Aug 21, 2019, 12:38 pm
Last edit by: Klemhuzzah
Signing up to buy $1000 visa/mc gift cards
You can buy the $1000 cards on Simon's volume site. Their regular site only sells $500 cards.
If you're new, or haven't bought anything in a year, you need to register at https://www.simon.com/volume/register-consumer
As part of the registration process, you will have to go to a brick and mortar mall and buy at least $3000 in cards in person, as well as filling out some paperwork while there. After that, you can do everything online.
As of Nov 2020, Simon Mall Gift cards will only work for $99/swipe for money services at Walmart and many grocery chains.
$1000 gift cards are available indefinitely.
2020 Promotions
Ongoing: FREEGROUND - Free Ground Shipping on any order size. Limited to 5 orders per customer. Expires December 31, 2020 (subject to change).
5/15-6/17: MDHOL20 - 20% off Visa Giftcard Purchase Fees + Free Ground Shipping on orders of 9 more cards
5/15/5/31: MAYGROUND - Free UPS Ground shipping on orders of 7 or more cards
5/15-6/31: MAY20VG10 - 10% off purchase fees on Visa Giftcards
6/29-7/20: JUL4HOL20 - 20% off Visa Giftcard Purchase Fees + Free Ground Shipping on orders of 5 or more cards. If you select a shipping other than Ground - the code will still take 20% off the purchase fees. Limited to 10 orders per customer.
8/11-8/31: AUG20PR - 15% off ALL fees (excl. shipping fees) on orders of 5 or more cards. Limited to 10 orders per customer (Originally expired on 8/23; on 8/24 promo was extended through 8/31)
10/12-10/14: FSOCT20 - 30% off all purchase fees on Visas and Mastercards.
10/26-10/31 - FS20SCARY - 35% off all purchase fees
11/1-11/30 - HOL20MC25 - 25% off all purchase fees on MasterCard / HOL20VG25 - 25% off all purchase fees on Visa / HOL20AG50 50% off all purchase fees on American Express
11/6-11/8 - FS20THANKS - 35% off all purchase fees
11/16-11/18 - FS20SAVINGS - 35% off all purchase fees
You can buy the $1000 cards on Simon's volume site. Their regular site only sells $500 cards.
If you're new, or haven't bought anything in a year, you need to register at https://www.simon.com/volume/register-consumer
As part of the registration process, you will have to go to a brick and mortar mall and buy at least $3000 in cards in person, as well as filling out some paperwork while there. After that, you can do everything online.
As of Nov 2020, Simon Mall Gift cards will only work for $99/swipe for money services at Walmart and many grocery chains.
$1000 gift cards are available indefinitely.
2020 Promotions
Ongoing: FREEGROUND - Free Ground Shipping on any order size. Limited to 5 orders per customer. Expires December 31, 2020 (subject to change).
5/15-6/17: MDHOL20 - 20% off Visa Giftcard Purchase Fees + Free Ground Shipping on orders of 9 more cards
5/15/5/31: MAYGROUND - Free UPS Ground shipping on orders of 7 or more cards
5/15-6/31: MAY20VG10 - 10% off purchase fees on Visa Giftcards
6/29-7/20: JUL4HOL20 - 20% off Visa Giftcard Purchase Fees + Free Ground Shipping on orders of 5 or more cards. If you select a shipping other than Ground - the code will still take 20% off the purchase fees. Limited to 10 orders per customer.
8/11-8/31: AUG20PR - 15% off ALL fees (excl. shipping fees) on orders of 5 or more cards. Limited to 10 orders per customer (Originally expired on 8/23; on 8/24 promo was extended through 8/31)
10/12-10/14: FSOCT20 - 30% off all purchase fees on Visas and Mastercards.
10/26-10/31 - FS20SCARY - 35% off all purchase fees
11/1-11/30 - HOL20MC25 - 25% off all purchase fees on MasterCard / HOL20VG25 - 25% off all purchase fees on Visa / HOL20AG50 50% off all purchase fees on American Express
11/6-11/8 - FS20THANKS - 35% off all purchase fees
11/16-11/18 - FS20SAVINGS - 35% off all purchase fees
Simon Mall Gift Cards (2019-2023)
Nov 13, 2020, 2:21 pm
#1696
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: DCA
Posts: 818
Has anyone been able to use a Simon VGC as funding source in Venmo? When trying to enter in as a payment method, it says wrong zip code.
Nov 13, 2020, 3:38 pm
#1698
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 239
It is possible, which is why Simon could easily put in some restriction on the amount of MO's one could buy. That would stop people from abusing the system more than it is now. I agree the issuer is the biggest one losing anything in this.
