Moved to Forum: Original Link
Mod: While an interesting theory, unfortunately this won't work. Prepaid Mastercards can't be loaded from gift cards and need to be loaded from EFTPOS or cash.
Woolworths Money – Single Load Prepaid Mastercard
Break even analysis:
$3.95 Cost of card fee
$3.75 Cost of card fee (after 5% back from ING Direct)
$75.05 Minimum amount to be spent to receive card fee back.
(5% of $75.05 = $3.75 – cost of card fee)
$75.05 + $3.95 = $79 (total money spent on purchasing the card)
$79 x 0.95 = $75 (total monetary value loaded onto the card)
$79 x 0.05 = $3.95 (total money received as cash back from ING Direct)
ING Direct are currently offering a promotion where they will give 5% cash back on all contactless (‘pay wave’) purchases made using a Visa debit card linked to an Orange Everyday account (which for those of you who aren’t aware, charges no monthly account keeping fees or stupid transaction fees that other banks do).
If you have an ING Direct Orange Everyday account with a linked Visa debit card, the above table explains how to get 5% back on any purchase at any retailer that accepts eftpos or Visa as a form of paying for goods or services (including online), above a minimum threshold ($79). This can be done by purchasing a Wooolworths money single load prepaid Mastercard from either Woolworths or Big W and using gift cards to pay for the card.
As ING Direct only gives 5% cash back for contactless purchases under $100, all money spent to purchase and load the card needs to be done so in the form of either Woolworths, Big W or Wish gift cards with a maximum value of $99.99, that have been purchased via a contactless payment from an ING Direct Orange Everyday linked Visa debit card.
The above table of analysis shows the minimum amount needed to break even, (i.e. not make a loss or a profit in the ratio of money spent to monetary value of the card). In order to have a higher monetary value on the card in comparison to money spent purchasing the card, more than $79 needs to spent.
Example: I wish to purchase a new computer from my local computer dealer, who don’t accept contactless payments and don’t do gift vouchers of their own. The computer I want to purchase costs $500. Using the method outlined above, I purchase a Woolworths single load prepaid Mastercard with a monetary value of $500 from my local supermarket. I am able to save 5% on the value above the minimum threshold ($79), which is $421. 5% of $421 is $21.05. This brings the total price for the computer down to from $500 to $478.95, and I haven’t even started to try to get a better price for the salesman yet.
As mentioned above, you can rinse and repeat to save money on any place where Visa or eftpos payments are accepted (i.e. just about everywhere).
Please be aware that the card is single load, meaning the balance cannot be topped up and the value must be set at the time of original purchase (maximum load value of card is $1000). Having said that, if you were purchasing an item greater in value than $1000, you could combine multiple cards to pay for the purchase, keeping in mind that the $79 minimum threshold needs to reached before the 5% can take effect on each individual card.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to everybody reading this article.
I hope that what I have shown is able to help you save some money.
Michael
It's less than 5% because of the card fee. I think you should add in an example of what percentage you save on $100, $500, $1000 load for example to be more clear about that. =] Otherwise good idea.