September 26, 2012
Vanilla Reload cards are the key to earning 5X everywhere. They can be purchased at many Office Depot stores with Chase Ink cards which give 5X for office supply purchases. Once purchased, the value on the card can be loaded onto a reloadable prepaid card. When you use the reloadable prepaid card for day to day spend, you indirectly earn 5X everywhere.
I originally described the 5X everywhere trick in the post “One card to rule them all.” In that post I described how to use Vanilla Reload cards in conjunction with American Express Prepaid cards. The great thing about the Amex cards is that they have almost no fees. There are no activation fees, no monthly fees, no foreign transaction fees, etc. The only fee they charge is a $2 ATM withdrawal fee after the first free withdrawal each month. On the negative side, American Express cards are not accepted by all merchants. Also, the American Express card cannot be used as a debit card for PIN based transactions.
Other prepaid cards
The Vanilla Reload website shows several participating cards: NetSpend, Mio, Momentum, and MyVanilla. American Express and PayPal cards also participate in the network, but are not pictured.
In June I wrote about the NetSpend card (see “NetSpend challenges the throne”) and touted it as a potentially great alternative to the Amex cards. Shortly afterwards, though, NetSpend closed my account without warning or explanation (see “We’re sorry, there is a problem with your account”). Since then, other compatible cards have become available and I’ve had some time to research them.
Prepaid cards compared
The tables below summarize the fees and limits of each prepaid card that can be loaded with a Vanilla Reload card:
Fees:
|
|
Credit transaction |
Debit transaction |
ATM withdrawal |
Foreign Xchange |
Other fees of note |
| Amex Prepaid | $0 | $0 | $2 (first per month free) | $0 | No other fees! |
| MyVanilla Visa | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.95 | 3.5% | $3.95 per month inactivity fee after 90 days; |
| NetSpend MasterCard or Visa | $1 | $2 | $2.50 | 3.5% | Monthly plans available to eliminate per transaction fees. $1 per check bill payment. |
| PayPal MasterCard | $0 | $0 | $1.95 | 2.5% | $4.95 mandatory monthly fee |
| Momentum Visa | $1 | $1 | $2 | 3% | Optional $10 per month plan eliminates per use fees. $10 Activation fee. |
| Mio MasterCard | $0 (update: now customers are being charged $0.50) | $0.50 | $1.50 | ? | Fees published online and in cardholder agreement are inaccurate. $2.95 purchase fee (in store). |
Limits:
|
|
Per day load via Vanilla Reload |
Maximum balance |
ATM withdrawal max per day |
| Amex Prepaid | $1000 | $2500 | $400 |
| MyVanilla | $2,500 | $9,999 | $400 |
| NetSpend | $7,500 | $15,000 | $940 |
| PayPal | $2,500 | $15,000 | $940 |
| Momentum | $2,500 | $10,000 | $1000 |
| Mio | $2,500 | $9,999 | ? |
A deeper look at each card
American Express Prepaid: This is by far the most consumer friendly of the reloadable cards in this roundup. With almost no fees, there is no reason not to get one (or three). Amazingly it also comes with perks such as roadside assistance and 90 day purchase protection! The main downsides are: 1) American Express cards are not accepted everywhere; 2) They cannot be used as debit cards; and 3) A maximum of $2500 may be loaded to the card in a 28 day period. Best use for card: ATM access, day to day spend, foreign transactions (including ATM withdrawals). How to get the card: Order online.
MyVanilla: I wouldn’t recommend using this for day to day spend since you will be charged 50 cents per transaction. Also, I don’t like the $3.95 per month inactivity fee. Best use for card: The only reasonable use for this card is to do very few, very large transactions. For example, load up the card and use it to pay estimated taxes each quarter (see “How to pay Federal taxes with a Vanilla Visa” for an example of how to pay taxes with a debit card). This way, you can use the card often enough to avoid inactivity fees, but won’t incur too many transaction fees. Warning: With this type of activity there’s always a good chance that you’re account will be shut down just as mine was with the NetSpend card. How to get the card: Order online.
NetSpend: This one has even higher fees than the MyVanilla card. Charging $1 for credit transactions and $2 for debit transactions is ridiculous. However, they do have a couple of monthly payment plans that eliminate the per transaction fees. Of course, that doesn’t help much if NetSpend shuts down your account (which has happened to almost everyone I’ve talked to). Best use for card: Load the card slowly (no more than $500 per week) since quick loads seem to trigger account shutdowns. Use the $1 Bill Pay feature to cash out by paying bills that cannot otherwise be paid by credit card (or send the check to yourself). Be prepared to be shut down, whatever you do. After you are shut down, NetSpend will mail you a check for the balance, but beware that sometimes it takes a very long time to get the check. How to get the card: Order online.
PayPal: This card has a mandatory $4.95 monthly fee, but then free credit and debit transactions. This card belongs to the Allpoint Network so while the card itself charges $1.95 for ATM withdrawals, you won’t get another fee from the ATM operator if you go to an Allpoint Network ATM. Note that the PayPal card is administered by NetSpend so this card may be just as likely to be shut down as the NetSpend card (but I don’t know that for sure). Best use for card: Use this one for day to day spend (you might as well get your money’s worth for the monthly fee), ATM withdrawals at Allpoint ATMs, and any PIN based debit transactions you care to make (for example, when getting groceries, take out extra cash for no charge as part of the grocery purchase). How to get the card: Order online.
Momentum: Like the NetSpend card, this card offers a choice of paying a monthly fee or per-use credit and debit transaction fees. The main advantage I see to this card is that it can optionally be linked to a Momentum savings account which appears to have a very good interest rate (but I haven’t examined it in depth). Best use for card: Very few, very large debit transactions (unless you sign up for the monthly plan). How to get card: You must show up in person with ID at a participating store.
