The Simon Mall $1,000 Visa gift card promotion continues through the end of the month (fingers crossed it gets renewed – again). When the promotion started back in July, I wrote about how these gift cards were not the cheapest way to manufacture spend. At $3.95, the cost of a $1,000 Visa gift card is significantly higher than what you’ll pay at Staples or GiftCardMall.
That doesn’t mean Simon Mall gift cards aren’t worth buying. In fact, there are several advantages to buying Simon Mall Visa gift cards over cheaper alternatives.
1. There’s no waiting period
A major advantage of buying gift cards from Simon Mall is that you don’t have to wait a week for them to arrive. That’s my biggest pet peeve about GiftCardMall orders. Yes, they work out cheaper at $2.85 per $1,500 but they sometimes take ten days to arrive.
Because I don’t want to ruin my credit with manufactured spending, I diligently track all of my credit card statement closing dates and make sure my utilization rate stays well under 30%.
So when I have to wait 10 days for my gift cards to arrive and another day for my money order deposits to post, I really have to be precise in how I time my purchases.
With Simon Mall gift cards, that’s not an issue. You can buy, receive and liquidate your gift cards all within a matter of minutes. Assuming there’s an easily accessible Walmart store nearby.
2. You can buy gift cards in larger transactions
I like to keep my out-of-pocket cost low, but I’ll gladly pay more for convenience’s sake. Simon Mall lets you buy up $25,000 worth of gift cards per visit.
You’ll save time vs. placing smaller gift card orders through GiftCardMall. Because as I’ve pointed out, if you want to maximize your savings, you need to keep your GiftCardMall purchases under $2,000 to qualify for free shipping.
3. You can liquidate more gift cards per transaction
Most of you are aware that Walmart has a 4-card swipe limit when it comes to gift card purchases. In the past, that limited us to $2,000 worth of money orders per transaction (four cards at $500 each = $2,000).
The $1,000 Visas from Simon Mall allow you to liquidate more gift cards per transaction, saving you time and hassle. So even if you’re just limited to a single transaction, you’re still liquidating $4,000 worth of cards per transaction. That’s nothing to scoff at.
Your profit per $1,000 may not be as high with Simon Mall Visas, but the fact that you can churn cards more quickly means you can also earn miles faster. If you’re MS’ing for cash back or trying to maximize the 3x bonus on the Discover it Miles or Chase Freedom Unlimited cards, this can be really valuable.
I generally advise people against cycling credit limits, especially nowadays when the banks are weeding out the churners. But I wouldn’t worry too much about getting shut down by Discover. The reward is worth a possible shut down. Just don’t have that same attitude when it comes to Chase.
Note: If you’d like a referral for the Chase Freedom or Discover It Miles card, shoot me an email.
4. You’ll save time
I really can’t overstate the importance of saving time when you’re churning gift cards. Spend too much time and money doing it and it becomes more costly than paying for travel.
Rick recently wrote about setting a minimum hourly rate and comparing that against your points and miles earnings. Keep that in mind and make sure the miles earned are worth the effort.
Final thoughts
Simon Mall’s $1,000 Visa gift cards aren’t the cheapest gift cards out there but ultimately they offer convenience. You can buy them in large quantities without waiting weeks for them to arrive. You don’t have to worry about shopping portals like BeFrugal not paying out your cash back rewards to off-set the card fees.
More importantly, you can liquidate gift cards in larger quantities via money orders. That alone makes churning Simon Mall Visas faster and overall easier. Work in a few thousand dollars worth of manufactured spending on a cash back card and you can cover the higher purchase fees on these cards.
Luckily, we’ve got a couple of weeks (and hopefully a few months beyond that) to take advantage of the $1,000 Visa gift cards.
All good points.
Maybe one additional reason: I take my small denomination gcs from Sam’s ($250) and OD ($200) and swipe them at Simon Mall to combine into a larger $1000 gc. This gives a couple advantages worth adding the extra $0.002 per smaller card: 1. It turns a MC (from Sam’s) into a visa so can liquidate at WM, 2. It minimizes swipes required to obtain MOs (something we all want to do). The extra swipes at Simon are no big deal (for me anyway).
Kirk, Can you explain where at Simon Mall you can do this? I have never heard of doing this. Thanks,
Do this where you buy the gift cards at customer service. Just use the gift cards as a form of payment just like you would any other credit card. You’ll have to do partial payments.
This won’t work if they verify the card you’re using for payment. But my rep does not.
You can only use 3 cards per transaction at Simon Mall. It doesn’t make any sense to use a card that is not going to give you points/miles or cash back.
No limit to the number of cards per visit. I have used up to 10 and have never been restricted. Too bad for you at your location.
If there is an actual policy of 3, my location in Florida doesn’t know it. What makes sense is what works for you in your location and situation.
Do you have a link to purchase $1000 VGC by online instead at store?
Not available online.
Ariana, you mention cycling credit limits again. Have bee guilty of that crime, but am trying to be more cautious. However, I need to spend $23,000 a month on my Chase WOH card, for the next few months, with only a $16,000 credit limit. About 44% above my limit. That’s not so bad. Is it?
Jim, If it makes you feel any better about it I have been going over my limit on the world of Hyatt card. I’m trying to make all the tier awards by the end of the year. My limit is 16,500 on the card and I’ve been putting about 20,000 per month on it.
I personally wouldn’t with Chase, but I know people who do and have gotten away with it. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to thought. Weigh the pros of pulling this off vs. a shut-down. I tend to be overly cautious when it comes to Chase.
The 1000 cards are very convenient and just a word to the wise 4000 worth of money orders in a single operation (4 swipes) MIGHT invite additional scrutiny from the sellers, YMMV. Good Luck
It does trigger SSN entry, but I honestly don’t mind so long as it lets me liquidate more at a time.
When you do multiple swipes do you have to tell the cashier how much for each one or do the cards auto drain the full amount and leave a balance?
You have to tell them so they can type in the amount each time. Otherwise the card will get declined.
I am so envious! My WMs continue to change the rules on purchasing MOs and I live in the Bay Area where there are plentiful of opportunities.
I live in the Washington DC area (N. VA) 3 Walmarts in my area did not accept my Simon $1000 VGC.. 2 USPS locations in N. VA worked for MO but a USPS in D.C. declined.. seems like this is getting shut down.
The WM in DC used to do 4 cards, since they’re asking for ID it is not working for me anymore. In NOVA I haven’t found any WM to accept GCs.
Sorry to hear it, Ed. Appreciate you sharing your experience.
Yessss!!!! $1000 Visa Gift Card is now extended indefinitely. https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/1k-visa-gift-cards-w-3-95-fee-at-simon-next-week/
I heard as of Nov 2020 simon gift cards can only be used to get $99 or less money orders. Is this true? Anyone know of stores that accept those gift cards for higher amounts?
A lot of Walmart stores have hard-coded their registers.