. These include the 3V 'Internet Shopping' Visa gift cards (which carry no fee) and have the ability to be recycled back into cash or to pay off bills where an Avios earning card is not accepted. To earn the points just purchase in multiples of £50; you combine with other gift cards (e.g. iTunes, Prepay Visa cards (with fee), Nandos etc).
Spending 3V cards
The original loophole of recycling 3V cards via NS&I direct saver accounts appears to have been closed as of 12/12/13. Other potential routes to dispose of cards can be found here, although this list is now out of date and some disposal methods listed are no longer available.
Current Disposal Options
Following the discontinuation of the NS&I loophole the following websites are still accepting payment by 3V and may be an ongoing useful source of 3V spend to collect points:-
Sky (but there are reports of Sky reversing the transactions); Orange/EE; BT; Virgin Media;Talk Talk, topcashback.co.uk (gift cards); PayPal; Highstreet Vouchers; ParentPay, United Utilities, EDF Energy, Scottish Power, Npower, Amazon (via giftcard), VoucherExpress
Purchasing cards at Tesco
It is strongly recommended when purchasing 3V cards at Tesco that a maximum of 4 cards is purchased in any one transaction (and ensure you have all four activation slips before leaving the store) due to the system limitations of Tesco's checkouts giving rise to potentially being charged for cards which haven't activated. Official Tesco advice to stores is for a maximum of 5 cards (although in this scenario no Clubcard points would be earned on the fifth card). Store policy on how many cards you can take away in one visit is variable although in an unknown store it is wise not to immediately draw too much attention to your activity - if staff are happy to proceed then you can always build to larger quantities before they decline to sell you more.
Non-Tesco 3V outlets
3V cards can also be found in Morrisons, Boots & Homebase. With Morrisons usually having large quantities, sometimes in excess of 100 cards per store and the offer of 1p off of every litre of fuel for every £10 spent makes this is a very good alternative if you're having problems locating stock at Tesco.
3V cards | master thread
#242
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Heathrow
Programs: A variety of Platinums, Golds, Silvers and other fancy metals.
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#243
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: London, Copenhagen
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#244
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Heathrow
Programs: A variety of Platinums, Golds, Silvers and other fancy metals.
Posts: 1,985
#245
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: UK
Posts: 452
I colour copied a couple of them last week just to test it out. All of them were scanned through without any issues at Tesco's till.
#246
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 48
Thank you everyone for the replies. I think I will give it another go once the 6 inactivated cards go through. In that point, should I contact 3v or just deal with Tesco?
I think I will maybe do 4 at a time from now on upto a £1000. £3000 might be stretching it a bit
Thanks once again
I think I will maybe do 4 at a time from now on upto a £1000. £3000 might be stretching it a bit
Thanks once again
#247
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dorset
Programs: BAEC Blue, VS Red, IHG Platinum
Posts: 597
Thank you everyone for the replies. I think I will give it another go once the 6 inactivated cards go through. In that point, should I contact 3v or just deal with Tesco?
I think I will maybe do 4 at a time from now on upto a £1000. £3000 might be stretching it a bit
Thanks once again
I think I will maybe do 4 at a time from now on upto a £1000. £3000 might be stretching it a bit
Thanks once again
When I had exactly the same situation on Friday afternoon, they refunded £150 back onto my card after leaving enough time (about an hour) to make sure the cards were not going to work. They tried to activate them again after the hour and the cards said that there was an error (not that they had already been activated or that they were OK to activate then, just an error.)
The staff were OK about this and I left my details in case of any problems so they didn't feel like I was a rip-off merchant.
I have now invested in a hand scanner (using my TCP amazon credit - through HfP naturally) and hope to put some decent spend through a new credit card as card availability seems to be on the up!
I think you had a bad first experience, maybe just keep the numbers down and see how you go. In the batch I did on Sunday, the lady on the checkout totalled after each card and we did them 4 at a time with no problems.
(not post count padding, honest!)
While putting my haul through, I also had a decent amount of time to talk to the lady and she said that she was quite happy to do it as it would look really good on her figures of how much cash she had taken during her shift. I was the last customer before she finished and she stayed about 5 minutes over her time to finish me off and didn't seem at all upset by it.
Last edited by Prospero; Dec 11, 2013 at 1:38 pm Reason: Combine consecutive posts
#248
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
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Posts: 42,953
#249
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Heathrow
Programs: A variety of Platinums, Golds, Silvers and other fancy metals.
Posts: 1,985
I suppose it could be a measure of how fast they work.
Person 1 does £100 an hour whereas person 2 does £5,000 an hour would certainly attract questions.
Person 1 does £100 an hour whereas person 2 does £5,000 an hour would certainly attract questions.
#250
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dorset
Programs: BAEC Blue, VS Red, IHG Platinum
Posts: 597
Yes, she was saying that the temp Christmas staff were just starting and that they are no longer allowed to take any annual leave until Jan and when it is busy they see how much each person processes at the end of each shift. I agree that if there are few customers then it really is up to us who we choose to check our goods out.
#251
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 213
I have now invested in a hand scanner (using my TCP amazon credit - through HfP naturally) and hope to put some decent spend through a new credit card as card availability seems to be on the up!
I think you had a bad first experience, maybe just keep the numbers down and see how you go. In the batch I did on Sunday, the lady on the checkout totalled after each card and we did them 4 at a time with no problems.
http://cl.ly/image/3n1A2U3R0Z1b
#252
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Heathrow
Programs: A variety of Platinums, Golds, Silvers and other fancy metals.
Posts: 1,985
I think the hand scanner is my next stage as well. The scanner app on the iPhone is constantly loosing focus. Still an average of 1min from beep till email from nsandi. Not bad
http://cl.ly/image/3n1A2U3R0Z1b
http://cl.ly/image/3n1A2U3R0Z1b
#253
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Tyrone,EU
Programs: Avios Hunter
Posts: 2,811
still showing 20 in stock.....its only a mile away so I might divert and take a look to see if they actually do have more in stock, or not. I'm assuming homebase only gives 1 point per £ on the gold card ?
#254
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Heathrow
Programs: A variety of Platinums, Golds, Silvers and other fancy metals.
Posts: 1,985
#255
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: YVR/LBA
Programs: BA Exec Club (Gold)
Posts: 329
Let us know if purchasing at Homebase works.
Found plenty at Tesco's today but apparently they are unable to activate any cards.
Found plenty at Tesco's today but apparently they are unable to activate any cards.