Mio: Next to the Amex cards, the Mio is my favorite. I’ve been using one for over two months now without any problems. The Mio has no monthly fee and no per transaction credit fee. It is part of the Allpoint ATM Network, so ATM withdrawals cost me only $1.50 all-in when I use an Allpoint ATM. The card does charge 50 cents per debit transaction so I’ve done very few of those, but it comes in very handy to have this as an option. The weird thing about this card is that the fee information that comes in the package and that is available online is flat out wrong (at the time of this writing). Their FAQ mentions all kinds of fees that don’t exist. So, finding out the real fees for various transactions can be difficult. That’s why I left a question mark in the table above regarding the Mio card’s foreign transaction fee. I simply don’t feel that I can trust the information available. Lastly, I should mention that when I called the MyVanilla card number to ask about that card’s fees I was told that the Mio would soon have new fees. I don’t know if I can trust what they said (I hope not!), but it is something to watch out for. Best use for card: Allpoint ATM withdrawals; day to day credit spend; occasional large debit purchases. How to get the card: Buy the card at a participating store, then call to activate the card. They will send you a second card with your name on it (and the second card will share the balance of the first card).
UPDATE 10/2/2012: readers are reporting that the Mio now charges 50 cents for each credit transaction. This makes the Mio equal to the MyVanilla, which is not surprising since they are run by the same company.
Summary
The American Express Prepaid card and the Mio MasterCard top my list of favorite prepaid reloadable cards. Neither card has a monthly fee, nor do they charge for credit transactions. Both provide means for inexpensive ATM withdrawals. I prefer the Amex for foreign use (no foreign transaction fee), but since it’s not accepted everywhere I always also carry a no foreign exchange fee MasterCard or Visa when travelling internationally. I like that the Mio has larger load limits than the Amex, and that it can be used for debit transactions when needed. I am worried that Mio fees may change for the worse at some point, but for now it is my go-to card for use domestically.
The main problem with the Mio is that it is not available everywhere and cannot be ordered online. You can look for participating stores here or simply visit a local Dollar General store as they tend to carry them. If you’re unable to get a Mio, but still want an option other than the Amex, consider going with the PayPal card. If you use it often enough, you may find that it is worth the $4.95 monthly fee. And, since debit transactions are free with this card, you can take out cash when you pay by debit at large retail stores. This way, you may make up for the $4.95 fee simply by avoiding ATM charges. Note, though, that the PayPal card is administered by NetSpend, so you may not like that option if you’re not a fan of NetSpend.
UPDATE 10/2/2012: readers are reporting that the Mio now charges 50 cents for each credit transaction. This makes the Mio equal to the MyVanilla, which is not surprising since they are run by the same company.
LIMITATIONS AND WARNINGS
PLEASE READ THIS!!!!
- Chase has been known to completely shut down all of a person’s accounts when they think they may be a bad credit risk or when they suspect ‘perk abuse’. If you put all of your spend in this one category (and this one store), you will be asking for trouble! Please see my write-up here: ‘Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself.’
- The Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards are limited to $50K in purchases per year for the 5X benefit. The Ink Cash and Ink Classic are each limited to $25K. As a result, there is no reason for anyone to purchase more than $4K per month of the refill cards with the Ink Bold/Plus, or $2K per month with the other Ink cards. Even that amount may be too high if you have a high credit card utilization ratio or if you do not have a long and positive credit history. I consider $4K per month to be the upper limit anyone should attempt, but that does not mean $4K per month is safe. You need to evaluate your own situation and establish spending patterns that you are sure will not trigger alarms with Chase.
- Watch out for American Express too! As I detailed above, suspicious ATM activity is a sure way to get flagged and shut down. American Express has extremely sophisticated fraud detection systems. Don’t do anything to draw attention to you!
- Prepaid cards are primarily targeted towards people without checking accounts or credit cards. As a result, large value loads and withdrawals will look suspicious to the issuing bank and may lead to your account getting shut down. Be prepared to wait 6 weeks or more to get your money back if this happens.
- Don’t be greedy, please. Even if you only put $1000 per month onto one of these cards, you will earn 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points per year! That’s a lot! If you use this trick in moderation then you should be safe to earn huge numbers of points, year after year, without fear of bank retaliation. If you go too far, you will get shut down. If many people take this too far, the whole deal may get shut down.
Related posts and links
- One card to rule them all
- How to sign-up for the Ink Bold (also works for other Ink cards)
- Where to buy Vanilla Reload Cards
- NetSpend challenges the throne
- We’re sorry, there is a problem with your account
- MyVanilla finally appears
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The biggest problem with the Vanilla/AMEX card is finding the reloadable cards at Office Depot. It’s very difficult these days, at least in my area.
if you use american express prepaid card, every ATM i tried charge $3 fee for the cash withdraw. Is there any way to avoid that fee? Thanks!
yes, Askia, yesterday I went to 5 office depot, all sold out and no one know whether they will get new supply. I am in bay area.
I am drooling all over on the Amex Blue Preferred with 6% rebate at grocery stores where some of them let you charge Visa Gift card $500 face with $5.95.
Does anybody know if any supermarket let you buy vanila reloads and take Amex?
Also I would avoid any 505.95 charges and like to keep the charge below 500 ( ie pay $10 and charge 495.95) to stay under Rada. Of course I would not do too much and too often
Readers should be aware that the Paypal card is administered by Netspend.
Sadly the Vanilla gig is dying most likely due to fraud as opposed to point exploitation.
On the AMEX Prepaid, it was my understanding that you can have 3 cards. Really though one should exercise a little discretion taking advantage of this loophole.
Note to FM – When you repost this strategy I feel you should point out a warning that overdoing it could get you potentially shut down by Chase for perk abuse. I know you have done so in the past but it is worth repeating.
I feel like the reload cards are just something you guys made up and there are hidden cameras inside OD so you can laugh at me scouring the GC rack. I’ve never actually seen one of these in the wild. You’d think Vanilla would do a better job getting these stocked.
Could I buy Vanilla reloads with my amex card ( to meet min spend). Then load them onto my amex prepaid. And them pay my taxes via the amex prepaid card (debit) to PAY USA Taxes for the $3.49 debit charge
Thanks, FM, for the breakdown. Couple of questions:
1) Fees to purchase each option should be included in evaluation
2) Mio method of load and reload. It appears that all loads/reloads must occur at load centers and that by phone is not an option.. Can you confirm?
@fauxblogger – regarding #2 – I’m not sure about loading by phone, but you can reload Mio going thru vanillareload.com. Initial load must be done when you buy the card at a reload center.
Also, I believe $400 is the ATM limit on Mio.
