Author: admin

Vanilla / OneVanilla / Target Visa Gift Card Problems

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It used to work before, but didn’t work yesterday. Since I found out that ShopDiscover, Discover’s shopping portal, pays out cash back on the purchase of Target Visa GCs, I have purchased many Target Visa GCs. It used to be able to reload American Express BlueBird/Serve with Target Visa GCs at Walmart MoneyCenter Express. But their system has recently updated so that it declines Prepaid gift cards issued by Bancorp, such as Vanilla, OneVanilla, and Target Visa GCs. I also used $100 Target Visa gift cards for purchases of Costco Cash Cards and got cash back at the same time. But now this isn’t available, either.

Visa GCs issued by Bancorp can’t be attached with your name or address. All you can do is to assign Zip code. Since online merchants can’t verify your billing name and address from the cards, many online merchants decline transactions.

So, for what can you use them?

Purchase at stores

You can use it anywhere it accepts Visa, purchase for merchandises that cost less than $100 in total. Depending on stores, you can use multiple GCs for a single transaction. You should ask store clerks at first.

Add to your amazon account

You can add not only Visa prepaid GCs, but also AmEx GCs to your amazon account. You can shop items at amazon.com. If you have “left-over” GCs, like $1.37 or $5.69 left, redeem for amazon e-codes. A great feature of amazon e-codes is that you can choose any amount in increment of as little as 1¢. (As of July 2014, an e-code can be purchase between $0.50 and $2,000.)

Send Via Amazon Payment

Since you can add prepaid GCs to your amazon account, you can send money to your friend, member of your family, or someone you can trust, through Amazon Payment. Unlike PayPal, Amazon Payment doesn’t charge a fee to send money from debit or credit cards. Someone who receives your money either sends back to you through Amazon Payment or withdraws to his or her bank account and then give you back in cash.

Add to your PayPal account

Even if an online merchant declines the card due to being unable to verify a billing name and address, you can pay through PayPal as long as online merchants accepts PayPal payment. Before adding the card to your PayPal account, you should assign Zip code in the website, www.mybalancenow.com. Otherwise, PayPal rejects the card.

Buy merchant gift cards

Unlike bank GCs, such as Visa, MasterCard, or AmEx GCs, merchant gift cards don’t charge a purchase fee. So, you can use up the card without leaving a small amount.

Tips of buying merchant GCs

Depending on stores, you may get a reward on the purchase of merchant GCs. For example, when you buy a $100 BestBuy GC at Stop & Shop supermarket, you will get a fuel reward, which you can save 10¢/gal. Sometimes, there is a promotion. During this promotion, the fuel reward you earn will be multiplied by 3 to 5.

Maximize Shop Your Way Fuel Reward

Kmart has also a fuel reward program. When you buy a $50 merchant GC, you will get a 30¢-off-per-gallon coupon. You can buy (2) $50 GCs with $100 Target Visa GC, but you should make two separate transactions to receive two coupons. If you buy Sears or Kmart GCs, you can use them at Kmart later. If you use the GCs for something that costs $50 or more, you will get another coupon. So, in the end, you will get four coupons out of (1) $100 Target Visa GC.

I needed to come up with these methods because I have many Target Visa GCs right now. My plan was reloading Serve and Walmart MoneyCard with them, and also getting cash back at stores whenever I got a chance. But that is no longer available. I’m not going to order Target Visa GCs anymore unless ShopDiscover has a promotion, or I get a new credit card with sign-up bonus, etc.

New Amex Offer $10 back on $200+ AmEx GC

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$10 credit on $200 amex gcThere is new Amex Offer through July 30, 2014. You will get one-time $10 statement credit when you spend the total of $200 or more on American Express Gift Card. The offer is available online only, www.americanexpress.com/gift-cards.

I have two American Express cards for Amex Offer. One is Blue Cash Preferred, and the other is Serve. However, you can’t use Serve for the purchase of AmEx GCs. They don’t accept Prepaid Cards as a payment.

Please don’t forget to click a link of shopping portal. As of July 1st 2014, the best rate is BeFrugal’s 3% cash back. Once the rate was down to 2.5%, but it slightly went back up.

