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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 30th March

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Comments (273)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Crafty says:
    30 Mar30 March 06:58

    For a light hearted start to the morning, could someone who engaged in the historic 3V “opportunity” discussed in yesterday’s comments, enlighten some of the more recent points converts as to what it was, how it worked, how long it lasted, why it ended…? Should be a good read!

    • Sandgrounder says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:14

      Good place to start:
      https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2013/12/15/what-happens-when-buying-3v-cards-goes-horribly-wrong/

      • TGLoyalty says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:28

        The real issue was when it all went bust and people holding cards lost £££

      • CH says:
        30 Mar30 March 23:01

        Ooh, I recall reading this article in my emails, and I think where exactly I was at the time too! Still, I got into this “concept” far too late to understand any of the excitement of 3V though.

    • MattB says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:16

      It was a bit before my time, but I believe you could buy these pre paid cards in Tesco, which earnt bonus clubcard points on top of the regular spend, then just use them to ‘buy’ something like premium bonds or pay bills.

      • Sandgrounder says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:54

        My self assessment statement was yards long, the whole bill paid in £25 chunks. HMRC had to introduce a policy on the number of debit cards you could use against one account, with threats of blocking card payments completely if you used more.

    • Ian M says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:21

      Yeah, they were pre paid digital debit cards and Tesco used to pay 3x clubcard points on gift cards. When I got into them they were all a maximum of £25 (not sure if there were higher value were before that). People used to hunt them down in Tescos around the country lol. If word got out that a particular Tesco had a big batch of them people would descend on the place and clear them out!

      • mradey says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:24

        It was a blast – except for the odd card which, despite being activated at the till, wasn’t ‘active’ (for want of a better word) when registered online.

      • Matthew says:
        30 Mar30 March 08:32

        Don’t forget the turkey vouchers 😂

        • Erico1875 says:
          30 Mar30 March 10:13

          Yes that was icing on the cake. I used to rip a page out of 20 magazines at a time behind the checkouts

      • Polly says:
        30 Mar30 March 23:50

        We were such sad people then! Thank goodness someone took us out of our misery by stopping them…

    • BJ says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:30

      It was fun but at the same time very mind-numbingly painful to process them. I had a bag-for-life full of the things weighing quite a few kg so you can imagine the hurt. They caused some havoc in Tesco too, in my local at the time I used to find the cards hidden by somebody all over the store 🙂 But I was one of tghe lucky ones, I never a problem sourcing cards in my area.

      • Crafty says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:39

        Sounds like great fun!

      • Polly says:
        30 Mar30 March 09:47

        Yes, l was always amused by that story BJ. Think we might have all hidden a few behind a less popular gift card stack, to return later to buy. Naughty! But fun whilst it lasted. I always felt guilty buying them in 20s tho.
        Pity the poor ! Irish chaps who founded the company. 3v were not intended to be spent. Just put in a drawer and forgotten about! Like other gift cards. Great idea tho for those not holding a bank account and needed to spend online…shame we hfp lot possibly ruined their business plans.

      • whiskerxx says:
        30 Mar30 March 11:19

        Yep, disposal became an issue, because of the weight.
        At one point I had two full size extra strong black bin liners full of the things, which I had to triple line because of the weight when I took them to the tip. I gingerly lowered them into the skip terrified that the bags would split and the police be summonsed!

        • The real John says:
          30 Mar30 March 15:24

          Are you sure that is the correct use of summons?

          I had an irrational fear that people would go rifling through my rubbish, so I carried them on long walks and dumped 2 in every bin. I even took some on a train trip to Germany to get rid of

      • The_real_a says:
        30 Mar30 March 11:51

        I bought a barcode scanner.

    • mark2 says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:42

      Don’t forget the ‘cake magazines’.
      Some years the Xmas free magazine had a coupon for extra points on gift cards. So then I used to go into the store, grab a load of mags, take them out to the car, cut out the coupons and take them back in to buy the gift cards.
      Needless to say I had retired by then.

      • mark2 says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:43

        The cake was on the front cover of the magazine the first year.

      • Ian M says:
        30 Mar30 March 07:46

        Ah yes, those were the days, trying to carry a pallet load of magazines out of Tesco 😂

        • whiskerxx says:
          30 Mar30 March 11:22

          yes, and ripping the coupon out and putting the magazines straight into the recycling bin on the car park. Two tier Tesco Extra were great for that cos they had the magazines under the stores at car park level.

      • BJ says:
        30 Mar30 March 08:00

        Magazines were harder to come by than cards in my main store. Personally I liked the games pre-orders, much less hassle than 3V.