@Tim – sometimes you have to look around. At the downtown chicago OD, they were on their own display on another floor from the regular gift card rack.
Askia: Agreed. Hopefully they’ll start carrying these at other office supply stores too. That would help a lot!
steven: Every ATM operator sets their own fees. Some people have reported that the ATMs at Costco charge only $1.50 (I don’t know if that’s true at all Costco’s though). Some credit unions have no fees.
Stoughton: Right. Good point. I’ll add in a little note about that.
Dan: I wouldn’t say the gig is dying as much as it is getting increasingly more difficult as more and more Office Depot stores either stop carrying them or require cash. Many people (including myself) have continued to buy them without issue in our areas. Regarding potential shutdown, good point. I’ll add something in.
Tim: I know how frustrating it must be for those of you who live in areas that don’t sell these! Out of curiosity, do the Office Depot stores in your area sell Vanilla Visa cards?
neal: Almost right. You could buy Vanilla reloads with your Amex card and then load them onto one of the non-Amex cards listed here. Then you can use them to pay taxes for $3.49. Amex Prepaids don’t work as debit cards
A bit off topic… The roadside assistance provided by the AMEX is just that. Assitance. They’ll make a phone call for you to get a tow or something but that’s as far as it goes. They don’t PAY for it like the Auto Club does.
fauxblogger: Good point about purchase/activation fees. I believe only the Mio and Momentum card have activation fees. The Mio is $2.95. The Momentum is $10. Loading the Mio works the same as all of the other cards in this roundup: buy Vanilla Reload cards and get on the web to vanillareload.com to move the value of the reload card to the prepaid card.
Bill N: Thanks for the info!
I’ve updated the post with Mio and Momentum activation fees; a note about PayPal being administered by NetSpend, and warnings about the trouble caused if you overdo this stuff. Thanks for the suggestions!
patrick: Really? That stinks. I see that you’re right about that. Bad Amex!
still using my Netspend card everyday. I’ve only done one money order, no bill pay or routing number payments, but am occasionally getting cash back from grocery stores. nothing fancy just slow and steady.
What is the price of the Mio card? Is it available at OD? Do you buy it blank and then purchase the reloads separately? Thanks
Thanks for quick response, FM.. For a sanity check, assuming 2 $500 reload fees @3.95 per, 2.95 activation fee and 1 .50 debit charge, on the first $1000 in spend, these points are costing around 2/10 of 1 cent. Even less per $1000 afterwards .
opened the AMEX Prepaid 2 months ago. Bought small purchases plus 1k GC from Sears. Took out $400 per month using ATM. Plan to do this for another 2 months. Will this be suspicious activity for a shut down?
also, don’t believe what OD tells you on the phone. I called 7 OD in my area and everyone said NO availability of Vanilla Reload. Went to 2 stores the next day and found at least 7 cards on shelve
Rick Ingersoll: Great! I’m glad to hear of at least one person still keeping their NetSpend account alive! Slow and steady is definitely the way to do this.
james: You have to find a store that sells the Mio. It is not sold at OD. Look at Dollar General. You need to load at least $20 in cash and pay the $2.95 fee at the store.
fauxblogger: Yes, it’s incredibly cheap. Just don’t overdo it!
justatraveler: That sounds safe to me (I do at least that), but no one really knows the safe limits. Thanks for the tip about not believing them on the phone. I don’t think anyone is lying when you call, but its definitely the case that they don’t understand these cards or have a good way of checking whether they’re in stock. In fact, even if they are empty on the display rack, many people have had success in asking the store manager who has found some in “the back”.
My netspend was also shut down last week. You really need to keep tabs on it since they do not tell you it’s closed. You only find out when yo try to use it or log on to your account. I guess I loaded too much on it in one day. That being said everyone who is still considering getting it should know it a rogue company with extremely poor customer service.
smitty06: thanks for the tip, I’ll look around
FM: yeah they have the vanilla visa, both the pre-paid debit and the straight GC ones, which I have purchased, and there is a spot on the GC rack for them to put the reloads, just has been empty for months.
FM- Somehow I think OD is discouraging folks from buying them for whatever reason. On all 7 phone calls, I asked the CSR to specifically check on the GC rack for the Vanilla Reload and all of them would tell me they have the Vanilla Gift cards and NOT the Vanilla Reload….or could be they don’t know know what to look for on the racks
Northern VA ODs are all out of vanilla reload cards. Where else can these be purchased in Wash DC area?
A few other tips/points to add:
Netspend – when they close you down, you will not have access to your transaction history. I –highly- recommend you keep track via some means (spreadsheet, screen shot, etc)
Paypal – offers text alerts which work very well to monitor your activity and keep a record of your transactions
AMEX Prepaid – also offers a very nice text alert system. I find this a very useful way to not only keep track of your balance and spending but to also have a record of your transaction should there be a problem down the road (ref Netspend)
Mio: No alerts I can find, but you can DL your transaction history
Did anybody try routing number payments with NetSpend? Would it be the same routing and account number as they show on the direct deposit form?
FM, would you recommend getting the Mio or the NetSpend to make a largish (~10K) tax payment towards 2013? Will both get processed as debit cards?
Eugene – Yes, and that’ll get you shut down quickly
If you know of a place near our neighborhood to get the Mio card please let me know!
This is a post I will save in Evernote. You should be proud of that as not many get entered there;-)
I think you should a quarterly update of these prepaid cards with…new developments which I expect with increased competition in this area. I think I am dreaming we will ever see signing bonuses with prepaid cards…but ya never know!
MidTierStatus: Good point. Yes, it does seem that loading the NetSpend card quickly is a sure way to get shut down.
justatraveler: I just think they’re clueless about those cards
Titan limousine: Please move the question of where to get reload cards to this post: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2012/06/22/where-to-buy-vanilla-reload-cards/
Stoughton: Great suggestions. Thanks!