Nov 13, 2020, 5:00 pm
#1699
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,523
Even if you're able to successfully use it, there's a cap on the number of cards you can add to Venmo within a given (six-month?) period of time.
Nov 13, 2020, 7:13 pm
#1700
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,550
About 5 years ago, give or take a bit, I had a phone conversation with Kayla Wicker, who at least at the time was the main person at Simon in regard to gift cards. (We touched base because she was trying to reach someone else who has posted.) At one point in the conversation I said "Can I ask you, how do the economics of this work?" and she just chucked and said "Well, it's a challenge." Now that was years ago; obviously they have made a business decision to sell the cards more aggressively, and they clearly are not naive about MS.
Nov 13, 2020, 7:24 pm
#1701
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 2,936
I wonder if it’s a loss leader to move traffic into the malls.
Nov 13, 2020, 8:25 pm
#1703
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,550
Received an email this morning from my local Simon rep about something unrelated to this issue, and asked her about this. Here was her response...
"Good Morning!
Thanks for reaching out, I have been made aware of this at the local level by a few customers and have passed it on to my corporate team. They are looking into it at the national level with Walmart. Last I heard it was a POS programming update that was causing the issue but they are still looking into it so hopefully I will have some more news soon.
Thanks,"
"Good Morning!
Thanks for reaching out, I have been made aware of this at the local level by a few customers and have passed it on to my corporate team. They are looking into it at the national level with Walmart. Last I heard it was a POS programming update that was causing the issue but they are still looking into it so hopefully I will have some more news soon.
Thanks,"
Nov 13, 2020, 9:19 pm
#1704
Join Date: May 2019
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 25
Apparently Simon knew it was Walmart who restricted their gibit a few weeks ago, when everybody complaining about the "glitch". I emailed my account manager and she said it's problem on WM side. I didn't trust her comment back then because I saw so many confusing DP's on this website but now it's getting more and more apparent. Simon knows the MS thing and they have their contact in WM to tell them more than what we can guess on this forum.
I now hope the account managers, at least some of them, can find other roles in Simon corp. Selling gift cards was a great business practice to increase revenue on financial report.
I now hope the account managers, at least some of them, can find other roles in Simon corp. Selling gift cards was a great business practice to increase revenue on financial report.
Nov 14, 2020, 10:50 am
#1705
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 170
It depends on the discount rate they get from Blackhawk. Meijer sells Visa giftcards in bulk to corporate buyers and they have a 4% discount for $5K+ orders. These corporate types are not buying groceries so Meijer is not doing this to attract them, but instead because their is some kind of economics to it. If Meijer can offer a 4% discount on VGC MGC purchases over $5K, then it implies they are making more than 4% off the bigger transactions from Blackhawk, Sunrise, or whoever.
Now think about Simon Mall....and you wonder why they cater to MS crowd. They have to be raking it in. Think about it. They are most likely selling in the millions of dollars of BHN issues GCs and getting heaily discounted merchant processing fees due to volume. It's not Simon losing money. It's blackhawk losing money, because there is no breakage on giftcards bought for MS.
Now think about Simon Mall....and you wonder why they cater to MS crowd. They have to be raking it in. Think about it. They are most likely selling in the millions of dollars of BHN issues GCs and getting heaily discounted merchant processing fees due to volume. It's not Simon losing money. It's blackhawk losing money, because there is no breakage on giftcards bought for MS.
Nov 14, 2020, 2:09 pm
#1707
Join Date: Nov 2020
Programs: CMT
Posts: 2
DP from IL. I went to two WMs this morning. I loaded $400 to GoBank with 1 swipe by a 500 sunrise VGC successfully at the 1st WM. Tried to load $100 to Gobank with 1 swipe by the same sunrise VGC at the 2nd WM. It didn't work. The error code is 1. I guess that the 1st WM hasn't updated the POS system.
Nov 14, 2020, 3:09 pm
#1708
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 54
DP from IL. I went to two WMs this morning. I loaded $400 to GoBank with 1 swipe by a 500 sunrise VGC successfully at the 1st WM. Tried to load $100 to Gobank with 1 swipe by the same sunrise VGC at the 2nd WM. It didn't work. The error code is 1. I guess that the 1st WM hasn't updated the POS system.
cashier on MC? I have had luck at cashiers
Nov 14, 2020, 9:01 pm
#1710
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 54
I have 3 WM within 20 miles of my house. 2 out of the 3 tell me to go to the MC. Closest one to my house allows cashier loads, the MC actually reminds me from time to time the cashiers can load too
