Every week Coles and Woolworths run promotions on various gift cards, usually in the form of bonus points. These offers are a quick and easy way to earn tens of thousands of Qantas, Velocity, Everyday Rewards or Flybuys points on purchases that wouldn’t ordinarily accrue points.
For example, a $2,000 shop at JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Apple or IKEA could earn you 40,000 points if you paid using gift cards bought during one of the frequent 20x points offers. That’s enough to claim $200 worth of free groceries or to fly business class from Sydney to Melbourne.
This guide explains how these promotions work, which gift cards are usually included, how you can find out about them and everything else you need to know to get started.
How these promotions work
In addition to their weekly grocery specials, Coles and Woolworths often run bonus points promotions on an assortment of gift cards. Big W, Qantas Marketplace, the Everyday Rewards app and the Woolworths Gift Cards website also run similar promotions, albeit not as frequently.
Coles promotions earn you Flybuys points which can be redeemed at Coles Group and partner stores or converted to Velocity Frequent Flyer points (2,000 Flybuys points = $10 or 1,000 Velocity points).
With Woolworths, Big W, the Everyday Rewards app and the Woolworths Gift Cards website you earn Everyday Rewards points which can be redeemed at Woolworths Group stores or converted to Qantas Frequent Flyer points (2,000 Everyday Rewards points = $10 or 1,000 Qantas points).
For the in-store bonus points offers at Coles, Woolworths and Big W you simply scan your Flybuys or Everyday Rewards card when buying the included gift cards during the promotion period and the bonus points will soon appear in your account.
Qantas Marketplace lets you earn 3x Qantas points per dollar spent on gift cards as standard but they also run promotions around once a month where you can earn 4-10x points per dollar on selected gift cards.
The Everyday Rewards app and Woolworths Gift Cards website used to regularly have bonus points offers but these days they mostly provide discounts (e.g. 10% off). If they do run a points offer, the app automatically records your Everyday Rewards number at the time of purchase whilst on the website you have to manually enter it at checkout.
It’s always important to carefully read the terms and conditions for each promotion as sometimes there may be exclusions or limits that can catch you by surprise. If you’re buying in-store you should always hold onto your receipt in case there are any issues.
How to find out about gift card offers
We post articles about every gift card bonus points offer as soon as we learn of them which is often well before they’re officially announced. These articles always provide a beginner-friendly breakdown of the promotion terms and conditions so that you know exactly what to buy and when.
Sometimes Coles, Woolworths and Big W will provide discounts on gift cards instead of bonus points. Our focus here is only on points but if you’re interested in these other savings you should check out the Gift Card Database website (GCDB).
To be alerted to upcoming gift card points offers, follow us on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to our weekly email newsletter that gets sent out every Tuesday morning. You can also join our Gift Card Deals Facebook group.
Which gift cards are included
You can use our Gift Card Promotion History tool to see the last five years of offers at Coles, Woolworths, Big W, Qantas Marketplace and more. This tool can also help you to gauge the frequency of certain offers (e.g. 20x points on Apple gift cards happens every few weeks).
Some of the most common gift cards we see in these 20x points offers include Apple, Uber, DoorDash, Google Play, Rebel, BCF, Supercheap Auto as well as multi-retailer TCN and Ultimate gift cards that can be exchanged for JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Webjet, IKEA, Officeworks and other gift cards.
Also regularly included are merchant category gift cards like the TCN Restaurant, TCN Good Food and TCN Pamper. These are like prepaid Eftpos gift cards set to be accepted at any business with a merchant category code that corresponds to the theme of the gift card (e.g. the TCN Restaurant card works at basically any restaurant).
Up until 2025, prepaid Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos gift cards were often included in excellent bonus points promotions but lately they have only been running pitiful offers on them where the points you earn don’t even offset the card purchase fees.
Gift cards such as Woolworths, WISH, Amazon, Bunnings and Airbnb aren’t included in 20x points offers but you can still earn smaller amounts on them (e.g. 3x Qantas points per dollar at any time via Qantas Marketplace).
How many points you can earn
You can use the calculator below to find out how many points you will earn from the 20x points promotions at Coles, Woolworth and Big W. Select Flybuys instead of Everyday Rewards for an offer at Coles.
How long until the points arrive
Coles purchases will typically see the points arrive in your Flybuys account the following day at around 5pm AEST/AEDT but delays of a few days aren’t uncommon. If a week or so has gone by and the points are still not reflected in your account then you should contact the Flybuys team.
Woolworths and Big W will usually award Everyday Rewards points instantly. Occasionally there may be hiccups where the points are not paid out immediately in which case you can contact the Everyday Rewards team via phone or live chat after fourteen business days have gone by and they will manually credit them.
The Everyday Rewards app and Woolworths Gift Cards website, on the other hand, do not award Everyday Rewards points immediately with the typical wait time being several weeks.
Qantas Marketplace used to credit points 1-2 days after you paid for the gift cards but lately it seems they’ve cut this down to just a few hours.