Eugene: Yes it is the same, but when people do that they get shut down
Amnesiac: All cards in this roundup except the Amex can be processed as debit cards for tax payments. However, if you suddenly do a large payment like that there is a very high risk of getting shut down. Option 1: simply accept that you’ll get shut down and move your business to a different card afterwards; Option 2: use one of these cards (like the Mio) for day to day spend for many months before trying this. Maybe if you have a history with them they won’t shut you down. Option 3: Split your tax payments across multiple cards to limit your risk
gpapadop: I’m honored! NetSpend and Amex have both run signup bonuses of a sort. With NetSpend if you use a referral you can get $20 free once you load the card. With Amex, they run similar promotions sporadically. So, yes, signup bonuses are real (but not real big). Since these cards don’t cause credit pulls, though, small signup bonuses are still great!
Is this only useful for Ink holders? Or might it ever be worthwhile for 1x spend?
1 – MyVanilla, Mio and Momentum are all run by the same company, so don’t think you can go crazy by getting all 3. Again, it’s important to realize this has nothing to do with the issuing bank, but the actual organization that manages these cards.
2 – Look into Reload-it cards. Check out their website for a local retailer. They come in $950 sizes for $3.95, half the cost. You would only buy them at a grocery/drug store, but they’re great for initial spend and many cards that use these reloads have low fees so I’ve used it to pay my taxes last month.
3 – On my mio card, I’ve so far done ~$2500 debit and ~$800 credit in one month. I’m hoping this is sustainable.
ATMs in McDonald’s usually charge only $.99. No purchase required, thankfully.
My Vanilla could be very useful for large recurring monthly payments that are $2,500 or more. The daily loading max is $2,500 via direct deposit, but only $500 if you use the VanillaReload card.
Great post and charts. Wish you could add Wells Fargo prepaid reloadable cards to the analysis.
NetSpend sucks! Transferred $17k into my account (DD, ACH, Reload packs). Transferred all funds into the savings account (~5% yield).
Took nearly two months to get my funds back after they closed the account. However, they did not charge the check fee and credited me for the interest.
They gave me the run around until I filed complaints with the BB, state attorney general’s office and the comptroller of the currency. Amazing how quickly someone called me direct from corporate after the complaints!
Readers who can’t find Vanilla Reload cards shouldn’t rule out just buying $500 prepaid Visa cards at Office Depot. Those seem to stay in stock just fine; and the cost difference is pretty negligible, $4.95 (readily available new prepaid Visa) instead of $3.95 (sometimes hard to find Vanilla Reload card). Given that many of the other options FrequentMiler has kindly enumerated have various ongoing fees, you might even pay less in overall fees with the prepaid Visa card option.
Downside is that you can’t easily make >$500 transactions and you may need to come up with a good way to drain the last few dollars and cents from a prepaid Visa card. I don’t find the <=$500 transaction restriction to be an issue personally; and I usually donate the last few dollars and cents to Kiva.org, but you can use any charitable organization you want to support to donate exactly the amount you have remaining.
FM. Thanks for the comprehensive run down. I’m curious about the $950 Re-loadit cards frequent churner mentioned. I’ve never seen a $950 in the wild but I’ve look high and low. I have seen them in lower amounts. Later today I’m going to go check out two obscure places that show up on the Re-loadit store locator. Has anyone had success purchasing these with anything other than cash and do you mind mentioning the store? By the way, Mio is my bread and butter. I utilize it carefully but regularly. It’s a very important part of my routine. It seems very stable and usable in the long term.
Piecerate: I’ve had success buying $950 Reload-it cards for CC, but it’s not consistent. Some grocery stores from the same brand will allow it, others won’t, and at a few it depends on the manager on duty. It’s just trial and error until you make a list of reliable locations. It could work at Walgreens, CVS or Safeway-owned stores, and maybe even a gas station or two. Use their locator tool online and try them all until you find ones that work.
Thanks FM – I guess the challenge is how to load ~10K on the Mio without running into trouble with Chase for “perk abuse” at OD. Maybe one can use the Amex PRG at 7-11 to buy the Vanilla Reloads for 2X MR points? It is clearly inferior to 5X points with IB, but at least spreads the risk a little. Any thoughts?
This is another greAt post FM!
WellsFargo is another interesting card that can be added in the future.
I haven’t seen Mio in my area.
My suggestion when buying the reload is to also buy a gas card, so your transaction won’t look like 503.95 all the time.
And please use the Ink card on other purchases. Once in awhile, dinner, hotel, airline bookings. I max out the 2500 reload very frequent, but I think its my spending transaction has put me in good terms with Chase of yet. (knock on wood)
I’m very happy that you did this post. Well done FM
I think like someone said above, this post should be done periodically as we update on new company entering the prepaid.
Knock on wood, but I paid my Property Tax via Mio debit this morning for excess of $6K with no hassle. I have been using it quite regularly for every day spend and used it for a few $1K MOs from Wal Mart. Loaded $2500 via VanillaReloads on Monday, another $2500 yesterday and the remaining $1K this morning before paying the bill.
I have been using different cards to buy the reloads to hit minimum spends, rather than a Chase card, however. One AMEX and one US Bank.
I’ve just called Mio customer service and was told they’ve started charging 50 cents per credit transaction
Smitty, which downtown Chicago OD did you see this – on State St or Grand? The one on Ashland has been sold out for almost 2 months now. Thanks!
1 – Frequent Churner, thx for the info. I guess I need to keep testing merchant internal controls until I hit pay dirt.
2 – Bill N. Thx for sharing your Mio spend. Please let us know if things go south. I really hope Mio is robust enough to handle your type of use.
3 – For what it’s worth, sometimes truck stops like Flying J and Pilot carry pre-paid products that you can’t find elsewhere. At least that has been the case in my market.
Ph2,
Be careful using the prepaid vanilla gift cards at Kiva. My Paypal account was limited last week for having used too many credit cards during the life of the account. They restored access with a quick phone call but told me I can only add 1 more card, lifetime, before it gets limited again.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on Wells Fargo Prepaid card, too. Great post, FM.
I would be VERY careful and go slowly. Not only did Chase shut down my accounts and I lost my rewards, but they closed my Wife’s account also! We were not even doing any shenanigans on her card. Something spooked them, I guess. These transactions tend to stick out like a sore thumb unless you have spent a lot of time building up a profile of a big spender.
In retrospect, it was not worth being banned from Chase given the plethora of great sign up bonuses that we could have taken advantage of.
Live long and prosper. The jig is up, and be careful about getting caught in the wave.
