Vanilla Reloads at CVS May Be Cash Only Starting Tomorrow
Vanilla Reloads are an excellent tool for boosting our miles and points earnings. We’ve been purchasing Vanilla Reload cards at CVS, loading them onto our Bluebird/Amex Serve and then using these to pay our bills. This allows us to leverage our mortgage, rent, student loan bills, etc. into miles collecting opportunities. Vanilla Reloads have been a valuable tool to meet minimum spending as well as earn miles for more trips down the road. For more information, you can read my post: The Bluebird and Vanilla Reload Cards: Earn Miles Paying Bills.
I learned from the Bengali Miles Guru that there is currently a memo going around indicating that starting on Monday, March 31, Vanilla Reloads and other reloadable cards are going to be cash only. This particular memo came from the prepaid card category manager for CVS. That said, it’s unclear at this point whether it’s a regional memo or whether this is circulated countrywide.
While it was at first suggested this may be a silly April fool’s joke, various reports and confirmation seem to indicate it is legit.
It does certainly seem at this point that cash only is the direction that CVS is going to take with Vanilla Reloads in the near future and this will actually be coded into the registers. It’s questionable, however, whether this is store by store for the time being and how long it will take to implement for all registers.
So on Monday, your local CVS may only take cash for Vanilla Reloads. Or it may still take credit cards; I won’t know until I physically go there, of course.
What To Do
If you happen to be in the area of a CVS today, it may make sense to buy some already to load for next month.
The memo appears to apply to Vanilla Reloads as well as other reload cards, such as Paypal, Netspend, etc with a full list of products that will no longer accept credit cards. However, what I don’t see on the list is variable load Visa gift cards such as OneVanilla. These can be loaded up to $500 and work as a debit card with the last four digits serving as the PIN.
You can then take these to Walmart and load your Bluebird there up to $1000 a day by just bringing it to any cashier or the money center. It does take an extra step to visit Walmart, but at least it’s an option.
Others have also been able to find Vanilla Reloads at other locations. These may include 7-11, Longs Drugs and some grocery stores. While none of these options are available to me, everyone else may have some opportunities.
In conclusion, while CVS locations no longer accepting credit cards for Vanilla Reloads is a big bump in the road to many of us, there are still ways around it and it’s not the end. It just means the simplest avenue may become closed.
Hmm, thanks for the heads-up!
And alas, at least at my local Walmart, they only accept debit cards or cash for loading up cards like Bluebird (I’ve tried several times to use credit cards, and — even when the cashiers are okay with it — the system blocks this.
In order to load Bluebird at Walmart, you do need a debit card and a prepaid debit card will work as well for this. You would first need to buy a Visa prepaid debit card at a drugstore or grocery store or an office supply store and then use the Visa prepaid debit card to load your Bluebird. The Visa prepaid debit card will function as a regular debit card and you can usually use the last 4 digits as the PIN. This is the case for the OneVanilla prepaid debit cards, which can be loaded up to $500.
Many thanks for this post with a promising workaround, yet I’d be grateful for bit more detail. I found the “OneVanilla” version of the Visa prepaid debit card, for 3.95 via cvs. I am nervous though about the extra go-to-Walmart step….. to transfer the Vanilla Visa DC to my bluebird account.
How does this work? Via the bluebird web site (under faq), it seems to indicate I have to register the visa debit card first, then log on to my bluebird account, then provide debit card info, verify address, etc. — and that I can only link one debit card to the bb account.
Soooo…. do I do this before going to Walmart? Or at Walmart? Do I use a kiosk, or a rep? You seem to be indicating it’s a much simpler process — so hope so.
Hi Will, You’re looking at the rules for loading a Bluebird with a debit card online. At Walmart, you can load any debit card to a Bluebird for $1000 a day maximum and $500 per load (so two transactions). If you buy a OneVanilla or Visa Prepaid debit card, you don’t need to register it and can use the last 4 digits as the PIN. Some people have had success with the kiosk, but we’ve always used a cashier and said we’d like to load Bluebird with a debit card.
You should test with a smaller amount before going for the full $500 cards. It may be an extra step, but can save lots of trouble having to find other ways to unload in case it doesn’t work at your Walmart, for some reason.
Ah, thanks. Thank you. Grateful for your insight and tips. Cogent as always. Will make the pilgrimage to Wally-world for the test today.
