Possible Replacement for CharterOne Gift Cards
 

I came across a prepaid Visa which can be purchased with a credit card -- the Simon Giftcard co-branded between Simon Malls and Bank of America.

See http://www.simon.com/giftcard/default.aspx

It's a prepaid VISA. It's not 100% clear to me that there's a process for selecting a PIN.. It may be a straight Visa rather than a Visa debit card. I'm not sure, haven't done due diligence on it yet. If it's not a debit card one wouldn't be able to make PIN-based transactions like buying postal money orders.

It appears there's a $500 limit for online orders, I don't know if that's "at a time" or per month or some other period. There's also a $5.95 shipping fee, although current promo HOME-PROMO-2 reduces that by $1.

There are also 150 Simon Mall locations where these cards can be purchased. Not sure if there's a shipping charge when cards are purchased at the Mall -- there may well be if they don't issue the cards immediately but just take orders. I'd have to go to the mall to investigate.

But there's potential with this one, perhaps it warrants some further investigation.

Gary, at the bottom of the page it says:

So I guess it's a debit card.

For those of us that missed out on the Charter One game, could you be so kind as to summarize it in three or four sentences?

From what the customer service agent just told me, it works as a
credit card and not a debit card. No PIN codes.

He did say that there is no limit to the number of $500 cards that
you can buy though.

Buy gift cards with your mileage-earning Visa or Mastercard. Those gift cards were treated as purchases and not cash advances (not true with Amex). No shipping cost for the cards.

You earned miles for the purchases. You got the cards and turned them into cash either via cash advances or money orders at little or no cost. For awhile folks were getting 5000 miles/month this way.

The shipping cost alone on these cards work out to 1 cent per mile, and if there's no PIN you can't buy postal money orders with them (so harder to turn into cash). So this one may not work out.

But if you can buy them in person at a Simon Mall with no shipping cost (?) and find a way to turn them into cash via a PIN transaction or otherwise, it could be a replacement strategy for CharterOne. Perhaps both are long shots?

If that's the case, which is sounds like it is, the 5 or 6 bucks to ship the thing makes it a loosing proposition since you could use your mileage earning credit card to make purchases and get miles. Giving these as gifts seems the only way to make mileage on them, which may work for some of us.

Bummer, it looked so good! We need one more confirmation though since the terms/conditions indicate "debit card" in the literature. If it's a debit card, you must have a PIN to use it, then you could get money orders from the post office.

CF

Can you purchase postal money orders without a pin? If so, it does say that the shipping charge is only for online orders- there is one of the Malls about 15 minutes away from my house :) Never having done something like this, I wonder how much a postal money order costs... and whether this card can be used. If so, I can visit the nearby mall in person (next Sat I guess) and then hop right on over to the post office.

Sadly no. :(

Been giving these cards at Xmas to my step-daughters...
 

There is a $2 fee (at least last year at Xmas that's what it was) if you purchase at a Simon Mall. We purchase them in Austin and my step-daughters have used them at any retail location (including Wal-Mart, etc.) here and in Dallas, Plano and Sherman and in Durant, OK. No problems for the last 3 years. You can track the amount left on the card via a telephone # and possibly by the net (can't remember if both). WARNING - if you don't use it before 6 months or so, they began to deduct a small fee each month (like .50 to a $1) from the remaining balance.

Have never tried turning it back to cash though.....only for point of sale purchases. For those with teenagers who never like what you pick out at Xmas these are great. As a newbie to FT, now I can earn miles too if I use the right credit card!

Try VisaBuxx! I have been happily earning 4000 miles a month for the past several months. Cost is about 0.4 cents/mile.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=267256

My Simon mall sells the giftcards; however, I have yet to purchase one. My guestion is that this product is a debit card, but it doesn't look as if a pin is issued. If we want to purchase and flip cards at Wallmart for money orders (similar to CharterOne cards), doesn't one need a pin?

There is no PIN for Simon gift card
 

I've used Simon gift cards. There is no PIN for them. They work like preloaded Visa credit cards.

I think it's called a "debit" card because that's technically what it is (even if you can't use a PIN to make purchases).

Credit cards are cards where you buy stuff on credit, then the card issuer sends you a bill for it later. Debit cards are cards where you have already loaded money into an account, and the purchases are "debited" against that balance. So the Simon card is definitely a "debit" card even if you sign for purchases rather than using a PIN.

Because credit cards traditionally operated on a signature-based verification system, and debit cards traditionally used PINs for verification, the retail industry has totally confused the words "credit" and "debit" with "signature" and "PIN" based transactions.

At least that's my understanding.

Do not try this as a replacement for CO. I did a test run and you can NOT buy USPS or Walmart MOs with them.

Did they say why they wouldn't take it? Or can you elaborate as to why it can't be used?

Thanks.

I bought a couple of these at a Simon mall a few months ago (used cash! :eek: ) But im pretty sure they would take a credit card. I was not charged any fees at all, and was given the cards activated right away.

If you can get a cash advance (def. no pin) off of one of these, and you have a simon mall near you to avoid shipping this seems great.

I believe AAA also gave free cash advances / money orders in some case?