Ugh. Trouble in mio world. Tried to load a vanilla, and got Card is Deactivated error with 4 digit code in red text. I think trouble is brewing for my account…. very bad :’(
Three ODs in my area refilled reloads last week. I have multiple Inks as an AU for family members and the only thing holding me back is not enough Amex PPs! I might have to look into Mio.
Martin, would you mind giving us an idea of your spending profile before Chase shut you down? sorry to hear about it!
I don’t want to give out too many details since I am still fighting with them and I know they read blogs/forums and are keenly aware of what is going on. (Martin is not my real name).
Suffice it to say, I went too fast and didn’t build up a profile of large and diverse legitimate spends.
Anyone remember the fiasco at the end of the AARP card? Be prepared for similar.
anyone who says shenanigans is a liar and fraud!
Continue laundering away!
So anyone who spends $1500/mo on dining or gas in one week, during their quarterly promos should get shut down too? I think it’s all based on risk and has nothing to do with bonuses. What if someone legitimately spends $5k/mo at office stores and gets shut down? Imagine the uproar and poor customer service reviews.
Can FM or anyone with personal experience confirm that Vanilla Reload works with Momentum cards. I can’t find any reference to Vanilla Reload on the Momentum website or the online brochure. Only Visa Readylink network.
Thanks
Rick – Momentum is listed as a partner on the Reload home page (though I’ve no personal experience with it)
@FM – When I said this gig is dying I meant it is dying because it seems like more and more stores are not carrying these cards anymore which effectively kills the deal because you can’t get points for something you can’t buy. I obviously jinxed myself because, lo and behold, I went to OD today and guess what? No more reload cards. This is the first time all year that they were all gone. Usually they had a thick stack of them.
The funny thing about this is that you are supposed to load these with cash which would close the point loophole and prevent fraud yet they would rather not sell the cards than to enforce the cash rule. Maybe they are worried about employee theft?
Mio search location tool does not show the location I found mine earlier. You may have to call your local DG store to see if they have them in stock
@Rick C yes, momentum can definitely be loaded with vanilla reloads just like AMEX…
@Bart So, you don’t think anyone ever gets shut down? Not sure what fantasy world you’re living in…
@timtraveler Yes, that is bad news. FWIW, I got shutdown by Mio about two weeks ago and first encountered that same error. I loaded approx. $2k per month for a couple months, then loaded around $8k at the beginning of Sept. and then did a large tax payment. I first got that error with the Mio card. The tax payment subsequently went through though. Got a call about 48 hours later asking me to send in a copy of my ID, etc. After doing so, the account was closed a day or two after that. On a separate call, they also asked about a couple $5XX Walmart purchases, accusing me of them being moneygram purchases. Still waiting for the refund check of the final balance in the mail. I also did not even use the card at an ATM at all. Surprisingly, my NS account is still open though. I’ve kept that to under $2k per month though with no debit use which seems to be the trick. I think any large debit use on these cards period is almost a guaranteed shutdown. I would stick to 100% non-debit non-ATM transactions to avoid being shutdown…
AAEXP — how much in credit transactions did you put on Mio?
The charts above indicate the max LOAD per month is $2500 for the Amex prepaid. Does anyone know if the max BALANCE on the Amex prepaid is exactly $2500? If I have 25 cents left on my Amex Prepaid and I have not loaded it for 2 months, can I load 5 Vanillas (taking me to $2500.25 balance) or can I only load 4? If I cannot go over $2500 at all, how do you wipe out tiny values left on your Amex Preapid cards so you can reload with 5 Vanillas? Thanks!
I went to my local OD few days ago, and was approach by the store manager. I told him I am looking for reloadable vanilla card.
He said that in NY, they have started asking for Tax ID/Identification for Fraud/money laundering purpose, not in California yet though.
And he said, on daily basis, there is customer who called about vanilla reload, and always came in and buy in 5k amount.
I was just looking for 1 vanilla, and so far, no luck yet.
However, what type of fraud can you do by buying this reload with “credit card”? I assume more fraud if i went into lucky and get vanilla reload using “cash” every other day with 5k cash.
can anyone enlighten me on this comment by the manager?
@ frequent churner I probably put about $1k total in credit transactions on Mio.
stay away from paypal card!!! we all know how paypal loves to freeze your acct with no warning, freeze your funds, no customer service available for weeks!! I loaded a single 500 load & they froze my paypal acct with over 2k sitting in it. same thing happened to 2 friends. nightmare! and paypal combined with netspend on back end??! be prepared to have funds frozen for 8-10 weeks. avoid the hassle completely!!
AAEXP — good to know, I thought they’d at least give a break to someone who makes them money. I’ll play it safe and not do any big debits over $1k.
From my personal experience, I bought reloadable cards in OD from 3.5K to 7.5k at least 10 times during past 3 months. I had ink bold and ink plus. There are 12k quota remaining. Recently it is hard to find these cards. During last two days, I shopped 7 OD and only two have few vanilla cards and I bought all total is 12k. Because I usually stay in foreign country, every time I am in US, I always buy as many as possible. Chase never gave me a call about that. Ink family is for business purpose. OD is business store. It is nothing wrong to shop there. That is the reaason we apply for business card. How can chase tell what we bought?
I have managed to buy a couple of vanilla reloads at OD in the Bay Area, CA.
It looks like you only have to buy a physical card once and can simply take them back to the store and ‘buy’ the same one again (they scan the bar code and load up whatever you pay them up to $500 per card). This means you only need to ever buy a couple per Amex prepaid re-loadable. Is that right or am I misunderstanding them?
@Steven, do you also charge other stuffs on your INK cards or just reload cards?
@Chris uhh I dunno, buying a reload with a stolen CC #……..lol
Does Mio card rings as true debit card? the reason Im asking is when I tried to pay my car payment ($1090) with BMW Financial it didn’t go thru. I tried ordering walmart money order and it didn’t go as debit either. Any information about Mio and if it goes as real “debit” transaction?
Some, but compare to OD, negligible. Reloadable card is just similar to visa gift card. It is convenient to us. But for chase, it is same thing. As long as office chain sell gift cards and they cannot make difference from what kind of purchase, we should be ok. Everybody know staples .com say there is no point for online gift card purchase through ultimate mall, but almost everyone got it. Why? Just they cannot tell.