        • Andrew says:
          30 Mar30 March 08:03

          Although typing in the barcode at stores that didn’t sell computer games was quite high maintenance.

        • Polly says:
          30 Mar30 March 09:49

          They cost us a fiver tho too. But v worth it. Used to go to the till with just the codes at one point. Someone here very kindly posted them for us!

          • Erico1875 says:
            30 Mar30 March 10:18

            I had a fall out with one of the supervisors in Tesco, Corstorphine, Edinburgh when I tried to buy £400 worth of the pre orders. He said I was abusing the promotion lol

          • David says:
            30 Mar30 March 10:48

            The preorder games and the extra club card points on loose chillis were my favourite. Self checking hundreds of chillis was mildly embarrassing.

    • Paul says:
      30 Mar30 March 09:13

      It was fun while it lasted. I frequently bought £500 worth and within the hour had laundered them through my NSI account ready to do it again. Tesco paid out 10s of thousand of club card points which converted to Avios and I personally managed 4 F returns to PHX on the back on this “opportunity”
      For weeks I had none in my local store which was just as well as, without warning, NSI stopped accepting them. I cant remember what else they were good for but I recall a lot of people were left holding a great many cards with a lot of money tied up in them.

      • The real John says:
        30 Mar30 March 15:28

        I had about 20 paypal accounts which just sent the £25 to each other and then withdrew to 20 different bank accounts (several iterations of Santander / Tesco online savings).

        Massive breach of paypal T&Cs but it worked. My real name is banned from paypal though.

    • will says:
      30 Mar30 March 09:36

      Remember booking myself into the Hampton Newport when it was, I think, 5000 points a night to trigger Hilton diamond and using it as an opportunity to clear out South Wales’ stash of 3V cards!

      • Rob says:
        30 Mar30 March 09:48

        You mean ‘5000 points per night and you got back 2000 points per night due to the current Hilton promotion’.

    • Louie says:
      30 Mar30 March 12:25

      Being in the south-east (at the time) they were like gold dust, but it didn’t stop me looking…. sometimes succeeded. Like Sandgrounder, my self-assessment statement went on for page after page. Seven or eight years later, I finally transferred most of the CC points to Avios just before the Avios / Tesco link ended for an Oz – Europe multi-partner award.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:
        30 Mar30 March 18:35

        Is anyone else thinking there will be a very similar reminiscing thread in 2030. “Remember that bendy thing while it lasted. You didn’t even have to leave your sofa and could still make xxx points per month. Could even do it in COVID lockdown…. 😂🤣

  • gareth says:
    30 Mar30 March 07:10

    Just applied for my first Amex in two years!(regret this decision to wait but committed!) nice decent limit given compared to the poultry offerings of Virgin money- nice start!!

    • Andrew says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:24

      Welcome back to civilisation

    • BJ says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:34

      Virgin Money started throwing in some goujons to sweeten the deal?

    • Harry T says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:57

      Welcome back to proper customer service and appropriate credit limits.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      30 Mar30 March 08:35

      Hope you are following Rob’s Amex strategy for signup bonuses!

      • gareth says:
        30 Mar30 March 09:56

        O yes I am. The wife is already furious at the prospect of her involvement.

        • Chris Heyes says:
          30 Mar30 March 10:09

          gareth Get a “new” wife

        • Genghis says:
          30 Mar30 March 10:19

          She doesn’t need any involvement. Apply for cards on her behalf, set everything up, pay them off. Now with chat can cancel online. Easy.

        • DT says:
          30 Mar30 March 12:25

          My wife also has little interest, I apply for the cards on her behalf and manage the online accounts for both of us. When she needs to change spending to another card I just replace the card she had in her wallet and mobile pay and let her know that any online shopping she does, she will need to change the saved card on check out. Keeps her effort fairly minimal.

        • Memesweeper says:
          30 Mar30 March 12:51

          Rather taken by the term in a recent article posted here that your partner in the game should be referred to as ‘player two’ 🙂

          • gareth says:
            30 Mar30 March 13:28

            Haha loving ‘player 2’. Yeah chat for cancellation has worked before well. She still has a a few old ones car tree red about us used for a few years. The old mbna Virgin Atlantic card springs to mind

          • Polly says:
            30 Mar30 March 22:38

            We are up to player 3 and 4 by now.. great fun

  • Annabel says:
    30 Mar30 March 07:45

    Morning. Wanting to top up ISA with HL using blue bendy backed by beardy. Hoping it’ll be fee free? Thanks

    • aDifferentSimon says:
      30 Mar30 March 11:20

      I’d be surprised if that still works, virgin tightened up on these last year. Don’t use HL though so can’t say for sure.

