Earn 2,000 bonus Flybuys points on top of the standard 1x Flybuys point per dollar spent when you buy $100 and $250 Mastercard gift cards in-store at Coles between 6 Aug and 12 Aug 2025.
Coles Mastercard gift cards can be spent almost anywhere Mastercard is accepted, both in-store and online. They reportedly even work to pay the ATO.
Here are the details:
- Runs from Wed 6 Aug to Tue 12 Aug 2025
- Only available in-store at Coles
- Limit of five gift cards per Flybuys account
- $5 fee on $100 card, $7 fee on $250 card
- This offer is open to everyone and does not require activation
Both the $100 and $250 Mastercards earn the same fixed bonus of 2,000 points so most people aim to just buy the $100 cards as you don’t have to spend as much and the purchase fee is $2 cheaper than the $250 cards.
Check your Coles Mastercard gift cards for signs of tampering as soon as you purchase them and avoid buying any that look like their packaging as been damaged or compromised. More information about these scams can be found here.
This is the first time they have run this offer since January so this will be extremely popular. Go first thing Wednesday morning if you can in order to stand the best chance of finding these gift cards in stock.
Tip: The Gift Card Deals group on Facebook has a post where people share the locations of Coles stores with these Mastercard gift cards in stock. Feel free to check if any stores near you are mentioned and let others know where you’ve found them in stock.
33 Responses
I genuinely have a question and would appreciate some guidance.
Let’s say you buy five $100 gift cards. You get 2,000 points (which equals $10), but you also pay a $5 activation fee per card. So that’s about $5 profit per card, or $25 total. But once you factor in travel time or transport costs, is it really worth it?
Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what exactly we’re supposed to be aiming for on this site. Is it really just about these small $5–$10 savings? Or is there something bigger I’m not seeing?
Would love to hear how others are thinking about it.
VA points
What are you aiming for by coming to this site? Gift card promos are typically 5% to 10% off. If you want 15-20% off there would be like 5 posts a year instead of several per week.
Some people want velocity points and may value them at more than $5.
Evidently enough people see value in this that my chances of finding even one card is less than half. But as I would be going to a shopping centre with a coles anyway, I may as well see if there are any cards left. Some people will be going past a coles anyway at opening time on 6 August and it will be easy for them.
If you need to make a special trip to several stores and come back empty handed it would certainly be a waste of time.
You actually get 2105 flybuys points per $100 card, so your profit is $5.52. Paying with HSBC debit card (need to put at least $5.05 cash in the machine first, and buy each card individually assuming you can find more than one) will increase your profit to $7.52.
For me, the only reason I chase these promotions is for Reward Flight tickets. Otherwise it’s really not worth the time/effort.
To extract the best value, turn these Flybuys points into Velocity Points, then use those Velocity Points for International Business or First class tickets.
A real world example, a few weeks ago I flew SYD-LAX with United Airlines Polaris Business Class. The ticket was 102,000 Velocity Points + $144 taxes. I checked the cash value of that exact same ticket: AUD$8,595. So the redemption unlocks awesome value.
The main appeal here is that it’s a very cheap way of earning Velocity points. 5,000 Velocity points can be worth a lot more than $50 if redeemed on reward flights.
Those who have a credit card minimum spend offer to meet can also use offers like this to hit their target without actually “spending” any money because prepaid gift cards are almost as good as cash.
Plus, you can use your family’s Flybuys accounts to buy more than five gift cards if you want to make it more worthwhile. Also, there are ways to make this offer even sweeter (e.g. paying for the gift cards with a points earning card, HSBC debit card that gives you 2% cashback etc).
This is something I do think about a lot when deciding what to post on here. I generally avoid sharing the small offers because I think GCDB’s audience cares a lot more about saving 10% on a $3,000 JB Hi-Fi purchase, for example, rather than getting $3 bonus cashback on a $50 gift card from Cashrewards. However, with the offers that get you frequent flyer points (either directly or via conversion from another points programme) it’s a bit different because you can’t just buy them that cheaply somewhere else.
FINALLY!!!!!