Common questions and answers about buying gift cards
Q. How do I find out about upcoming offers early?
A. We often reveal upcoming offers at Coles and Woolworths around a week before they’re officially announced so keep an eye on our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Q. Where can I find a list of past gift card offers?
A. Our Gift Card Promotion History tool displays the last five years of gift card offers at Coles, Woolworths, Big W, Everyday Rewards and Qantas Marketplace.
Q. Do the gift cards have any purchase or activation fees?
A. As a general rule, the only gift cards with fees are prepaid Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos gift cards that you can use anywhere. Gift cards restricted to specific brands or merchant categories shouldn’t have fees.
Q. How many gift cards can I redeem when shopping with each brand?
A. It depends on the brand. Often you can use unlimited gift cards in-store but for online purchases there is more likely to be a limit. If you search the Gift Card Database for a particular gift card you’re interested in you can often find out what their gift card redemption limits are.
Q. Where can I use the Ultimate and TCN multi-retailer gift cards?
A. Check out the Multi-Retailer Search tool on GCDB. All of those Ultimate and TCN gift cards are regularly included promotions so if a brand is listed on that page then it’s more or less guaranteed that you can earn 20x points when shopping with them.
Q. Are there any gift card scams to be aware of?
A. Yes, although for the most part they only target Apple and prepaid Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos gift cards. You can find more information about these scams and how to avoid them here.
Q. What can I do if I accidentally bought the wrong gift cards?
A. Give either Everyday Rewards or Flybuys a call or message and explain that you accidentally purchased the wrong gift cards. Everyday Rewards in particular are known for being very forgiving when it comes to these sorts of mistakes.
Q. What happens if my Flybuys or Everyday Rewards card didn’t scan properly?
A. This happens occasionally but it’s an easy fix. If your Flybuys card didn’t scan, take your receipt to the service counter at the Coles store you bought the gift cards from within seven days and they will fix it. If your Everyday Rewards card wasn’t scanned, you should contact the Everyday Rewards team and they will sort it out. Always keep your receipts in case of issues like this.
Q. Can I pay for the gift card using a points earning credit card?
A. Absolutely. This is an easy way to double dip and earn additional points. You can sometimes even triple dip by clicking through the Qantas Shopping or Velocity eStore websites when you go to use the gift cards you’ve bought.
Q. Do these promotions combine with other Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points offers?
A. No. The targeted offers you receive for buying groceries and other items (e.g. 10x points, 1,600 points when you spend $50 etc) always exclude gift cards. You will only ever earn the advertised bonus points for a particular gift card promotion.
More questions?
If there are still some things you would like to know about earning points on gift cards, feel free to comment below. Alternatively, you can submit a question in the Gift Card Deals Facebook group or subreddit.
10 Responses
Regarding the final FAQ “Do these promotions stack with other ER/Flybuys offers” what does the term stack mean?
And by “other ER/Flybuys offers” are you referring to any boosting promotions on the Flybuys/ER app?
What it means is that the gift card bonus offers don’t combine with other offers you have (e.g. ’10x points’ or ‘spend $50 to earn 3,000 points’). You will only ever earn the advertised bonus on the gift cards (e.g. 20x points).
Where can I find out what the gift card can be used for? Like those cards labelled SHE, HE, KID and so on with many merchants’ logos on them, can they only be used at those places? I’m afraid I’ll buy a card and find out I can’t use it where I need it.
You need to check their respective websites for the up to date list of retailers as what’s shown on the physical cards may be out of date. The two big multi-retailer gift card schemes operating in Australia are TCN (The Card Network) and Ultimate.
That’s correct. You can only use those kinds of gift cards at the specific retailers they’ve partnered with.
Thanks for the answer, this site is especially useful for those who have not known and used gift cards and shop credit
Hey, is there a limit on the amount of gift cards that can be used in one transaction for jb hi fi? I have some large purchases to make but don’t want to buy 20 gift cards if there is a lower limit. Thanks
JB Hi-Fi does not limit how many gift cards you can use either in-store or online. If you’re wanting to use Ultimate or TCN gift cards for an online JB Hi-Fi purchase then you would need to first swap those cards for some of JB Hi-Fi’s own gift cards via their respective websites.
I like buy the cards that are really just an EFT pos retreaded like this 10 x points on luxe card. Do these general EFT pps/visa debit cards ever offer 20 x points at coles or woolies?
Woolworths occasionally offer 20x points on $50 and $100 Westfield gift cards which are just glorified Eftpos cards, however, they don’t ever offer 20x points on gift cards that are sold in denominations higher than $100.
Coles often run promotions for 2,000 bonus Flybuys points on $100 Mastercard gift cards, though they limit you to five cards in total so it’s hard to really maximise the amount of points you earn.
If i use the gift cards that i bought, say $1000 worth and i got my 20x points on my rewards program (say everyday rewards). If i was to purchase something from big w with those gift cards and scan my everyday rewards do i still accumulate points at a regular rate for that purchase?
Almost like double dipping?