Less useful Vanilla
Update: Many people have reported that Vanilla Visa gift cards do still work at Walmart when loading in denominations of $49.99 or less.
In the last day or two, reports have poured in from readers telling me that Vanilla Visa gift cards no longer work as debit cards at Walmart registers. Even people experienced with the “change payment fast” technique have been unable to load Bluebird cards or perform any other transactions at the register requiring debit payments. My understanding is that this problem is limited to Vanilla brand gift cards (including One Vanilla). As far as I know, other brands still work.
Speaking of other brands…
Doctor of Credit reports that MetaBank gift cards are available online in denominations up to $1,500. These could be very useful since the fees as a percent of total can be very low. Travel with Grant offered some important cautions, however:
Some more info as I’ve bought 4 of these cards over the last few months:
Bank of America and Chase cards run as purchases.
Citi and US Bank run as cash advances.
Customer service sucks, took 2 weeks to receive a card to CA and I called to say the card was lost in the mail and they charged me $5 to send a replacement.
I believe you can ACH the funds off the card via PayPal and Bluebird, but they don’t like that.
Personally this card isn’t worth the hassle and wait times to save a few bucks, I’d rather go to CVS and Walmart and do my MS in under 20 minutes than bother with MetaBank.
Amex Gift Card rebates down to 2.5%
Amex gift cards can’t be used as debit cards, but they can be better than free when shopping through online portals. For a while recently, we’ve been spoiled with 4X points, or 4% cash back, but in the past few days the top rates dropped first to 3% then to 2.5% (via BeFrugal). Mileage portals have dropped to only 1 mile per dollar. I wouldn’t go for the 1X options, but at 2.5% cash back I’m still a buyer. I’m not as enthusiastic of a buyer as before, but I need to get my money’s worth after signing up for a year of free shipping 
. Please also see: Everything you ever wanted to know about Amex gift cards.
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Tried loading regular Visa debits cards (purchased at the supermarket) today at WM. The message on the terminal said “alternative form of payment required. Woman at the counter said they had recently upgraded their system.
[…] a little research you should be able to find options that work for you. One example is that Vanilla Visa cards no longer work as debit cards at Walmart, but continue to work elsewhere. More information and many useful resources can be found in […]
The Resurrection has come
Greg, is there an easy alternative to vanilla visa at CVS that we can still load at WM?
Jonathan, I’m not sure about CVS, but many other stores carry Visa and MasterCard gift cards that are not Vanilla brand.
GCM VISA GCs are not vanilla, correct?
Correct
IMHO, You are reading to much into this. Bancorp is in trouble with the FDIC. They are working towards an agreement but are currently suspended from shipping anymore OV or VGC. This Pseudo bank created by WM and AMEX is way to important and profitable to both companies so they have decided to suspend doing business with Bancorp. This may or may not be permanent. Bancorp One Vanilla products continue to work just about everywhere else. In fact, WM continues to accept these as payment for purchases at the register.
“but are currently suspended from shipping anymore OV or VGC”
There is no suspension. CVS has continued to get shipments over the past 2 months.
I was able to load my BB with $200 Visa, the past 3 days at 1k each. This may be slowly rolling out to each store and will eventually hit mine I assume.
My Walmart has already shut it down. We don’t have a kiosk. But Customer Service said they were told no more cards onto Bluebird. I may have to try a few more stores.
I’m stuck with $2500 of Vanilla Visas I’m trying to unload. I’ve heard from several sources that the gift cards from Meta Bank and US Bank are still working at Walmart. I’ll use the Staples gift cards and the Vanilla Visas with Evolve Money.
There are other ways besides Evolve. Some grocery stores will not check and you can use your cards to buy Money Orders.
Is there any other way to use credit cards to load my BB account?
Thanks.
Yes: 1) buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards (but not the Vanilla brand cards) with a credit card; 2) Setup the PIN (usually by calling); 3) Use gift card at Walmart as a debit card to reload BB. Caution: Walmart could shut down other gift cards at any time.
I tried to load BB with one vanilla card at kiosk this morning and it didn’t work….
Thanks for the info on the kiosk.
Let’s be clear here. No one is left holding the bag. There are plenty of ways to liquidate these Vanilla Visas, even if you can’t do it at Walmart anymore. Try Amazon payments or Evolve Money, or I don’t know, spend it on actual purchases. Quit with the drama people.
There are way too many people asking questions that show they have jumped in without knowing the rules and/or weighing the risks. If you cant afford to float the $$$ if there is a bump in the road don’t play the game. Sad.
Pretty sure this blog is here to teach and help others learn. If everyone knew it all what would be the point? I don’t understand all you negative people. If you’re so afraid this people talking here will hurt you in some way then why don’t you bash the author instead of the readers? Which I don’t support as I think he does a great thing.
Many people have followed the bloggers like lemmings and are know holding the bag. Yet, they gave the bloggers lots of $$ through affiliate link clicks, so I am sure the bloggers are doing fine right now.
Devon when I see someone talk about going to USPS and get MO’s this means that person is new in this game. Educate yourself before jumping in and ASSUMING something.
Tony, while I’m apparently not as GREAT as you I MS over $50k a month so I think I’m not NEW to the game. Thanks for the condescending comment. Most people are here to help each other as no one is an expert on everything in the MS game. Hopefully someone who knows how to respect others and appreciate that they once didn’t know everything about a subject will assist me. I didn’t realize we were all supposed to be all-knowing.
Devon, no need to be so sensitive and defensive. Your usps comment was indeed revealing.
First, there was no need for a condescending comment to me or anyone. I just don’t understand the need to do that to anyone on here. Someone could post a mistake fare in the comments and while I wouldn’t approve I wouldn’t talk down to them nor support someone who did.
Second, this blog and many others are revealing so I don’t see why people flip when someone says something in the comments. If the owner of the blog didn’t want us talking openly comments would be moderated, not posted instantly.
The usps comment was revealing in the sense that it revealed you are narrow.
Alli, so you were able to successfully load using the non vanilla GC?
yep Kevin. Finally!
I loaded a non-Vanilla Visa Gift card today $500 at the customer service center at Wmart. Purchased at a grocery store, drove over to WM and tried to load in at the kiosk..no go. Went to customer service counter—no go. went to car and called # on back of GC and was told that the card was not properly activated and I would have to send mountains of paperwork in to them. Drove back to grocery store and they called and got it “properly loaded”. Drove back to WM and tried the kiosk–no go. Went to customer service counter and they got it loaded to BB. Issue today was inept clerk who originally “loaded” my card. Was chgd $500 and one receipt did said it was loaded on but it wasn’t done correctly. But there were a few moments I thought WM had screwed me over and changed their systems again.