Visa GCs issued by Bancorp Declined by Walmart MoneyCenter Express

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On June 29th 2014, I went to Walmart MoneyCenter Express (ATM) to reload Serve with the following four gift cards:

  • (1) $500 Visa GC issued by MetaBank, I bought at a grocery store
  • (2) $200 MasterCard GCs issued by U.S. Bank, I bought at Staples
  • (1) $100 Target Visa GC issued by Bancorp, I bought at Target.com

walmart declined target visa gcExcept for a Target Visa GC, the others were successful to reload Serve. I tried twice and also tried to reload another card (Walmart MoneyCard Preferred) with Target Visa GC, but all attempts failed. ATM seemed to recognize the card as a debit card and even prompted me to enter PIN. But, they declined the transaction in the end.

At first, I thought it was a temporary problem. It did happen to me before. A Visa GC had declined one day, but the same GC accepted on the other day. However, after I went home and searched about this on the internet, and I saw the websites here and there. It seems Walmart started being picky on types of debit card for reloading BlueBird/Serve/Walmart MoneyCard.

According to the websites, Vanilla Visa GC and OneVanilla Visa GC are no longer accepted at Walmart ATM. Both GCs are issued by Bankcorp, which also issues Target Visa GCs. Many people experienced the same problem, so probably, these GCs are no longer available for Walmart Swipe Reload.

When I go to Walmart next time, I will give it another try.

Target Visa GC & ShopDiscover w/free shipping on $50+

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free s&h on 50+I received an ad from Target. It seems that Target has new shipping policy, “free shipping on all orders of $50+.” I checked if this is eligible on the purchase of gift cards. I added $100 Target Visa Gift Card to a cart and chose credit card for the payment method. I made sure that it was free shipping. (Just a week ago, I did the same thing, and they charged $1.95 for shipping.)

Now that shipping cost is free, there is nothing for me to stop purchasing Target Visa GC. I used “Discover it” card, and most importantly I entered Target.com through ShopDiscover. I received thanks-for-your-order email, and there is no cancellation email (please read the posts: Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1&2). The next day, I received an email from ShopDiscover. The card arrived a week later.

target visa gc w free s&h

It proved that Target kept cancelling my orders because I used Target GCs as a payment method. I don’t know why they accepted the first order (I used Target GCs for the purchase of Target Visa GC.) Anyway, I won’t do that again. It is not comfortable to receive an email of cancellation right after a check-out.

In this transaction:

  • I paid a purchase fee (-$6.00)
  • I earned 5% cash back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
  • I earned 1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
  • Total +$0.36 profit

This isn’t a lot, but I always redeem Discover’s reward for 20% discounted gift cards, so $6.36 will be worth $7.95 for me. I get $1.95 profit.

Target accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and PayPal. You can convert AmEx GCs into $100 Target Visa GCs for 70¢ per card. AmEx GCs have fewer features than Visa GCs. They don’t have PINs so you can’t get cash back at registers. Once you get Visa GCs, you can load BlueBird/Serve at Walmart and get cash back at registers depending on the stores. Visa GCs are easier to be converted into cash than AmEx GCs.

As I mentioned in the earlier posts, it is a great money maker when it is on 4th quarter of Discover’s promotion (rotating category: online shopping). And if ShopDiscover’s seasonal promotions give additional 5% cash back on purchases at Target.com, that would be so great. Because cash back from ShopDiscover is unlimited, while cash back from rotating categories are capped at $1500 of purchases. And if this happens in 4th quarter, you will get total 15% cash back!!! However, I’m not sure that the cash back rate of Target.com is raised up by 5% in the past. I have never paid attention to it. I will need to keep an eye on the cash back rate of Target.com.

Please note that it seems that Walmart kiosk no longer accepts Target Visa GCs for reloading BlueBird/Serve, read this post for the details.

Attention! Lands End Gift Card not Redeemable at Sears or Kmart

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This first happened to me a month ago (May 2014). I purchased Lands End’s e-codes at Raise.com. I wanted to buy something at Sears.com, but I got an error message “please enter valid card number and PIN.” However, at Land’s End.com, it was valid. I called the number for automated balance inquiry of both Sears and Lands End. It was the same as online. Sears told me invalid number, while Lands End has no problem.

I thought this e-codes were something special that were available only at Lands End. I contacted with Raise and told the problem, and they refunded several days later. Because the e-code I got was not as described in their website. They describe that Lands End gift cards are also available at Sears and Kmart.

Today, I just redeemed my Discover credit reward for Land’s End e-code which is 20% bonus ($25 e-code for $20 reward dollars.) And this e-code also has the same problem. This time, I can’t blame on Discover because terms and condition of Lands End gift cards doesn’t say you can use it at Sears or Kmart. It just says “redeemable at landsend.com and in Lands’ End consumer catalogs, including Home, Women, Men and Kids.” It doesn’t mention about Sears or Kmart at all.