@Steve, just be careful since Chase lose money at 5X OD purchases.
@DJ, the MIO card you have is one you brought from store or the replacement card? do you have pin for the card?
@Will, I do not have Mio card yet. I was trying to find out before I get one from Dollar General Store.
All I have is amex prepaid which I ordered on amex’s site and it came with pin number.
If I get MIO at the store will I be able to set up pin and use for real “debit” transactions for things like car payment?
DJ: yes
@ Russell, that would be a game changer if we could do that. The bottleneck right now is lack of reloadable cards on the racks. Did someone at a store tell you you could do that? Give it a try and see how it goes.
I must be dense. I frankly don’t see any use for a reloadable card. I don’t think I have ever used one. I don’t carry much cash; put almost everything on credit cards and I have 24 of those. I recently took out the American Express Card for $200 because I was to get a free $25 gift card. I thought this was a debit card and you say it can’t be used as one. Other then using a ATM machine to get cash how them do you use it. My intent was to draw out the 200, spend the 25 and cut up both pieces of plastic after that was done never to reload anything on it again. As far as the Perks you reference, at least 15 of my cars have those perks including the 4 AmEx cards I have. So whats the big deal here and how do I use this other then an ATM?
@David, it’s a way for low spenders to meet minimum spend on cards that require a large spend(10K in three months)to get the bonus.
I just got back from a Mio vendor and found a car that has a $9.95 activation fee, not $2.95. I wasn’t sure if this is the same Mio you’re referring to, so I didn’t get it (since it would have been minimum $20 cash to get one).
Wish I had seen russell’s post earlier as I passed by an OD and still have a few Reload packs that are empty. I’ll try to see if I can reload a reload later.
I just got a mio card from a Dollar General, $20 minimum and $2.95 activation fee. all in cash only.
Can I hit minimum spend by putting money in an AMEX prepaid card?
@Marc — You can’t load the Amex prepaid directly with a credit card. Hence all of these shenanigans with Vanilla reload cards.
went by my local Dollar General and they had a HUGE stack of reload cards..hehe, too bad no 5x there
@Chicago2- I went to the State Street location. They have a gift card display near the front door. The cards are not there. There is a small American Express Prepaid display downstairs. I think it is and aisle end display and not its own separate entity, but don’t hold me to that. The reloads were all the way at the bottom of the display. I went a few weeks ago, but well after the Ashland store had been out for weeks. I’m going to Michigan this weekend for a wedding. I will report back on any OD’s that I pass on my travel.
Thanks FM. I have a question to frequent churner. I found the Reload-it card in my local safeway. I wonder which card you use to load money from Reload-it card. How about the fees for debit/credit/ATM transactions? Thanks.
Chicago2,
Thanks for the warning about using too many different credit cards processed through PayPal and hitting a PayPal-imposed internal limit. In my case, I use up the remainders of many gift cards depositing them into Kiva but without logging into my PayPal account, using an email address that isn’t registered with a PayPal account. Voila!
@Russell – Can you do a little recon and get back to everyone on that? If there is anyone out there with more than 1 reload, don’t toss them! If Russell is right you’ll be able to sell empty reloads, I for sure would happily pay for one as I have never ever seen one.
@doublesun — look at the Card Partners link on reload-it’s website. Netspend is one of them, and there’s a few others like Pay-power. Which one is best depends on how much you load a month, if you can do a few direct deposits to avoid fees, etc. Most have a way to at least get free credit transactions and free or very cheap debits. I never use the atm withdrawal since it costs too much per dollar and draws unwanted attention.
@DJ, you just blew my mind. I have a BMW too, and completely neglected this as a way of making my car payments! I am thinking of either using the NetSpend, or the Myvanilla prepaid to try this out (the Mio seems a bit of a hassle to obtain).
So can you reload a reload like Russell said? Revolution!
I called Vanilla network, they said you can’t re-use the reload packs. Anyone care to try this out just in case it does really work?
@Rick – it sounds correct as the only feature the vanilla reloads have is the Pin and that is unique. One usually can not use the Pin more then once, plus the bar code has a unique authorization number (you can see it at the OD receipt) so it can be traced. Vanilla reload does not even allow you to do a slit loading into Amex because of the Pin. I might be wrong (I especially wish I am on this one) but seems to defy logic.
Oh, by the way, I have been buying over $2000 and sometimes $3K in just one transaction (6 Vaniall reloads in one transaction) and have had no problems so far either from OD (one of the stores always asked for the manager to come over and approve but they got to know me by now and happily process the transaction; the other OD does not even bother to check my ID all the time) or from Chase. The Ink is under my wife’s name, and I am just the authorized user. I try to alternateI am at over $46k spent at OD, all in the last 3 months. One more month to go for those $4k (the max on office supplies’ stores is $50k/year)…and then I have to look and apply for an Ink of my own…hopefully a better offer comes for the holidays.
One more – I have noticed that the Vanilla reloads at OD are different than the cards offered at other stores (Walgreens, gas stations, etc). I asked one of the OD managers to scan and load one of the nonOD cards just for fun ( I asked the gas station manager if I could “steal” one from the rack as I needed to scratch a ticket, and he he was surprised I even asked!) but the system would not recognize it. I believe that ODs are the only store (at least in minnesota) with the original/old reloadables and they are not stocking their shelves with the new version….hopefully yet!
Good info, thanks! Especially the last part about stealing reload cards from other stores
@gottoloveInk, do you put a lot of other spending on your Ink card? $46K spending in 3 months at OD with only purchasing the Vanilla reloads sounds it could trigger a review from Chase. I’m still trying to be super safe to spread my spending between OD and other non-OD spending.
Does anyone know if buying the Reloads at 7-11 gas stations count as 2X for the Amex PRG?
AC – I have direct billing for cell, internet, and sometimes I charge small purchases at convenience stores or gas stations. we have no real business, unless $10/qtr ebay sales count….
Has anyone found the Mio card at a Dollar General not listed on Mio’s website?
The closest one listed is pretty far and was curious if it was worth trying a few stores around me.