Alas, visit to local CVS to buy the “OneVanilla” Visa debit card was quite disconcerting. Senior clerk (who knew of my many VR purchases in the past) there said that the “One Vanilla” cards were also now restricted to “cash only” purchases. (and he claimed that CC company guidance was that anything “vanilla” was now cash only, and that included yet another Vanilla visa debit card they were carrying, )
Yet he did tell me that variable load Visa Gift cards could still be bought with credit cards. (never mind that when you look at the fine print on the back of them, they too say this or that about being a vanilla network product???)
As I was confused, I paused…. (I also saw the fine print on front of card saying that I’d have to wait 24 hours after purchase before using)
Anybody else able to buy the “onevanilla” visa debit card at CC? or anything else “vanilla.” (talk about a meaningless brand name with so many flavors of vanilla — nothing “plain” about it. :-))
Adam: Have you tried using a gift card with a PIN? I do it all the time – they are treated as debit cards by the Bluebird system.
Rob and Miles Professor,
Yep, I used to do that. But I determined that the time involved is just not worth it to me. I suppose if I need to meet a minimum spend and there are no alternatives, I’ll do it, but…
– there’s only one Walmart in my area.
– It’s about a 20 minute round-trip from my house or work.
– Their kiosk never works, so I have to wait in line at customer service or in a regularly line (where it’s a 50/50 chance that the checkers know how to load a bluebird).
– I have to get prepaid cards somewhere else first.
Time is money, and for me, this extra step just makes it take too much time :(. But others’ mileage may vary (ha!), depending on the convenience of their local Walmart, the amount of free time they have, the specific trip they’re planning to take with the miles, etc.
In my case the Safeway where I buy the cards and the Walmart where I load them are both about 2 miles from my home. I swing by one on the way to the other. There is no kiosk at my WM so I just go to any open cashier. It all takes about 20 minutes 5 times a month if I don’t have any other errands up that way. Less if I combine the WM visit with another errand.
Excluding the time I am meeting minimum spend this buys me at least 2-3 domestic flights a year, or the lions share of a business class ticket to Europe. Worth 12 hours a year to me …
Hi Bob, when you said 5 times a month, did you mean you bought $1000 gift card with PIN and loaded into BB every time? If so, how can you do that? I remember there is a $1000 limit to load to BB using Debit Card.
Jason
Jason:
$1000/day & $5000/month.
More specifically, 2x$500 gift cards (the max available) per day, 5 times a month.
Just a correction – Cary appears to be a Category Manger, NOT a regional manager for CVS. He manages all prepaid products for the entire company.
Thank you! I have fixed that.
Wow, just in time, last Thursday my wife and I bought $8K in Vanilla reloads.
There are other ways to load Bluebird and Serve. And there is more than just CVS around. It’s not the end of the world.
VR has two types of cards. The ones we all use have an PIN on the back. They are not “reloadable”. Never have been. The other VR is “reloadable” version and has no PIN. I’d never seen these before. These can be purchased only with cash. Might this be the card to which the memo refers?
bought 4k earlier this morning. just bought 2k and chatted with night guy who is a car guy like me. he had not heard anything about this. will be interesting to see if it works later or if it is subject to a hard stop at the register as the note above implies. nw chicago burbs.
I’ve got 5k today from local CVS. That’s for bluebird for next month, though, there are cheaper way to load Bluebird right now. Serve is fine on the other hand, but I will miss instant reload of Serve in CVS from a credit card.
tomorrow is also 4/1, April fools day
Hi TMP! I’m very sad to report that my usual location in the city went cash only today =( I got in my last 10 yesterday (along with another 10 for the bf) though so I guess it’s not so bad since we have April covered. RIP. This is a very sad day =(. I hope you have better luck than me!
Now to think of other ways to MS besides AP.
Miles Professor,
If VR is now no longer an option, and visiting a Walmart is out of the question, what other use is there with a Blue Bird account?
At least you can refill BB online with a mile-earning debit card, $100 a day for 10 days every month, since it has a limit of $1000 a month.
Thanks for responding.
I’ve looked at the Sun Trust debit card, but a 1 pt per dollar spent and $75 annual fee doesn’t look all that appealing. (I’m such a debbie downer)
If you could find AMEX gift cards for no fee, how would you use them?
please can some one tell me the best place where i can buy a vanilla reload park am new to this and want to learn