I called Lands End customer center. They told me Lands End gift cards (LEGCs) were redeemable at Sears and Kmart, and I saw an error message because of a problem in the website. So I called Sears customer center. They told terms and condition of LEGC has changed, and LEGCs are no longer redeemable at Sears or Kmart.

This problem, however, affect on newer LEGCs. I have several LEGCs that I got a few month ago, and they don’t show an error message when I enter numbers at Sears.com. Something in common is that some LEGCs that I got recently can’t use at Sears.com or Kmart.com.

What about in store? My local Sears has Lands End inside. There is no partition. All cashiers look the same. I guess it doesn’t matter which gift cards (Sears/Kmart/Lands End) you use in my local Sears. I went to Sears to make sure. I showed a print-out of e-code to a store clerk at a cashier of the tool section, which is clearly not Lands End. The clerk told me it was redeemable at only Lands End section. I mentioned that I used to use lots of LEGCs at Sears and Kmart, both in store and online. The clerk said “About a month ago, the rule of LEGCs has changed. Now, LEGCs are redeemable at Lands End section only.”

However, you can use Sears and Kmart gift cards at Land End. And I verified that old LEGCs (that is more than a month old) continue to use at Sears and Kmart.

I have redeemed Discover’s reward for LEGCs all the time, but I won’t do it anymore. That’s because I don’t shop any Lands End’s products. I have been using LEGCs for purchases at Sears and Kmart. Fortunately, I only redeemed $20 (and got $25 of LEGC) today. I have over $700 reward right now. Thank God, I didn’t redeem all of it.

From now on, I will redeem Discover’s reward for Sears or Kmart gift cards which are offered by 10% discount, or Staples gift cards which are offered by 20% discount. But Staples GCs are only a denomination of $25 and physical card only.

lands end gift card not accepted at sears kmartAnyway, if you use gift cards to save money on purchases at Sears or Kmart, you’d better avoid purchasing LEGCs. At least, LEGCs from Discover’s reward redemption is no longer good for Sears and Kmart. And gift card exchange sites, such as Cardpool, ABC Gift Cards, you will need to confirm that LEGCs are redeemable at Sears and Kmart. At eBay auction, it is the same, you should contact the seller and make sure of it before bidding. And one more thing, if you see a picture on the right in eBay listing, it is a great chance that the item is “NEW LEGC”, meaning that you can’t use at Sears or Kmart. It will be clear if you ask the seller about it, though.

Take precautions when purchasing Lands End Gift Cards!!!

Switching Chase ink from MasterCard to Visa for Visa SavingsEdge

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I applied for Chase business credit card called “ink Cash” in June 2013. The card has MasterCard logo on it. Almost at the same time, Chase changed the version of ink credit card from MasterCard to Visa. If you applied for ink credit card after July 2013, your card is probably Visa version.

The best benefit of ink credit cards is that you can earn 5% cash back or 5x reward points on the purchase at office supply stores, such as Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max. And Staples is one of merchants for another cash back program called Visa SavingsEdge. You can get 1% cash back on purchases of $200 or more at Staples, both in store and online.

visa savingsedge staples offer

When you buy $200 Visa or MasterCard gift card at Staples with a Visa-version ink credit card, you will get 1% cash back in addition to 5% cash back or 5x reward points from Chase Ultimate Reward. This offer is available through 12/31/2014. I couldn’t get this offer because my ink credit card is MasterCard version. To get this offer, I considered applying another ink credit card so I would get a Visa-version ink. However, in the last six months, I applied many credit cards and wanted to recover my credit score. So, I headed to a Chase bank and asked if they could change my ink card from MasterCard to Visa without affecting my credit score.

After a bank teller had spoken on the phone with a credit company for a few minutes, the teller told me I could and would receive a new card (Visa-version) by mail in 7 to 10 business days. Ten days later, I received a new one. Before I received the new card, Chase had transferred my account, balance, etc to the new card, so I couldn’t use my old ink (MasterCard-version) for several days. If you switch your card from MasterCard to Visa, you should go shopping before asking Chase.

ink credit card from mastercard to visa

Card numbers are changed, and expiration date is one year extended. A color of ink Cash credit card is sliver. MasterCard logo on ink card was red and orange, while Visa’s is shiny silver. Now my ink Cash credit card looks very plain and dull.

