Coles has 10% off $100 & $250 Mastercard gift cards starting on the 15th June to 21st June. Additional purchase fees apply ($5 or $7 depending on the card).
Mod Edit: Updated thumbnail/link with in-store advertisement - Credits to randoom
Offer only applies to $100 and $250 Coles Mastercard Gift Cards. 10% discount will be applied to the value of the card including the applicable activation fee. Total cost for $100 gift card is $94.50 ($90 for card and $4.50 for activation fee) and for $250 gift card is $231.30 ($225 for card and $6.30 for activation fee). Limit 5 Gift Cards per customer. Offer valid only in store at Coles Supermarkets (excludes Coles Online, Coles Express and purchases via giftcards.com.au), subject to store availability. Excludes $50 Coles Mastercard Gift Cards. While stocks last, no rainchecks. Please note Coles Mastercard Gift Cards will have a minimum 4 hour activation delay. Coles Mastercard Gift Cards cannot be used to purchase any other gift card sold at Coles. Offer valid from 15/6/22 to 21/6/22. Refer to individual gift card for terms and conditions.
Here are some (hopefully) handy tips for people.
These prepaid gift cards are different to the Coles Gift Mastercards from previous Coles deals
The prepaid gift cards in this deal are issued by Heritage Bank, the same financial institution that also issues other prepaid gift cards, including:
Vanilla Visa gift cards
Australia Post Gift Card (Mastercard)
Ultimate (Visa) gift cards
It is therefore no accident that the packaging and card design of these prepaid gift cards is extremely similar to the Vanilla Visa gift cards (which is much harder to tamper without leaving evidence behind when compared with the previous Coles Gift Mastercards).
The previous Coles Gift Mastercards were issued by Indue Ltd, and had packaging that was laughably easy to get into. (It was so easy to get into the packaging that tampered gift card packages were a problem that cropped up from time to time. After opening 50+ Coles Gift Mastercard packages, I can understand the reason that tampering was a persistent problem.)
The good news is that the change in issuers means that you will have a much easier time disputing any fraudulent transactions on the prepaid gift card. Heritage Bank clearly spell out in the gift card terms and conditions (clause 14) that you can dispute transactions within a specific period of time. This is a massive step-up from the previous Coles Gift Mastercards, where Indue were inconsistent in their approach to dealing with cardholders disputing fraudulent transactions (which is a large reason why there is a relatively large OzBargain thread regarding the previous Coles Gift Mastercards).
You can check the balance of your prepaid gift card online or over the phone
The packaging, the back of the card and the terms and conditions sheet mentions that you can go to colesmastercardbalance.com.au to check the balance of your prepaid gift card. However, this website redirects to mybalancenow.com, which is a website used by a number of US-issued prepaid gift cards, as well as the prepaid gift card in this deal.
I was also able to check the prepaid gift card’s balance via the support phone on the back of the card. They have an automated phone service where you can hear the current balance and the five most recent transactions posted on the prepaid gift card.
The back of the card and the terms and conditions sheet also mentions you can find a digital copy of the terms and conditions on the aforementioned website. However, I have searched for it and can only find half the terms and conditions online.
Hot tip: DO NOT TRY TO NAVIGATE TO MYBALANCENOW VIA A SEARCH ENGINE. ONLY ENTER THE URL ON THE BACK OF THE PREPAID GIFT CARD INTO YOUR WEB BROWSER. Google’s search results for mybalancenow have been poisoned with phishing websites, so you may end up handing over your prepaid gift card’s details to a random person online, rather than the balance check website. I found this out when I got lazy and searched for mybalancenow, clicked on the first result that seemed correct, but ended up on a website I did not recognise at all.
These prepaid gift cards have no PIN associated with them when it is sold to you.
However, the prepaid gift card’s terms and conditions mentions the use of a PIN is optional, and you can choose a PIN when you first use it at a merchant’s EFTPOS terminal (according to the terms and conditions). Any 4-digit PIN will work as the initial PIN for your first PIN-based transaction. After the first PIN-based transaction, you must use the same PIN each subsequent PIN-based transaction, unless and until you choose to reset the PIN.
If you need to reset the PIN:
You can call the prepaid gift card issuer, or
You can visit the balance check webpage. (I’m not sure if you can set a PIN on this webpage.)
