Help : The Tesco Gift Card Manufactured Spend Trick

Looking for advice on the Manufactured Spend Trick at Tesco.

My understanding is you get 150 clubcards for every £50 spend
Now, I have something to buy that is £1000 - they do not take american express.

If I bought the Visa card with my Black virgin credit card

that should give me 3000 clubcard points bonus (would I get another 1000 clubcard points for the actual spend?)
& 2000 airmiles for spending £1000 on my credit card
+ £3.95 charge per £50 charge = another 158 air miles)

I can then pay for item & for the £79 in fees I would have acquired :-
2158 virgin miles
3000 clubcard points that I can convert at 625 points per 250 (ignoring any 30% bonus) into 7500 miles

Does that sound about right?
9658 miles for £79 (8 pence per mile)
or 11908 for £79 if there is a 30% bonus (6.6p per mile)

Maths isn't my strong point but isn't it 0.8 / 0.66 pence per mile rather than 8 / 6.6?

At 0.66 it is marginal re value.

Bearing in mind that you will get 2,000 miles anyway, you cost goes up to 1.03 / 0.8 pence per mile?

That seems to be a high price to pay unless you are short of miles and need a top-up for something specific.

Tesco do take American Express in store, not 100% sure about on line but do seem to think I have used Amex when making Tesco on line purchases.

oldboy

Think eggtastico meant that the store they're planning to purchase from don't take Amex.
Will the store take 3v visa as they're fee free.

[Neil]

Think eggtastico meant that the store they're planning to purchase from don't take Amex.
Will the store take 3v visa as they're fee free.

If they aren't buying at Tesco, then surely the Tesco Clubcard points he is referring to are irrelevant.

I also read it as they are buying something from Tesco.

And I use Amex online with Tesco regularly, albeit, groceries.

Think eggtastico meant that the store they're planning to purchase from don't take Amex.
Will the store take 3v visa as they're fee free.

If they aren't buying at Tesco, then surely the Tesco Clubcard points he is referring to are irrelevant.

I also read it as they are buying something from Tesco.

I read it as they are buying Visa gift cards from Tesco to purchase something from another shop that doesn't accept Amex. You earn 150 clubcard points per £50 spend on gift cards from Tesco, so you buy the gift cards from Tesco for the bonus points then use the gift cards in another store.

[Neil]

Think eggtastico meant that the store they're planning to purchase from don't take Amex.
Will the store take 3v visa as they're fee free.

If they aren't buying at Tesco, then surely the Tesco Clubcard points he is referring to are irrelevant.

I also read it as they are buying something from Tesco.

I read it as they are buying Visa gift cards from Tesco to purchase something from another shop that doesn't accept Amex. You earn 150 clubcard points per £50 spend on gift cards from Tesco, so you buy the gift cards from Tesco for the bonus points then use the gift cards in another store.

Maybe you're right, it's not that clear tbh ?|

yea.. its HMRC bill
They do not take American Express

I saw a thread on head for points about it, but using an older type visa card (which has no loading fees, but is no longer possible to use)

idea behind it is to buy Visa Card for £1000 + £80 in loading fees.
on Black V card, thats 2160 miles + 3000 clubcard points.
Convert clubcard points into miles should net me 7500 miles.
So thats 9600 miles for £80 in loading fees... oh & a load of fuel save vouchers.

Plus the additional cost of using a "credit card" to pay a HMRC bill, which adds 1.4% to the bill, unless HMRC accept pre-payment Visa cards as debit cards?

Personally I would not bother but at the end of the day only you can decide if it is worh doing. The hassle of buying the twenty £50 cards (you would need buy them in batches I suspect), entering all the Visa card data online to activate the cards, after scratching all the foil panels off, would be such a chore I'd rather pay the bill on a debit card and forego the points!

But if you need the points to meet a target it may be worth the time, hassle and cost to achieve a goal.

Firstly prepaid cards are debit cards as far as the Visa system is concerned, so you shouldn't be charged credit card fees for using one. However some merchants might treat them differently to get a few more pounds.

Secondly the notion of registering 20 cards is risky, as one person tryng to set up that many cards would send the issuer's fraud monitoring into overdrive, or at least it should!

We only allow one card per person, and we ensure our co-brands follow the same rules.

Firstly prepaid cards are debit cards as far as the Visa system is concerned, so you shouldn't be charged credit card fees for using one. However some merchants might treat them differently to get a few more pounds.

Secondly the notion of registering 20 cards is risky, as one person tryng to set up that many cards would send the issuer's fraud monitoring into overdrive, or at least it should!

We only allow one card per person, and we ensure our co-brands follow the same rules.

think the visa cards are classed as gift cards. not top up cards.

Gift cards are usually closed loop, I.e. They can be used on specific stores or online. Not sure HMRC have one lol

Have you got a link to the card in question? All I found with Google was links to cards for Pizza Hut, Facebook and suchlike. There is a Tesco gift card but you can only use it in um...Tesco.

You need 3v if you can find them. No charge/fee but using 20 would be a pain. Look on the tesco thread on BA on flyer talk. 3v are hardish to find (although in the north easy). I did it once for edf but it wasnt worth the hassle. You had to add each card to your 3v account and activate- then use them.

I agree, they are just not worth the time or effort for me. I used 20 3V cards once to pay a BA Holidays invoice online. The Tesco till does not cope well with purchase of more than 4 cards. Spervisors were called to sort it out. Registering the cards with Visa took an age, some cards were rejected and you then have to wait a week for them to "reset" at Visa. It took all afternnon to actually pay a bill and all for 1500 Clubcard points!

I know on FT some rave about 3v cards and seem obsessive in tracking them down, but for me it is just not worth the hassle.

I agree, they are just not worth the time or effort for me. I used 20 3V cards once to pay a BA Holidays invoice online. The Tesco till does not cope well with purchase of more than 4 cards. Spervisors were called to sort it out. Registering the cards with Visa took an age, some cards were rejected and you then have to wait a week for them to "reset" at Visa. It took all afternnon to actually pay a bill and all for 1500 Clubcard points!

I know on FT some rave about 3v cards and seem obsessive in tracking them down, but for me it is just not worth the hassle.

may not be worth it for you, but 4 vat bills & a corporation tax bill can make it worthwhile for me... I got plenty of notice to purchase them (corp tax isnt due until nov but the cash is sitting in the company account for example) + I can easily do 4 at a time & pay to be in credit.