Woolworths Visa gift card points deal: Why I’m not buying
I'm a big fan of buying gift cards to earn extra reward points. I'll be giving gifts anyway, why not get a little more from them?
A key point that guide makes is that you should only buy the cards when it actually makes good sense financially.
And this week there's an offer at Woolworths where that's not really the case.
I won't be buying any of those cards, but it's a good chance to see how to apply the principles.
So the deal is this: if you buy a Visa Activ gift card between now and 7 November 2023, you'll get 10 times its dollar value in Everyday Rewards points. (Cards in the offer include the Birthday, Congrats, Gaming, Green, Luxury, Online Shopping, Petrol & Auto, Pets & Vets and Travel & Explore cards.)
The catch? You have to pay a service fee for the Visa Activ card. You pay $5.95 for a $50 or $100 card, and $7.95 for a variable card. Variable cards can be loaded with any amount from $50 to $500, but given the higher fee you wouldn't want to load one with less than $100.
There are 2 ways you can use your Everyday Rewards points:
- Put them towards a $10 off voucher, which you get when you earn 2,000 Everyday Rewards points. In this case, each Everyday Rewards point is effectively worth 0.5 cents.
- Convert them to Qantas Points. Every 2,000 Everyday Rewards converts to 1,000 Qantas Points. The value of those varies, but if you use them for domestic flights, you'll typically end up with each Everyday Rewards point being worth 1 cent.
But those are the values before you pay the service fee. So how much value would you really get if you bought a gift card during this promotion? Here's how it works out for some typical card amounts, using the figures above.
| Amount | Points earned | Value (EDR) | Value (Qantas) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50.00 | 500 | -$3.45 | -$0.95 |
| $100.00 | 1000 | -$0.95 | $4.05 |
| $200.00 | 2000 | $2.05 | $12.05 |
| $300.00 | 3000 | $7.05 | $22.05 |
| $500.00 | 5000 | $17.05 | $42.05 |
For the $50 card, the value of the points you earn is entirely wiped out by the service fee, whether you're aiming for dollars off or Qantas Points. That's also the case for dollars off for the $100 card.
You do get a small return for the variable cards, but it's not a huge amount. And frankly there's no-one I'm planning to give a $300 gift card to any time soon.
Everyone's strategy varies, and if you're more generous than me, this might be a way to top up your points. But I'll be hanging out for an offer with more points before I stock up on gift cards again.
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