However, you do not need to set a PIN to use this prepaid gift card in-person, so signature verification is still an option (where accepted by a merchant). Although signature verification was phased out for Australian-issued debit and credit cards in late 2014, there still some circumstances where signature verification is still permitted in Australia, including:
Signature-only cards,
Debit or credit cards issued by financial institutions based outside Australia,
Magnetic stripe payments (including payments made using the prepaid gift card in this deal).
Having said that, if you are at a merchant that mandates you provide a PIN to authorise an in-person transaction, your prepaid gift card must already have a PIN set (or you must set a PIN) before you can redeem any funds. In the previous Vanilla Visa gift card deal, I’m not sure whether someone mentioned ALDI or Bunnings did not accept signature verification…
In my experience:
Woolworths and BIG W do not require PIN or signature verification when redeeming these prepaid gift cards in their stores. If you do not have a PIN set and do not want to set a PIN, all you need to do is select Card (or Card (Split Payment)) on the payment screen, swipe the card on the EFTPOS terminal and press Enter or OK. If your prepaid gift card is active and has sufficient balance, your payment request will be approved without needing to provide a signature.1
Coles only requires PIN or signature verification if you are redeeming above a certain threshold (approximately $35). If you are above this threshold and opt to sign for the transaction, the POS system will print out a small slip of paper and you will be asked to sign on the paper to verify the transaction. It will be at the discretion of the staff member at the self checkout or serviced checkout whether to accept your signature and permit the transaction.
Unattended terminals (e.g. parking meters with magstripe readers) should accept these prepaid gift cards without asking for any kind of verification.
If anyone is wondering, I have not attempted to set or reset a PIN, because the transactions I have completed so far using these prepaid gift cards have not required a PIN.
These prepaid gift cards operate on the Mastercard network
If you are in-store at a merchant, either:
Select card (or split payments, where relevant) at a self-service checkout, or
Tell the staff member operating the checkout you would like to use a card (or split payments, where relevant).
If you select gift card at a checkout or tell a staff member you would like to use a gift card, you will be unable to redeem the prepaid gift card (either because staff will tell you that you redeem use a gift card for that transaction, or the checkout will be expecting the store’s own gift card, rather than a Mastercard).
You cannot add these prepaid gift cards to a mobile wallet
This is despite the help section on the prepaid gift card website suggesting this is possible. I have tried adding this prepaid gift card to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay with no success.
Generally speaking, the help section is copied over from the equivalent help section used for US-issued prepaid gift cards, so a lot of the answers are nonsensical.
These prepaid gift cards are not accepted at some online merchants
These prepaid gift cards are not tied to a specific person, so they cannot support security features that allow a payment processor to ask for verification when you attempt to complete a purchase online (e.g. 3D Secure 2.0).
Merchants that do not accept these prepaid gift cards include Reward Gateway and Everyday Pay (Woolworths Group’s QR-based payment method). However, Woolworths Group’s gift card portal may accept these prepaid gift cards (for now), as they use a bank identification number (BIN) I have not seen on other Australian-issued prepaid gift cards.
A workaround is to link these prepaid gift cards to a PayPal account, then use PayPal at an online merchant (where PayPal is accepted) and select the prepaid gift card as the payment source. I have done this many times at Prezzee to get around their restrictions on prepaid gift cards.
Before anyone asks, these payments can be used to send payments to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) through their online portal. These prepaid gift cards attract a 0.2% payment surcharge and ATO’s systems will only permit you to redeem five different prepaid gift cards in a 12-24 hour period, so remember to factor this in when planning to send any payments.
Hot tip: if you’re wanting to use the full balance of a $250 prepaid gift card on the ATO portal, the amount you want to enter in the amount to pay field is $249.50.
As an aside, I honestly think the slogans used on the front of the packaging (A gift to show everywhere, Use this card everywhere Mastercard is accepted) are plainly wrong.2 Even the terms and conditions (which is hidden in the packaging or buried on the balance check website) admits some merchants may choose not to accept Mastercard Prepaid cards.
Prepaid gift cards are (particularly) susceptible to BIN attacks (aka “hacks”)
Although any Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/etc card is susceptible to bank identification number (BIN) attacks (where someone tests multiple potential combinations of card numbers, expiry dates and CVC2 values), prepaid gift cards are particularly susceptible, due to a limited pool of potential expiry dates, as well as the lack of sophisticated fraud prevention and fraud detection systems you usually find implemented at “regular” financial institutions (e.g. CommBank, Westpac, AMEX).
