In the past month or so, Vanilla Reload cards have become more and more difficult to find. Many stores that used to have a ready supply have sold out and have not restocked. What’s going on? I don’t have the answers, but there are a number of clues…
Vanilla Reload website changes and a new card
As Giddy for Points reported here, the website for reloading Vanilla Reload cards has undergone a dramatic facelift. And, the new site shows a very different looking card:
Vanilla Reload website won’t reload
Yesterday, readers reported that the Vanilla Reload website wasn’t working when they tried to reload Bluebird cards. The quick fix is to call to reload:
1-877-429-8140.
CVS policy changes
Donnie Law reports here that CVS is planning to roll out new policies regarding how Vanilla Reload cards are sold. No details yet as to what these new policies may be. Let’s hope that credit cards will still be allowed!
Amex Serve rolls out big changes
American Express’ Serve product continues to evolve. Finextra gives a summary of some recent changes here. The part that caught my eye was this:
Free Cash Load Network: Starting this November, American Express Serve customers will be able to take cash to the register at more than 14,000 participating CVS/pharmacy and 7-Eleven stores and add it to their American Express Serve Account. This is made possible through a relationship with InComm and its Vanilla Reload Network.
This paragraph implies that instead of buying Vanilla Reload cards, the Serve card will need to be brought to the register and reloaded there. It sounds a lot like Bluebird “swipe reloads” at Walmart doesn’t it? If so, will this be in addition to Vanilla Reload cards or instead of Vanilla Reload cards? Will they allow credit cards? Debit cards? Will we have to wait until November to find out?
What it all means
It appears to me that Amex has been happy with the Bluebird rollout, but is not satisfied with keeping an exclusive partnership with Walmart. Instead, they’ve made Serve increasingly like Bluebird, but without the Walmart exclusivity. Does this have anything to do with Vanilla Reload changes? Maybe. Amex is certainly big enough to be in a position to convince Incomm to change their product. Of course, the two developments coming around the same time could be coincidental, but my guess (and it is just a guess) is that they’re connected.
It seems likely to me that the CVS policy changes, if they happen, are driven by the need to have a new way to load cards like Serve.
I believe that the current lack of Vanilla Reload cards in stores is due to the fact that Incomm stopped producing the old cards and have not yet rolled out the new ones. Regarding the broken Vanilla Reload site: maybe it’s not working because the new site is designed only to load new Vanilla Reload cards?
Anyone have information or good guesses about what’s going on? Comment below.
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[…] dropped some hints here and here (starting at comment […]
[…] dropped some hints here and here (starting at comment […]
I am a vanilla
Enthusiast and was buying about 10K per month in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. My local CVS as well as several others around me were always fully stocked with beans. Now, for three or four weeks there is no sign of any. Not the old ones or the new ones or anything. It is both sad and frustrating. I asked a few managers about it and all of them are very very grumpy and mean, and gave me no other information. 🙁
Yes, seems those VR’s are harder to get by. Many of my stores(CVS) have not had them in almost 3 weeks. Got lucky to find some two days ago and had no problems reloading the old design on the new VR website. Funny thing is that the cashier made me do two transactions and both times with the 503.95 charge on two separate CC’s each CC flagged my cards for fraud and I had to go online and verify the amounts charged. Could have called also as I had both CC’s call me and leave me messages about potential fraud activity. FIRST time this happened and both CC’s have been used before to purchase VR’s.
Anyone had similar experience ???
Yesterday my Charlie Victor Sierra manager said they had an automatic reorder in place of 60 cards when they sold out but it obviously wasn’t working and that he would go in and reorder again………seems there is a problem on the “supply side”……..
Question is: Does the lack of supply have anything to do with breaching the line of credit cap that the card issuer has? IE Are they slowing the supply of cards based on the amount outstanding on the cards and can’t ship more new ones until a certain amount is paid off? It can’t be they are incompetent in the production of these plastic cards?
WE will see what happens
My favorite CVS still has a large stock of the old cards and I bought several yesterday. Tried to load from my smartphone in the parking lot as usual and got as far as the “are you sure you want to load the $500 to this card, this is irreversible” step, then when I said yes I got an error message that a system error had occurred. Having already read this post I didn’t panic but called the 877 number and got all the VR loaded successfully to my MVD and BB cards. Took 12 minutes on the phone to get the cards loaded, so I’ll be glad when CVS gets the new cards in and I can load from my mobile web browser again.
$3.95 is the new price on the old cards……….
Thanks for linking to my post. Still seeing the old cards at my CVS but I’m sure they will be transitioning soon.
@Mark (@palmerlaw)
Thank you! The fee is clearly visible on the 4th edition VR!
[…] it. Yes, I am talking about Vanilla Reload cards. Here is the spontaneous comment I posted at Frequent Miler’s blog (comment […]
just for the record I haven’t stooped to hiring homeless guys to hang out and stand in line for when they come in……………
Just cleaned out the last two VR cards at my Charlie Victor Sierra……..had to uncover them behind the game cards hidden at the bottom rung……..then whoever put them there had the audacity of taking the two I hid elsewhere on the rack……….but alas the manager tells me he ordered 60 more today and they will be here Monday…………interesting now at this store they have them again and they move off the shelves in waves…………if you are willing to buy “ahead” of “loading time” then it is a lot less stressful hunting…………
@TBB I understand. I’m not sure if I should tell anyone but I’ve recently been successful with my experiments in alchemy, perpetual motion machines, and time travel. I’m been debating whether mankind will be better off with this knowledge or not. It’s quite a burden to me. I’m going to keep thinking about it.
TBB–Every once in a while I’ll run across things which run the risk of being quickly beaten into the ground if I mention them, so I keep quiet about it. Not necessarily because I’m even doing the deal, but because others surely are and I figure I’d just ruin it for them to nobody’s benefit.
As for Vanilla reloads, it looks like they’ve replaced their reliable old website with a buggy new one. Loaded one card successfully, got an error on the second, loaded it to my wife’s card instead and it worked.