Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
I received an email today from SimplyBestCoupons advertising 2% cash back on Visa gift card purchases. That sounds pretty good, right? Even now that GiftCardMall has begun limiting Visa card values to $250 each, a case could be made that they’re worth buying if you get 2% cash back. Unfortunately, as reported by Doctor of Credit, Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall are no longer PIN enabled. This means that they can’t be used to load Bluebird or Serve. In fact, they can’t be used for any PIN based transactions. I’d recommend staying away from these unless you actually want to buy them as a gift for someone to be used in place of regular credit card spend.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Hello. I unfortunately didnt see this news until recently. I have been patiently awaiting for my gift cards to arrive in the mail, and now realize I will probably receive ones from IncentiveLabs.. or the non pin ones. What is the easiest way I can liquidate them since I cant load them onto my Serve card? purchase Money Orders? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
You might be able to use them to pay bills via Plastiq. I’m not sure. See: https://frequentmiler.com/2015/11/11/plastiq-debit-card-payments-now-fee-free/
I will check it out. Thank you!
Or would I be able to take those gift cards and buy PIN enabled ones at a grocery store? I know I would be payment an extra 5.95 for each card, but at least I would be able to load them on my Serve card then…
what do you think?
Yes, that should work
[…] promotion a while back that made purchasing gift cards profitable. (UPDATE: As of November 3, 2015 Visa gift cards purchased from GiftCardMall.com are no longer PIN-enabled, so buying them is no longer a viable manufactured spending […]
[…] Quick Tip: Don’t buy GiftCardMall Visa cards (except as a gift) […]
Do the Visa gift cards from Simon Mall properties come with a PIN that would enable them to be input in Bluebird?
Yes. Use the last four digits as the PIN
Actually a bit of misinformation I think, or maybe should just say it is not being made clear what is going on. Blackhawk Industries has purchased/merged a number of companies and they are working out the different policies and brands.
As they have been working on some of these acquisitions, it is possible that you will get the gift cards serviced by IncetiveLabs, which are issued by Sunrise Bank, and which do not let you set a PIN. Read the T&C and you will see that it says “You will not receive a Personal Identification Number (“PIN”) with your Card Account.” Notice it does not say the card doesn’t have a PIN. My take, they are just refusing to give it to you.
I had this very issue almost 3 months ago, so it is not new. I could not activate the cards. When I called the support number on the mailer they were attached to, the customer service rep could not find my VGC in her system. Eventually she figured out that I was calling GCM (the number on the paper my VGC was clued to!) and my cards were issued by IncentiveLabs. So this has been buyer beware for me for a while now.
Check here for the terms:
tcardmall.com/visa-cardholder-agreement
There are ways to order from GCM to ensure you get the metabank cards, but I am not comfortable putting that here. But if you are interested, you can do a little research on this.
Thanks!
Sorry I know this is off-topic but I have tried googling, reading blogs and searched but have been unable to find the answer to my question and was hoping for your help. I posted the same comment in another post here but it didn’t post. Anyone know if you purchase and Amazon gift card with your Discover card if you will earn the 5% cash back as if it was like any other Amazon purchase or our gift cards are excluded from the 5% earnings? Thank you in advance.
Mark
Yes, that has always worked in the past.
Ty, sorry for Siri/typos!
Does this only apply to the cards purchased directly from GiftCardMall? What about the gift cards purchased through Staples? Are they still PIN-enabled?
I’m wondering the same thing. Does this affect VGCs from staples.com, which are shipping by GiftCardMall?
Gift cards from Staples are fine
And let’s really REALLY hope they remain fine!
How do we know this? Staples contracts with GCM for their cards. Whose to say GCM won’t send the unpinned ones?
I’m going by recent experience. I can’t promise that it will stay fine in the future.
I understand. I bought 6 x $300 about 10 days ago. Just loaded them fine to Kate. Since this no pin rule is a very recent occurence, all bets are off for Staples. I’ll wait for more reports from those brave enough to try.
I had a recent order of Macerich cards and they were still pin enabled at least.
Aren’t they in violation of the Durbin Amendment?
No way – banks never knowingly violate laws any more. Or any less, for that matter.
yes, yes they are. They are required to participate in at least 2 non-affiliated networks and the only way to do that is to have a PIN…so they have them, they are just making them hard to activate or obtain….someone should report them and stop this real quick before other suppliers follow.
The only way to go with this kind of thing, is if you are lucky enough to actually get them, to have found a good handyman/contractor/employee/yard maintenance company who wishes to be paid cash but will accept this in lieu of so you can even possibly get a slight discount on your work being done!
Easier than dragging a bunch of cash around, too, plus points for having your lawn mowed!
And even if you do try to take advantage of this offer, you’re likely to have your order cancelled. See the comments to this thread: http://www.doctorofcredit.com/virtually-fee-free-visa-gift-cards-from-giftcardmall-with-code-portal/