  • Andrew MS says:
    30 Mar30 March 07:48

    I see Norwegian dot com have released Edinburgh and Manchester to Oslo and Stockholm for summer/winter – handy for anyone on a Qatar flight to Asia at the end of the year !
    No Covid guarantees with Norwegian though !
    I thought Norwegian had been rebranded Norse Air ?

    • BJ says:
      30 Mar30 March 07:57

      Thanks, I’d taken the notion of a trip to Norway. Hoping to get out the country during the climate conference.

    • Rhys says:
      30 Mar30 March 08:52

      Norwegian still exists – as a short haul operator.

      Norse Air is a new airline that is hoping to replicate Norwegian’s (failed…) long haul business model.

  • Njb says:
    30 Mar30 March 08:16

    Just had 1000 bonus nectar points added from Viking – wasn’t it supposed to be 2000?

    • Andrew says:
      30 Mar30 March 08:22

      Everyone seems to have been given 1000 instead of 2000, guess they changed their mind on the amount of the invective. Or it’s another badly worded offer like the eBay one that reads as 10x but is actually 9x

  • Nigel W says:
    30 Mar30 March 08:41

    I posted this comment on the recent article on energy bills, however, does a fellow HFPer have a referral code for Igloo Energy at all?

  • Christopher says:
    30 Mar30 March 08:52

    I never got into 3v, always found them out of stock near me.
    But remember fondly the beef in gravy and baby powder ones.
    And the highlight was Travelex sterling cheques – will never forget having to countersign 200 x £50 cheques at my local bank having already signed 200 at LGW 🥱

    • Polly says:
      30 Mar30 March 09:52

      OMG, there’s another memory. Had forgotten all about those. Raised a few eyebrows in our local bank. Had a lot of cancelled trips, it seemed.

      • Genghis says:
        30 Mar30 March 10:21

        🙂 the travellers cheques (1% fee IIRC) were excellent for hitting SUBs. Oh those were the days.

        • Rob says:
          30 Mar30 March 10:50

          I did those – used to get £3k of cash from the bank at lunchtime, pop down to Heathrow after work, buy £1k of Sterling travellers cheques from 3 different Travelex outlets, pick up 9000 Avios for my trouble (IIRC) and pay them in at the bank the next day.

          • Genghis says:
            30 Mar30 March 10:59

            🙂 I think we’re talking about different ones. I’m on about the Amex travel ones which were delivered to your home for which you could pay by Amex.

          • Chris Heyes says:
            30 Mar30 March 12:38

            Rob Wow I’m amused I’d have thought you’d have 1,00000000s of Avios and no need to go chasing after a few Avios points.
            It’s just not how a Imagine you
            I do chase Avios but its just a game to me
            But I don’t chase cash ie small shop not interested in running around for a few £
            unless it’s something we are actually buying from the shop anyhow.
            Only shopped at one shop both times it was on offer
            i Only tend to use an offer on Amax Card if it’s Bonus points, don’t bother if its a % back offer unless actually using anyhow such as a Hilton offer
            Would i make the effort for 9000 Avios yes i would for 500 prob not

          • Rob says:
            30 Mar30 March 12:43

            This was probably 20 years ago …. definitely before I met my wife, and so had no real need to dash straight home at night.

          • Chris Heyes says:
            30 Mar30 March 12:49

            Rob OOOOoooo Do you still have a “real need” to dash home at night lol lol
            No don’t answer lol

          • Genghis says:
            30 Mar30 March 14:48

            Shop small was great. Earned thousands in cash over the years. Till I got banned.

    • Jody says:
      30 Mar30 March 10:41

      The baby powder deal was incredible! I remember ordering 100 of them at the customer service desk, they thought I was mad! Bought a car from motorpoint using my clubcard points thanks to those kind of deals.

      • Kevin C says:
        30 Mar30 March 13:43

        I found a bag of baby powder tubs in the loft recently.

        • Polly says:
          30 Mar30 March 23:54

          Think it was Genghis and the mr muscle deal, hilarious! Bought loads of them.

  • lammy52 says:
    30 Mar30 March 09:15

    Is anybody experiencing that having passed the annual date on BAPP neither the annual fee has been taken, or the accrual of spend commenced.

    • Reney says:
      30 Mar30 March 13:17

      This happened to us, the fee was taken months later. We didn’t raise it with Amex thou.

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