CONFIRMED: Simon Mall $1,000 Visa Gift Cards will be available July 17 – August 4.
You probably know Simon Mall offers $1000 Visa gift cards for $1-$2.95 to corporate customers and that gift card churners are discouraged from taking advantage of this discount. Well, it looks like Simon Mall may be changing its tune on that. Reader Barbara S. shared on the PointChaser Facebook Group that a local Simon Mall rep told her the company would begin extending the corporate discount to card churners.
The catch? Orders for these cards would have to be placed via mail. In addition to the ability to buy $1000 gift cards for $3.95, churners will be eligible for “promotions”.
$1000 visa gift cards at Simon Mall
I called my local mall to check on this and the representative said she hadn’t heard anything about this policy. Then I called the Simon Mall in North Caroline that Barbara cited. The rep confirmed seemed to confirm this news, with a few caveats:
- “Regular gift card buyers” needed to join a special mailing list. This could be done in-store or online. I asked if this was the same thing as the VIP Shopper’s Club mailing list, but she seemed unsure. When this is actually implemented and I have details, I’ll share them.
- Visa gift cards will be available in $1000 increments for $3.95 each.
- This policy will be implemented at Simon Malls nationwide.
- In addition to the higher denomination limit, Simon Mall may run other “special promotions” for regular gift card buyers.
- $1000 Visa gift cards can be ordered in-store but will be delivered via mail.
Keep this in mind
At this point, we have the word of a few Simon Mall reps who may not have all the facts. Being able to purchase $1000 Visa gift cards at Simon Mall could be a new perk for card churners or it could be a limited promotion.
Why $1000 Visa gift cards are a big deal
While a $3.95 fee per $500 Visa gift card may not seem like much, it actually ads up if you’re buying gift cards in large quantities. For example, if you buy $100,000 worth of Visa gift cards in a year at $3.95 each, you’re paying $790 in card fees alone. If you’re instead paying $3.95 per $1000 Visa gift cards, your fees are reduced to $395. So it definitely adds up.
More importantly, if you’re able to liquidate these Visa gift cards via Walmart money orders, you will save time. As you know, Walmart allows you to buy up to $8,000 worth of money orders per day. You can swipe up to four cards per transaction, meaning most of us have to split purchases into four transactions.
Since every purchase over $1000 requires the cashier to input your Driver’s License information, it’s a time-consuming process. Plus, at my Walmart there is a new policy that gift card churners have to get in the back of the line in-between transactions to accommodate other customers.
So if you’re able to buy $1000 Visa gift cards, you’ll be able to purchase $4,000 worth of money orders at a time and be done after two transactions instead of four. That’s pretty significant. And if your local Walmart doesn’t allow multiple purchases, you’ll still be able to liquidate $4,000 worth of Visa gift cards per day instead of $2,000.
Why Simon Mall might be doing this
My guess is Simon Mall is trying to make the Visa gift card buying process more efficient. At my local mall, the representative has pre-filled forms for regular card purchasers to save time. It means those purchasing over $3,000 worth of Visa gift cards don’t have to fill out a lengthy form. Just sign and date the pre-filled form. By allowing card churners to buy $1000 Visa gift card denominations instead of $500, there are fewer cards for cashiers to swipe, saving even more time.
I’ll provide more details when I get them, but I thought I’d share it now and see if anyone else had any info. Simon Mall has been MS-friendly for years, but lately they’ve cut back on $0 fee promotions, probably because they know they can rely on heavy gift card churners to keep buying Visa gift cards at the standard price.
They do run a $2.95 Visa gift card promotion about once a year (the current one goes on until June 30), but that’s about it. It’s nice that they’re considering rewarding their most loyal customers with promotions and discounted gift card fees. Assuming it’s true and not a miscommunication from their mall reps.
I’m surprised you’re excited about this but not the Cracker Barrel 4x Gold play.
What’s the Cracker Barrel hold play have I missed something lol
yeah, what is that?
Curiosity kills the cat, I am dying…. someone explains what this Cracker Barrel 4x Gold play is, please?
Some Cracker Barrel’s sell vgc.
No kidding! Cracker Barrel is how I renewed my SW CP.
Spent too much time on reddit?
I love this, however, why mail only? It would save Simon shipping fees and us time to sell the 1000s in store.
No idea. But my guess is they’re trying to cut down on the amount of time their associates have to deal with MS’ers.
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I have confirm with Simon Mall, They need you to have a purchase history of at least 5 orders prior to approving higher limits and $1,000 cards. They will happily review your account order limits.
Did you speak with someone at corporate? RE the 5-order minimum, did they say whether these had to be in person or online? Any minimum purchase amounts?
Would really like them to do the same (or even $500) for Mastercards. Why are they only limited to $250?
Which cards are you referring to?
Simon master card gift cards are limited to $250. No longer available online and in mall they’re only loadable to max $250. Not sure why. Easier for me to unload them via Plastiq.
Yeah I’d stick with the $500 variety (or $1k, once that becomes available).
Cracker Barrel
Indeed, I spoke directly with a Gift Card Risk analyst, she said that Simon’s review team requires these 5 orders to be online orders and the GC orders have to be activated and spent prior to upping limits and card load denominations. Also, there is no minimum. However, the team may use your average order amount to determine future limits.
Totally doable!
The Simon rep told me these are for business accounts, so probably not doable as they monitor those closely
I think Ariana originally was referring to business accounts.
Business accounts are closely monitored and if Simon see cashouts via the usual methods, they will ban you in short order. Ariana was decidedly not talking about biz accounts. Frequent Miler posted reply from GCM management saying $1K will NOT be sold to MSers, so this discussion is moot.
Yeah but the rumro was that they’d make them available to consumers as well. Not the case, unfortunately.
Question from an MS’er who’s never purchased Simon Mall Visa/Master Cards. (I know, weird. Been out of the game for awhile.) Photos show these cards imprinted with the words “Simon Mall.” Do they spend/function just like any generic, non-branded, non-imprinted gift cards?