American Express for Target Reviews

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american express for targetSince I started saving money by using gift cards, I always check a rack of gift cards in every store I visit. In Target, I found something different from other gift cards. It’s called American Express for Target. Its package is relatively big and large. It says, “$3 Loads & ATMS, NO OTHER FEES”

AmEx for Target is not a gift card, but Reloadable Prepaid Card. Key features are the following:

  • Reloadable by credit card
  • Withdraw cash at ATM
  • No monthly fee

You can directly reload the card with your credit cards at Target stores. This was very appealing. I thought it would help my manufactured spending. And there is no monthly fee. So, I just bought it without simulating a usage of this card. I tried to come up with a method for manufacture spending, but it seems AmEx for Target is not for those who are collecting cash back or travel reward. Because the fee is inevitable.

$3 Fee for Reload

Online, you can load the card from your bank account, and there is no fee. However, if you want to load with your credit or debit cards, you will need to go to Target store and have them swiped. They charge $3 fee. The amount of each load is from $0.01 to $1,000. If your credit card has a great reward program, it may be worth it, but when you take money out of the card, they also charge a fee.

$3 ATM Fee

You can withdraw up to $400 per week. The first withdrawal in each calendar month is free, and later $3 fee per withdrawal. This fee is charged by AmEx. The ATM owner fee is charged on every withdrawal. The website says the maximum withdrawal is $400, but the paper included the package says $200 max. I don’t know why. It may be because of the place I live or buy. But, it doesn’t matter $200 or $400, every withdrawal cost and reduce the value of the reward points you earned when loading the card with a credit card.

No Amex offer, No Target offer

Unlike American Express Serve, the card can’t sync with Amex offers. I expected some special features when you shopped at Target with the card, but there is nothing. It is just Target sells the cards and reload them. That’s it.

Conclusion

AmEx for Target may be good for those who want to use it in a plain way, meaning that simply you don’t want to carry cash, or parents want to control and watch their children’s spending, etc. But it’s not recommended to people who don’t have a bank account. No fee when you load the card online from your bank account, but whether you load the card with cash or check, you have to go to Target and pay $3 fee per load. As long as you use the card on purchases at stores or online, there is no fee. Loading from your bank account and spending at stores or online charge no fee, and there is no monthly fee, either. American Express for Target is a great item for those who use it in a simple way, but it can’t be used for manufactured spending.

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 2/2

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I have received the second email from ShopDiscover. Now for sure, cash back is available for the purchase of Target Visa GCs. I added one Target Visa GC and tried to check out with Discover it card. Then I knew I was completely unaware of shipping cost. It is eligible of free shipping  when you purchase with REDcard, and when checking out with Target GCs they didn’t charge shipping cost, either. Anyway, they charge $1.95 for shipping, if I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it card:

  • Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
  • Pay shipping cost (-$1.95)
  • 5% cash back from ShopDiscover ($5.30 <– $106 x 0.05 not applied for shipping)
  • 1% cash back from Discover ($1.08)
  • Total $1.57 loss

Shipping cost is the same, $1.95 if you order five gift cards. But still, the total of cash back doesn’t cover purchase fee and shipping cost. It is not worth a try. Now my choice is to give up or find a way to buy Target Visa GCs with Target GCs. Why did the first transaction go through? Why did the second and third attempts also go through, but cancel a minute later? The following I can come up with:

  • My account is blocked because of the first purchase made with Target GCs
  • The second purchase is too close from the day of the first one
  • I clicked ShopDiscover’s link

Maybe my account is blocked. I had the same experience on Sears purchases. I ordered and checked out something at Sears.com. They cancelled my orders right after sending thank-you-for-your-order emails. My Sears account was blocked becasue I used SYW Max program, which is free shipping on almost all items for $79 a year, for my eBay business. I dropshipped tons of items to customers on eBay for more than 6 months. Sears detected and blocked my account.

But. what I bought at Target.com is only $100 gift card. I don’t think it is a big problem. The first purchase is 2 weeks ago. Again, it is only one $100 gift card I bought. The details on the page of  Target Visa GC says “Limit on number of cards purchased.” It can’t be you can buy only one gift card a month.

The emails telling me that the order was cancelled is exactly one minute after a check-out. It seems to be automated. They don’t want to give cash back on the purchase of gift cards, so maybe they set to cancel the orders checked out through ShopDiscover. This may be the cause of cancellation. To find the answer, I made another attempt. I clicked a link on Coupay.com and checked out (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Target GCs.