Bought a Mio Mastercard prepaid debit card today with cash. 22.95 total expenditure. When I called to activate I was told that the a new fee structure would be activated soon but until then credit charges would remain free of the new .50 fee. I noticed that the new fee structure- called Liberty- is the same as the My Vanilla structure. The agent did not know when the switchover would take place when I asked her. During the call the agent asked if I had another card and I replied no. Then she said that she found somebody with my exact same name in her system. I immediately thought of my new MY Vanilla card. Apparently MIO and MY Vanilla are being serviced by the same company. My name is so unusual I do no think she would have found another person with the exact name. My real name is not chuck. So piecing the information together I come up with a possible story that Mio and My Vanilla are merged or owned or similar by one firm now.
During another call to Mio Customer Service today the phone agent told me that MIO would be replaced by My Vanilla in stores soon and in fact some stores are not stocking Mio – so he said. Indeed I have found Dollar General stores being sold out of Mio though I have found others with plenty.
As long as they grandfather the existing cards and don’t update the fee structure, I’m good. Otherwise I’ll be forced to only use it for large debits and an occasional large credit.
gottoloveInk: I’ve noticed that difference too. Strange!
chuck: Thanks for the info. That’s too bad that the Mio is going away!
So I drove to two different dollar stores and one Cash America and none had Mio cards. Cash America girl said that cards are discontinued and tried to sell me netspend card. Im in DFW area. Anyone else with this kind of experience?
I just picked up a Mio card last night in Los Angeles and activated it this morning. They are sending me the personalized card in the next few days. I’ve been looking for this card at the various ‘participating stores’ listed on miocard.com but finally found it at a different location of a participating gas station chain. It also cost me $9.95 to activate, not $2.95… guess everything just costs more in CA.
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Be careful on volume with Mio, they can come down hard on you for any real level of volume… Demanding SS card, picture ID, receipts and scans of every reload card you ever loaded. Even after that, they said they were closing the account and were conducting an investigation before I could have a check for what was on my account.
They said that I couldn’t have my funds until they completed their investigation, but a certified mail letter demanding they close my account and send me my funds got my money back in about 30 days…
Kaptain — how much volume does it take to get this investigation? What’s with these card companies. It should be none of their business what you buy and how much you spend as long as you’re using their product and making them money.
Rick,
Was 4k in first month and 6.5k the second month… No more than 2k in a given week.
Were you doing just debits, or a substantial amount of credit transactions too? I guess you don’t fit the poor underbanked consumer profile so they think something illegal must be going on.
I have used my new Mio Debit Mastercard 5 times so far and have noticed that I am being charged the $.50 for each transaction – for my account, I am not getting the “free transaction fee for the time being” but rather am being hit with it from day one of opening the account. Perhaps FM’s older account status still allows him to get the transactions for free. YMMV.
chuck: Can you confirm that you used the Mio for credit (not debit) transactions? Assuming yes, I’ve updated this post with this info.
@FM — I used Mio yesterday for a credit purchase at a grocery store and now it charges me $.50 for those as well
Bummer, you’ll probably notice it too. From now on I’m only using it for big debits, and a few large credit transactions. The card is useless to me otherwise.
frequent churner: That’s terrible news. I’ll take your word for it.
Just checked my statement after reading all these reports, and indeed the “incorrect” pricing they used to have in their terms and conditions finally is getting applied to us. Back to AMEX and Reload-it based cards for me. I suspect Mio will quickly learn their lesson and lose customers, because now Chase and WF provide substantially similar products with very low fees.
Now that Mio is $.50 for credit and debit transactions, the break-even point between the Mio and the PayPal card is 10 transactions. Your usage pattern will determine the better deal, but that’s where the crossover lies.
(I leave pure ATM transactions out of the equation since it’s cheaper to buy a pack of gum and get cash back than it is to pay the ATM fee.)
Ed: Thanks, that’s a great way to think about it.
Not sure if I missed this or not – I have AmEx SPG, Citi AA Visa and Citi AA AmEx. Can any 3 of these be used for AmEx card and Vanilla reload cards to meet minimum spends? Or only Chase cards to buy the debit and reload cards?
Slick: yes, you can use any credit card to buy Vanilla reloads, but you won’t get 5X. If you want to do it to meet minimum spend, that will work.
Does it make sense that buying Vanilla reloads on AMEX SPG or Chase SP card earns the points. For example, buy one Vanilla $500 for $3.95, reloads it into AMEX PP, withdraw $400 from an ATM for $1.25 and spend the rest of money. At the end, you will get either 500 SPG or UR points at the cost of $5.20, or about 1 point per 1.04Cent. Does it make sense to anyone?
I got a Mio card and was excited to start using it but it’s too bad that they’ve now put in the $0.50 fee on credit transactions.
My $.50 per transaction charges were for credit purchases. I have not done any debit transactions yet.
At this point my plan is to use my Mio Mastercard only for purchases that can not be made using an AX Card (prepaid). I will use it wherever the return after the $.50 is considered is more than 2% (which is what I can get on another everyday use card I have) I think $25.00 is my purchase threshold limit (2.25% return on a purchase of that size after considering the .50 purchase.
I will use any other card where I can get a better category deal greater than 2.25% such as gas (5%), groceries(6%), restaurant (5%), etc. In essence, when all else fails, I will then use the Mio for any purchase over 25.00 where AX is not accepted. Naturally the larger the purchases the better the return. I have several monthly purchases that cannot be purchased with AX that are large.
1. Is there a monthly fee (or inactivity fee) for Mio?
2. Can I buy prepaid debit vanilla card (with pin) in OD? (i assume it is same as MyVanilla)?
Thanks.
Allen: 1) No monthly fee for the Mio (at least not yet). 2) No. You can get a prepaid debit card with pin elsewhere and then buy vanilla reload cards at OD for loading the debit card.
Can the PayPal and the MyVanilla cards to be used for grocery cash back and for purchasing money orders? If so, what are the limits?
few new bee questions.. 1)I bought one Amex prepaid card from OD and Tried to use @ target & at a Gas station within 10 minutes – Declined? Did anyone had the same exp?
