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 16, 2020, 10:37 am
#1726
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 2,948
Interesting DP, also posted in WM MO thread:
I just tried to buy a 998 MO with one swipe, at a very small neighborhood grocery chain which has WU. I kept getting errors and receipt said “call auth center”. This place is very localized with only two stores in the city so it’s definitely not something that would be on Meta's radar but they did recently upgraded to pull-out Ingenico swipe terminals. Those small types with just a keypad and tiny screen. I wonder if it is indeed processing network related.
I'll have to swing by their other store in town and try a $98 MO, and if that works, it'll confirm some of my suspicions.
I just tried to buy a 998 MO with one swipe, at a very small neighborhood grocery chain which has WU. I kept getting errors and receipt said “call auth center”. This place is very localized with only two stores in the city so it’s definitely not something that would be on Meta's radar but they did recently upgraded to pull-out Ingenico swipe terminals. Those small types with just a keypad and tiny screen. I wonder if it is indeed processing network related.
I'll have to swing by their other store in town and try a $98 MO, and if that works, it'll confirm some of my suspicions.
I'm also hearing that $99 per swipe may also no longer work. ???
Nov 16, 2020, 10:54 am
#1727
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
Thanks for doing the trials. It doesn't make me very happy that your small grocery store did not work, as I was successful on Thursday with a $999.12 WU MO at a mom-and-pop grocery store. I had planned on doing the same on Wednesday, but may pass. It sounds like something is truly up with Meta. Although I haven't tried green dot, USB, etc to see if they are impacted.
I'm also hearing that $99 per swipe may also no longer work. ???
I'm also hearing that $99 per swipe may also no longer work. ???
Nov 16, 2020, 11:10 am
#1728
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
The T&C state "Your Card cannot be (1) redeemed for cash value (2) used to obtain cash in any transaction (3) used for illegal transactions" (and some other irrelevant stuff).
Cash is cash. A money order is not cash, although it could be argued that it is a "cash equivalent" but cash is cash.
Cash is cash. A money order is not cash, although it could be argued that it is a "cash equivalent" but cash is cash.
Sadly, MOs can be considered "cash value" which is specifically prohibited in the first T&C posted.
You also cannot use GCs to buy bullion or bitcoin (or it's ilks).
All of these are considered "cash equivalents" by governments and strictly monitored for ML and other nefarious activities
Nov 16, 2020, 11:15 am
#1729
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
My larger regional local grocery chain was ok with 1k swipes as of 2 days ago, same with our local Safeway-affiliate. Not sure what's up but it seems like WM isn't being singled out OR it's some glitch with processing / terminals that's not affecting everyone equally.
This is not going to be a sustainable way of proceeding, unfortunately, because I will have to keep my number of GCs low in number in case something else befalls us (I don't want to have to use them the way it was intended).
Nov 16, 2020, 1:11 pm
#1730
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 170
The T&C state "Your Card cannot be (1) redeemed for cash value (2) used to obtain cash in any transaction (3) used for illegal transactions" (and some other irrelevant stuff).
Cash is cash. A money order is not cash, although it could be argued that it is a "cash equivalent" but cash is cash.
Cash is cash. A money order is not cash, although it could be argued that it is a "cash equivalent" but cash is cash.
I've seen DPs on reddit that suggest BHN's official position is that these giftcards cannot be used for MOs/cash access. What we've been doing is nothing more than a loophole.
This month, it was declined and BlackHawk's CSR (contacted through phone # on back of card) states that it's flagging the transaction as a money order / cash access transaction and denying the transaction.
Nov 16, 2020, 3:37 pm
#1731
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: BOS
Posts: 550
I was very much against that when issues started weeks ago, but now it probably does not matter a whole lot as this MS avenue is pretty much dead given the limits in place. If Simon can somehow convince BHN to remove the restriction then great, if not, well, it's unlikely to get worse.
Nov 16, 2020, 10:38 pm
#1732
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
Deleted - Mods please remove
Last edited by redtop43; Nov 17, 2020 at 8:35 am
Nov 16, 2020, 10:42 pm
#1733
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 170
If Simon is just using MS revenues to make the books look better for investors,.... well....I mean it's not Wells Fargo territory, but it's not far off. Moral of the story, buy Simon VGC but don't go investing in Simon Mall lol.