The older version of the Coles Gift Mastercard highlighted the potential of prepaid gift cards being attached (aka “hacked”), as it suffered waves of fraudulent transactions late last year that strongly hinted that large-scale BIN attacks were being executed against them.
The upshot is that Heritage Bank (the issuer) makes it clear you can dispute transactions, as long as you initiate a dispute in a specific timeframe. I think that is a massive step-up from Indue’s inconsistent approach to handling disputed transactions.
You may have up to 120% of a transaction value deducted from your prepaid gift card at the time of authorising a payment
Some merchants will request a pre-authorisation amount that is up to 120% of the transaction value. However, when the transaction is no longer pending, the amount deducted from your prepaid gift card will be settled at the transaction amount, and the additional funds set aside to cover the pre-authorisation amount will be returned the available balance.
I have noticed this happen at hairdressers and restaurants, and the terms and conditions also mention this potentially happening at hotels, rental car place, etc. These are the types of merchants that may expect either a tip or additional funds to cover incidentals or any other additional costs that may be incurred.
This means that you may not be able to redeem your prepaid gift card at some merchants, even though you think it has a sufficient available balance. For example, I once tried to use a Vanilla Visa gift card with $34 on it to pay for a $30 meal at a restaurant, but the card kept on being declined. The card issuer later told me it was due to the restaurant wanting to use $36 as the pre-authorisation amount (not $30), so my transactions were being declined due to insufficient available balance.
Before anyone asks, this has not happened to me at supermarkets, department stores or service stations.
My assumption is that this is the same situation in-store at Dan Murphy’s, BWS and EG Caltex / EG Ampol / Caltex Woolworths, as their POS systems are extremely similar to Woolworths’ and BIG W’s POS system. ↩
Personally, I would use a word starting with m and ending with isleading, but I don’t want to deal with overzealous lawyers… ↩
Thumbnail taken from 2021 article
Incorrect.
Cloes Mastercard is in the deal
If anyone is wondering what the prepaid gift card packaging for the $250 denomination is supposed to look like, here it is (and I had to fish it out of my recycling bin)…
Hope you don't mind but I just changed the thumbnail picture to your one. The original one was just used as a placeholder
Does it not say 'Coles' anywhere on it?
Thats true for the front of the packaging and the front of the prepaid gift card.
It says Coles on the back of the packaging, plus it says Coles on the back of the prepaid gift card above the magstripe.
Just curious, can I use my Coles gift cards (not the Coles Groceries gift cards) to purchase the Coles MasterCard at the checkouts?
Maybe, maybe not.
At self checkouts, it depends on whether the checkout has been programmed to stop you as soon as you select Gift Card on the payment screen. The self checkouts in my area have been programmed like that, but not all self checkouts have been programmed like that.
At standard checkouts, it is at the discretion of the staff member operating the checkout. Most of the staff at the stores in my area have been trained to deny such requests.
No, unfortunately you can't. The store system won't allow payment with coles gift cards.
@WM your prediction that this would come around came true!
Haha my second prediction came true.
My first prediction was a week off, because this deal won’t start until mid-June… but that was because I forgot to check when the June 2021 Coles Gift Mastercard deal actually started.
My guess is that there will be one more 10% off deal this year, starting 19 October 2022. Let’s see whether my powers of prediction are as good this time around!!
Thanks @WookieMonster
What is the activation time for these cards?
From memory, Coles mastercards were activated instantly but Heritage Bank issued Visa cards took 6-12 hours.
I wasn’t able to test that, because InComm did not configure their mybalancenow website to accept Coles Mastercard Gift Cards until two days after I bought my cards. I’m not currently planning on buying any more Coles Mastercard Gift Cards… not until Wednesday, anyway!
My current guess is that you will need to wait 4.5 hours from activation at Coles for the full $250 to be available for redemption, because these prepaid gift cards look like re-skinned Vanilla Visa gift cards, plus I saw a reference on the mybalancenow website to Vanilla Mastercard gift cards.
Having said that, their automated phone service told me that prepaid gift cards are usually available immediately for redemption, but it can take up to 4 hours. I don’t believe their automated phone service, so I guess it will be up to us to figure this one out.
A very silly question, should I select credit, cheque or credit if the terminal pops up these options after swiping?
Credit
These prepaid gift cards only operate on the Mastercard network, so you'll need to select credit.
Savings and cheque are used for cards that operate on the EFTPOS network, and the prepaid gift cards in this deal do not operate on the EFTPOS network.