Thanks so much to everyone who responded. I really appreciate all the insights.
It’s much clearer to me now that the real value in these kinds of promos is less about the immediate cash profit and more about what you can unlock with points, especially Velocity Points. It seems like there’s a whole other level to this if you’re using Flybuys strategically. Not just to get $10 off your Coles shop here and there (which is basically all I’ve done with mine so far), but to convert them into something much more valuable, like reward flights.
Sounds like I probably haven’t been valuing Velocity Points highly enough in my mind. I’ll definitely start paying more attention to these kinds of opportunities going forward.
Thanks again. This has genuinely helped shift my perspective.
That’s what I love about sites like this – sharing good information and making your money and points work for you.
I go pretty hard trying to earn Velocity points wherever I can, mainly via credit card sign on bonuses and Flybuys. It’s a pretty nice feeling being able to fly my parents Business Class on points to Asia and Europe. Points earned from money I was going to spend on day to day life anyway – may as well get rewarded for it! And with almost 4 million points in the bank, there’s plenty of opportunities for family holidays in the future.
Can I use category choice grocery gift card to purchase this?
As far as I know that’s still possible.
Yes
If you’re purchasing prepaid Visa or Mastercard gift cards for income-generating purposes — for example, to pay the ATO — then the card loading fee may be a tax-deductible expense. As always, this depends on your specific circumstances, and you should check with your accountant.
It seems from 1 January 2025, payments made to the ATO and Service Australia via a domestic Debit Card (MasterCard & Visa) no longer incur any card payment fee.
https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/new-legislation/in-detail/other-topics/debit-card-merchant-service-fees
That is correct. I purchased the cards this morning activated and paid ATO. There’s no surcharge. What I was referring to was the load fee which is potentially a tax deductible expense.
Yes, that’s a good point to know! Thanks for sharing.
That makes them much better value as the load fee could effectively be up to halved depending on your marginal tax rate.
Has anyone been able to successfully use these cards on Qantas Marketplace to purchase other gift cards? My card keeps getting declined and I’m wondering if there is a special trick to entering the details (eg the name on the card). Thanks in advance.
They stopped accepting them last year.
Thanks for the confirmation.
Plenty at Curtis Shops at ACT tonight at least 30 $100 voucher on the stand
Check out your activation receipts. 50% of purchases are failing on activation. A 5 minute trip to Coles ends up being 40 minutes as they don’t know how to do reversals on faulty giftcards.
How do you tell they have failed on the receipts?
The last 3 digit of the number below barcode matches with 3 digit number somewhere on the receipt, and then you will see Approved next to it. I never encountered the failed one so I don’t know what it looks like. As a habit, I always check those numbers right after purchasing.
Hi everyone, I went to Coles today and bought five of these MasterCard gift cards that were on offer. I noticed that the barcodes on them are actually printed on a paper label that’s stuck onto the physical card rather than directly printed on the card itself. I’m just wondering if that’s normal or if anyone else has seen the same thing. Thanks!
Just to add a bit more detail: when I actually go online to the website to check the card’s balance, it does show the correct $100 loaded onto it. So given that everything looks correct balance-wise, should I still be worried about that label issue?
Some Coles/Vanilla Mastercard gift cards are produced with a sticker barcode. It’s certainly an odd design choice but it doesn’t mean that the card has been tampered with. Many of the gift cards I’ve bought and used have a barcode like that.
Anyone knows how long the bonus points will arrive? I purchased on Wednesday, and until today (Friday), no bonus point has arrived. The standard point did arrive since yesterday.
Same here, only standard points no bouns points
Usually the next day but often you only get some of the points so it may take another day or so for the rest. Check at around 5pm as that’s when Flybuys points credit each day.
Hi! I bought 5 cards yesterday, but today when Im checking my flybuys account I found only 2000 bonus points were loaded to my account. Does that mean only one card was counted in one purchase?
That’s normal. Check again the next day at around 5-6pm and the rest should be there.
As you said, it appears today. Thank you!
Best thing is that you can pay for this with the discounted Groceries Choice you get from HCF. This is literally free money.