Do I need to wait for sometime? 3) I cannot find Vanilla Reload cards in OD. Just one question, Why can’t I just continue buying the Prepaid cards everytime? 4) I also saw other Visa cards which can be loaded upto 500 in OD. Can I buy them and use it..since Visa is acceptable everywhere. Why do I have to search for Vanilla cards only? Am I missing something? Please help.
RK — yes, you’re missing something, please re-read all the 5-10 posts related to this and the associated comments to learn how this works. Why do people keep coming here and just expect FM or someone else to regurgitate the info over and over in the comments.
RK:
1) Yes, give it some time.
3) You can, they’re just less convenient & no ATM use
4) Those work too, but no ATM use and you can’t register your full address (so they don’t work everywhere)
So I’m not alone in noticing that ODs rarely have the reload cards anymore. Is there an official (or unofficial) statement from OD on why this is the case? They seem to have the AMEX prepaid cards in good stock, so we might just have to get those. I’ve only done this once so far, and the manager had to be called and the clerk had to call the credit card company.
I’m seeing plenty, but maybe I need to start taking a few “spare” blanks home with me just in case.
My OD told me last month they had stopped carrying reload cards but now they’re back in stock. After they had to call the bank once, I called Chase and the rep took off the phone call requirement (apparently it’s tied to the card, not the store). At both ODs I go to, a mgr is called to approve the sale and my ID. I’d rather they do that than not carry the reloads.
I know a friend of mine got her IB closed/canceled by chase. Since than I stopped doing this because it is just way too risky for me. I use it mainly for gas purchases for the 2 points per dollar deal.
You are not profitable to Chase and I am sure this practice is a count down to account closure.
So, it is necessary to use a prepaid debit card such as MyVanilla and Mio because you can’t use those VISA gift/debit cards for true PIN-based transactions? Thanks for clarifying!
hpewen: Yes, PIN based transactions and ATM use are a big advantage
My friend who told me about the Ink Bold deal got all his chase accounts closed last week. No reasons were given but it was because he was putting too much of office supply purchase on the ink bold.
I will limit my monthly purchase at no more than 2.5k.
Got my “Vanilla” card today and loaded with $2500 to pay my car thru bmw financials and it doe NOT go thru. So much for pure “debit” card. So disappointing.
Charge smart won;t take payments greater than $1500 either. Dead locked here
Suddenly the MIO card has all sorts of fees??!? Web site mentions at least 4.95 monthly fee, or 12.00/month with unlimited transactions etc. ?? How are you getting no monthly fees? And no ATM fees? Very confusing–seems like they are changing their ‘pricing’ by the minute! Sounds completely flaky and unreliable–looks like it is in the midst of changing for MIO. And PAYPAL is just begging for account closure and freezing of account funds-which happened to me–no customer service and Paypal loves to freeze accounts for no reason–even on EBAY. The only reliable card here is AMEX. Let’s hope the new Walmart AMEX joint Bluebird will allow for PIN and debit transactions– since reliability is great. Any update on flaky MIO?
There is a huge downside to the Vanilla prepaid Visa that does not seem to be mentioned. The max daily spend on the card is $3000! I just loaded my card up to get ready to pay my property taxes and just found this out (to use a debit card on my county website, I must pay with 1 transaction only). Now I’m stuck with $7k on my card.
May I suggest adding the max daily spend info to the overview of cards?
SITM: Thanks for the info. I didn’t know about that limit. I’ll see if I can add it.
I can’t buy more than a $495 money order with my MyVanilla; it won’t let me do a debit transaction for anything more than that. Has anyone been able to do 1K MOs with the card yet? Also, how many $500 reloads have you been able to load in a day on the card AND been able to use those funds in the same day? This card seems to, well, suck, at least so far.
Apologies if this has been reported already, but I didn’t see it…
Can anyone confirm how Citi treats the purchase of a Vanilla Reload card? “Purchase” or “Cash Advance”?
Ed: Citi treats it as a purchase when you buy Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot. I’ve done this with my Citi AA card
Has anyone ever bought a vanilla reload at a 7-eleven? FM has the list of reload locations listed on the vanillareload website ever been validated? I have only seen them at the OD locations listed on the vanillareload.com website. 7-Eleven website doesnt list vanilla reloads as for sale, only vanilla does.
Thanks for the answer about the Citi AA VISA.
Does anyone know for certain how the US Air VISA treats loading a Wells Fargo prepaid card?
[...] the difference, here is a link to a picture of the card you want to buy to load your new Bird. http://boardingarea.com/blogs/freque…a-reloadables/ Copyright [...]
Hey FM, you might want to change the “Reloadable” to “Reload” at the top of this page. Was using the same term till getting corrected in the major FT thread after various people asked if this card was reloadable.
WishyAnand: This post is about “reloadables” not “reload cards”. Reloadables are the prepaid cards (Mio, NetSpend, Bluebird, etc.). Reload cards are the Vanilla Reload cards. So, since this post is about the prepaid cards, not the reload cards, I believe the title is correct.
I am really frustrated. I have gone to each possible shop here in Chicago. I was unable to see Vanilla Reload.
I don’t care about 5% cashback, 1% cashback or anything. All I care about is that I have to spend some minimum amount for my credit card. So, I dont mind buying Vanilla at CVS, 7/11 or anywhere.
Can anyone please tell me if he or she has seen these cards anywhere in Chicago downtown or close to Aurora/Naperville suburb? Any shop?
Thanks so much !!
Ah I see FM. Initial image of the vanilla reload card under the title confused me. All my local ODs are out just when I finally here that my Ink was approved:-(
@windycitydeveloper-try Walgreens. Many have them. You may have to try a few before you find one that will let you pay with credit. I was lucky on my third one.
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Just found the vanilla reload card at the second Walgreens I went to in Maplewood, NJ but the clerk said only CASH to buy it.
[...] the cashier your prepaid card that is reloadable with Vanilla Reload cards (see “Vanilla Reloadables“). This does not work with American Express cards. Use MyVanilla, Mio, [...]
[...] http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2012/09/26/vanilla-reloadables/) [...]
Does anybody know what the monthly limit is for purchasing money order via a pin based debit transaction? I was told my customer service that the monthly limit is $10,000 but I have done much less but today the debit transaction got denied. Also, are these limits based on a calendar month or a rolling 30 day window?