Some ‘Simon Malls’ Will Stop Selling Visa Gift Cards On March 1st

Recently some people have been told that their Simon Mall will stop selling gift cards on March 1st. What is actually happening is a bit more complicated, I’ll let NecessaryIndulgences from Flyertalk explain as they do a better job than I’d be able to:

Simon spun off part of their portfolio in May, 2014 to Washington Prime Group, which is now known as WP Glimcher (NYSE:WPG).

The “Simon Mall” brand at these properties was left unchanged until recently. As of Mar 1, 2016, this portfolio will be branded as WPG.

For now, WPG has elected not to continue the Simon relationship with the Blackhawk Network, so all the gift cards that have been sold by these Simon properties (incl. VGCs) go away as of tomorrow. WPG malls will continue to sell AMEX gift cards under an agreement directly with AMEX, though as I understand it they are restricted to a max of ~$225 (not sure about this number).

Here’s a list of the affected malls: http://www.wpglimcher.com/map/#propertyList

This seems to mostly affect Malls on the East Coast. Simon Malls are pretty popular for purchasing Visa gift cards due to the fee of only $3.95 per $500 card.