It wouldn’t go through. Just like previous two orders, I received a confirmation email and then cancellation email. This time, however, things got worse. The refund are almost instanly come back to my gift cards on previous orders, but it didn’t on this order. What’s more, I couldn’t see the balance of gift cards, either. There was an error message when I tried to check the balance of gift cards.

The next day, it was available to get access to the balance of gift cards and I confirmed money was refunded. The series of incident scares me. I will no longer try to buy Visa GCs with Target GCs. The reason of cancellations hasn’t been clear yet, but I don’t want to risk losing money of Target GCs.

What I got from the experience is ShopDiscover will probably pay out  on the purchase of Target Visa GCs. You can make profit when ShopDiscover has a promotion. During the promotion, some retailers cash back rate are added up by 5%.  I’m not sure if there is a promotion that cash back rate of Target.com goes up to 10%. So, I will need to check every time ShopDiscover has a promotion. And using 4th quarter of Discover it card promotion, 5% cash back on all online shopping, will also make profit. (This promotion is limited on the total purchase of $1500, so it is better to use it for somewhere else, though)

Updated in June, 2014, Target introduced new shipping policy. All orders of $50 or more are eligible free shipping. With this new offer, I finally purchased Target Visa Gift Card with a credit card.

American Express Gift Card Portal Rate Down

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After the end of promotion for Father’s Day (there was a code to waive a purchase fee through June 16th 2014), a rate of online shopping portal for American Express Gift Card is down on most portals. The highest rate had been 4% cash back from Lucky Rewards, and the rate is now significantly lowered to 1%. Fuel Rewards Network had been 2x, which was equivalent to 4% cash back, and it is now 1x (equivalent to 2%).

2.5 percent cash back on the purchase of amex gcAs of June 20th, the best rate is 2.5% cash back from BeFrugal.com. Until better rates become available, I will keep using BeFrugal for the purchase of AmEx GCs. BeFrugal online portal is very reliable. I had been using for other retailers, and it seems I will use for AmEx GCs for a while. I even respect for their showing cash back terms of each retailers very clearly. None of other portals bother to describe terms and conditions as detailed as BeFrugal does.

To compare the rates of cash back or travel point, you can use these sites

http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/

http://www.cashbackholic.com/

How you use these sites is the same, type a name of retainers and click search and they show lists of available portals and rates. It is better to check on both sites. Because rates are constantly changing, and sometimes they can’t keep up with changes. They may show different rates, miss some portals, etc. In fact, as of today, I can’t find Befrugal on cashbackholic.com when I searched the rate for AmEx GC. On the other hand, you don’t see ShopDiscover on cashbackmonitor.com on the default search result.

I hope the rate will go back to 4% or better soon.

Experiment on BeFrugal.com Cash Back from Cardpool

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BeFrugal.com is one of my favorite online portals. It is very reliable and clear about cash back rules for each retailer. It has over 4000 retailers including some gift card exchange sites such as Cardpool, CardCash, and Raise.com. I have been earning 2% cash back on the purchases of gift cards from them without any problems, but one day I didn’t receive one from Cardpool. Apparently, I reached the limit. Here is the rule of cash back from Cardpool.

  • Terms & Exclusions for Cardpool:
  • 2% Cash Back on Purchase of a Gift Card
  • 4% Cash Back on Sale of A Gift Card to Cardpool
  • Cash Back only available for the first $1000 in transactions from your Cardpool account (this includes all history in your Cardpool account)

I had bought a lot of gift cards from Cardpool before I knew of BeFrugal.com. I haven’t earned the full cash back ($20 to $40) on the total purchases of $1000, but it stopped giving cash back. That means it doesn’t matter if you earned the full cash back, once the total purchases from Cardpool hit $1000, you won’t get cash back from them anymore.

befrugal com cash back from cardpool

I carried out an experiment: If I open a new account at Cardpool.com, will I get cash back on the purchase of another $1000? I use a different email address and set a password. That’ it. And then I bought some gift cards from Cardpool through a link of BeFrugal.com. I can’t change my address. I even used the same payment method.

Success! It is still pending, but cash back showed up in my account.

befrugal cash back cardpool

CardCash.com has the same rule for cash back. Once it hit the total purchases of $1000, I will open a new account and see if cash back is available on another purchase of $1000. Raise.com doesn’t have a description about the limit. So, probably cash back from Raise is unlimited.

All you need is a different email address. In this way, you can practically earn unlimited cash back from Cardpool and CardCash.