Nov 17, 2020, 1:08 am
#1734
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: JRF
Programs: AA Gold, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, National Executive Elite
Posts: 1,784
Can you blame them? Look at all the end-of-quarter add-a-line promos on dishonest cell phone carriers (e.g. T-Mobile) that pay you $100-250 GCs to add a line and hold it for 2 months for them to fake subscriber numbers for reporting purposes to scam their shareholders. At least you can use those to pay off Citi...
Nov 17, 2020, 8:32 am
#1735
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: DUB-BOS
Programs: various
Posts: 3,690
ha ha, between covid and this, now is the time to go short on Simon. They are as guilty as us in exploiting the loopholes. I do not think they have much in the way of leverage with BHN or the banks when it comes to restoring the situation.
It might even have been Simon online 1k's that triggered some of this shut down. Many of us experienced fraud with those and given the high denominations, this could have sparked something off
It might even have been Simon online 1k's that triggered some of this shut down. Many of us experienced fraud with those and given the high denominations, this could have sparked something off
Nov 17, 2020, 10:44 am
#1736
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 317
This is getting silly. The Simon Property Group is a giant corporation which does about $5 billion dollars in sales each year. The notion that it is cooking its books with gift card sales somehow or its stock value depends on profits from gift cards is nonsensical. Gift card sales are a teeny tiny percentage of Simon's business.
Simon is not responsible for whatever the heck is going on. I'm sure it has no idea what to do to fix it. It certainly doesn't want this situation to continue--why would it?
Remember, too, that you shouldn't pay attention to what your local mall employees or even your product manager (if you have one) says about the situation. They don't know either. They can guess. They mean well. They may have asked someone who also doesn't know and made stuff up. They're not evil--they're just people who try to be helpful but don't know the facts. .
Simon is not responsible for whatever the heck is going on. I'm sure it has no idea what to do to fix it. It certainly doesn't want this situation to continue--why would it?
Remember, too, that you shouldn't pay attention to what your local mall employees or even your product manager (if you have one) says about the situation. They don't know either. They can guess. They mean well. They may have asked someone who also doesn't know and made stuff up. They're not evil--they're just people who try to be helpful but don't know the facts. .
Nov 17, 2020, 11:04 am
#1737
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
This is getting silly. The Simon Property Group is a giant corporation which does about $5 billion dollars in sales each year. The notion that it is cooking its books with gift card sales somehow or its stock value depends on profits from gift cards is nonsensical. Gift card sales are a teeny tiny percentage of Simon's business.
Simon is not responsible for whatever the heck is going on. I'm sure it has no idea what to do to fix it. It certainly doesn't want this situation to continue--why would it?
Remember, too, that you shouldn't pay attention to what your local mall employees or even your product manager (if you have one) says about the situation. They don't know either. They can guess. They mean well. They may have asked someone who also doesn't know and made stuff up. They're not evil--they're just people who try to be helpful but don't know the facts. .
Simon is not responsible for whatever the heck is going on. I'm sure it has no idea what to do to fix it. It certainly doesn't want this situation to continue--why would it?
Remember, too, that you shouldn't pay attention to what your local mall employees or even your product manager (if you have one) says about the situation. They don't know either. They can guess. They mean well. They may have asked someone who also doesn't know and made stuff up. They're not evil--they're just people who try to be helpful but don't know the facts. .
Nov 17, 2020, 11:16 am
#1738
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 317
I never said that. I'm saying gift card sales are a flea on the ... of Simon, and our MS is a small part of that flea. Taking any action whatever on Simon stock based on this glitch in its gift card processing is dumb. Simon is taking a financial hit because of COVID-19, with malls closing, mall stores not paying Simon rent, some stores going bankrupt, etc. Those are the factors that influence its stock price, not a few weeks of processing problems that people whine about on this forum.
Nov 17, 2020, 11:24 am
#1739
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
I never said that. I'm saying gift card sales are a flea on the ... of Simon, and our MS is a small part of that flea. Taking any action whatever on Simon stock based on this glitch in its gift card processing is dumb. Simon is taking a financial hit because of COVID-19, with malls closing, mall stores not paying Simon rent, some stores going bankrupt, etc. Those are the factors that influence its stock price, not a few weeks of processing problems that people whine about on this forum.
Not saying our activity will affect their stock price or bankrupt them, but we're definitely more than a drop in the bucket, or they wouldn't be actively courting us for the past 4-5 years.
Nov 17, 2020, 11:41 am
#1740
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Posts: 1,929
Simon could simply go back to US Bank issued VGCs