Pour one out for an old friend…the Simon Mall Gift Card Bulk Purchase Program.
Simon Mall first became a hit amongst Visa gift card aficionados a couple of years before the pandemic, when it began selling $500 and $1,000 denominations for very reasonable purchase fees.
These soon became available online and, if you registered with them, they’d be willing to sell you up to $25,000 in Visa gift cards at a time through their bulk purchase program, while also running a variety of shipping and activation fee promos that could make those cards extremely attractive.
Amex was the first to put the kibosh on the fun, when it stopped awarding points on Simon Mall purchases. Then, over the pandemic, Simon started having periodic stock issues, first on $1K cards, and then on $500 cards. In the meantime, the brand of cards the Simon Mall sold became increasingly difficult to use in the wild, and all of those factors reduced their appeal to many folks.
There have still been some die-hards riding the Simon train, but they got a kick in the pants earlier this year when physical locations stopped selling Visa gift cards. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, the final nail was put in the coffin, in the form of an e-mail sent out to members of the bulk purchasing program saying that the whole enchilada would be coming to an end in July.
The last day to place an order at simon.com/volume will be July 11th and the last day to activate cards will be July 25th. After that, Simon says, “No more.” Thoughts and prayers for all those who mourn.
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Uncle Simon was the best. I’m going to miss him so much.
Very much in mourning here Tim! 🙂
It’s actually been going on for much longer. Some of us who got in around 2010 were lucky enough to get unlimited purchase sizes, with cheaper fees the larger your order would get.
Even better, I never once had a problem with them over 15 years and many millions worth in orders.