Is bit.ly/payenergybill legitimate?

Many of you will probably be asking whether the sms that you received from Synergy was really from Synergy. It says something like this

Hi there. This is a friendly reminder to pay $X for account _______ by 30/08 to avoid late fees. Pay online at bit.ly/payenergybill Payment no. ____

The question is while we probably found getting a link like bit.ly/payenergybill, which is easy to remember, it is also easy to hoax. If a scammer uses a similar link (eg changing one letter to capitals such as bit.ly/Payenergybill) to redirect to their own website, they could potentially steal customer credit card numbers etc. In this case, we know that the bit.ly/link is legitimate, but it can be easily faked. A better way would be using their own domain and make a redirect from www.synergy.com/pay for example.

You can always find out where a bit.ly/link goes by adding a + at the end of the web address ie bit.ly/link+ From this you can see that almost 50,000 people have used the Synergy bit.ly/link to get to their bill. 

Can you do anything when your gift card expires?

Gift cards used to be an expression of love, but nowadays many of us dread receiving them or only buy them for ourselves to save 5% or something. When gift cards expire, it is very frustrating and the idea that your money just disappeared can be quite hard to dismiss. However, some good companies like Woolworths may allow you to have your balance reinstated with a short expiry date. Recently, someone had their WISH egiftcard expire and called up 1300 665 249, explaining that they just found out their card expired. They were credited the full $118 back on the card with one month to use it up. However, not all companies will do this. Someone else tried to get an extension on a Garden City gift card but their written request was quickly dismissed.

If you came on here looking for a solution, let us know how you go when you call up in the comments, and how much you got back.

How to Get Velocity Gold the FAST Way?

Most of us probably do not fly much for work and even with family pooling, the idea of attaining gold membership with Qantas or Virgin Australia seems so far away. Are there shortcuts?

Coles Flybuys
If you have flybuys, they are known to give selected flybuys customers the opportunity to "Explore Gold". This gives you three months of Gold level membership with Virgin Velocity, allowing you to use the lounge when you travel with Virgin Australia and most of the other benefits that Gold members get. If you manage to earn 80 status credits during that three months, you will be able to get full Gold level membership for the next 12 months.
Gold benefits included in Explore Gold

• Advanced seat selection and priority seating preferences
• Priority check in at the airport
• Priority boarding onto the plane
• Virgin Lounge access for you and a guest and up to two children aged between 3-12.
• Access to around 150 other international lounges when traveling with Virgin or affiliates
• Priority baggage arrival - comes out first on the carousel
• 75% more points each time you travel on Virgin

Gold benefits not included in the three month Explore Gold membership include

• Guaranteed Economy Reward Seats for an annual trip to any Australian destination,
• Membership pause for Parental Leave
• Complimentary membership with our car hire and hotel partners (eg Hilton, Hertz, Europcar, Thrifty)

Coles Flybuys MasterCard

Rather than waiting anxiously to be offered by flybuys, the other way of getting "Explore Gold" is to apply for a Coles Flybuys MasterCard. This will cost you $89 for the annual fee, but comes with the equivalent of $100 worth of flybuys points. It also comes with "Explore Gold" as described above with the same offer to attain 12 months of full Gold membership if you can earn 80 status credits in three months. For people living in Perth, this is pretty easy to earn - it's just one flight to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane return to Perth and you will have Velocity Gold for 12 more months. 

Some have reported that some of their status credits disappeared when they got the Explore Gold membership. This is because in Explore Gold mode, the Velocity website only shows your status balance for the last three months. Any other status credits earned before the last three months will not appear on the website, but have not been taken from you. When you have finished your Explore Gold, the website will once again display your total SC balance.