How to Load Bluebird With Prepaid Debit Cards at Walmart
Bluebird has been a useful to many of us to increase our mileage earning capabilities. The main method was to buy Vanilla Reload cards at CVS, load them onto Bluebird and then use Bluebird to pay bills such as rent, loans, etc or send checks for our expenses. A few weeks ago, CVS rolled out a chainwide policy where they are no longer accepting credit cards for Vanilla Reloads.
Although this significantly hampers the convenience of Bluebird, there are still ways to use it. A Bluebird card can still be loaded at Walmart with most PIN based debit cards. The one catch is the load limit is $1000 per day per Bluebird card ($5000 a month still holds) and, of course, the extra step of visiting Walmart may not be worth it for some. Moreover, some of us (me, in particular) live in cities without a convenient Walmart location.
Update: Many people have reported having trouble loading OneVanilla and Vanilla Visa cards issued by InComm at Walmart registers after Walmart made an update recently.
While the Walmart option won’t replace Vanilla Reloads for everyone, it’s something worth knowing about while it lasts. I personally have no Walmart, but have loaded Bluebird a few times in other states.
Prepaid PIN Based Debit Cards
Walmart locations allow us to load Bluebird with a PIN based debit card and Visa and MasterCard debit cards now allow us to set PINs. Once a PIN is set, we can then use them as debit cards to load Bluebird at Walmart. Although most Visa and MasterCard Prepaid Debit Cards will allow you to set a PIN, here are a few examples of cards I’ve used. Any of the below just allow you to use the last four digits as a PIN with no need to call to set the PIN. Other cards (such as MasterCard) often require calling to set PINS, which is an additional hassle, in my opinion. So I stay away from those.
1. OneVanilla is sold at many drugstore locations such as CVS or Walgreens. Although they’re not longer accepting credit cards for Vanilla Reloads and many other reloadable products, I haven’t had issues paying with a credit card for these at my local CVS. The fee on these cards is $4.95 for loading up to $500. (Update: OneVanilla and Vanilla cards sold at drugstores no longer work at Walmart to load Bluebird).
2. Vanilla Visa up to $500 prepaid debit cards of various types can be found at some drugstores, grocery stores and gas stations. Depending on the card, the fee is $4.95 (at drugstores) or $5.95 (at grocery stores). These function essentially the same as the OneVanilla card.
3. Visa gift cards of $200 are sold at Staples, Office Depot and OfficeMax in store (and can be bought online at Staples right now!). The fee is $6.95 so it would only make sense if you are buying these with a credit card that offers an office supply store category bonus (or bonuses).
Loading Bluebird At Walmart
Once you’ve bought a prepaid debit card and have a PIN set (either via a preset PIN or calling), you are now ready to go to Walmart with your debit card and Bluebird(s)! People have reported being able to load Bluebird at the money center, the cash register or a kiosk.
The kiosk frequently doesn’t work so I simply tell the cashier I’d like to load my Bluebird with a debit card for $500 (or $200 if that’s the card I have). The cashier then asks me to swipe the card and I enter a PIN. If you have multiple cards to load, you can ask for multiple transactions. However, do remember the limit is $1000 per day for each Bluebird card.
If the kiosk (Money Center ATM) does work, then simply select Bluebird and load as a debit card. You cannot exceed $1999.99 in loads in any ten minute period or the ATM will shut down and need manager override.
Warning
Before going out and buying thousands of dollars of prepaid gift cards, you should definitely take the time and go through the steps to make sure everything works as planned. Perhaps start with $100 or $200. Once you’re comfortable with the process, then you can scale up and start paying more bills with Bluebird. However, it’s important to test every strategy in small amounts before using it fully – you don’t want to get stuck in the wrong situation in case things start going wrong!
It has been the case for many users that mastercard gcs may not work for pin debit at wmt. Some have done it but for my needs I use only visa gcs
I stay away from the MasterCards :) Visas make life very simple with these!
Amazon, Bluebird, and Serve are silly. Buy money orders at Walmart or Post Office to deposit into bank or credit union. Pay MO fee in cash. Pay bills online.
You’ve used a credit card to purchase money orders at the post office? Here it says you have to use cash, debit card, or traveler’s check: https://www.usps.com/shop/money-orders.htm
What he means is he purchases money orders with the prepaid debit cards. This is an alternative to loading Bluebird with the prepaid debit cards… and something I did a few times as well.
Oh, I see. Thanks.
Can you stack the cards to get a higher money order or do you have to put them through individually for smaller amounts? I.e. can I get an $800 money order by using 4 $200 cards or do I need to do 4 separate $200 ones (plus fees obviously)?
Thanks!
You can swipe up to four cards in a single transaction at Walmart.
and similar at Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/cp/Bill-Payment/632045
MCGCs work fine if the clerk (or you) know you need to hit the change payment key quickly. The more important thing to know is there is a four swipe limit per BB card per day. And that includes the BB card. Even if you are under the $1000 limit but you have swiped four cards, the next GC will not go through. This limit may apply to MOs; I don’t buy them often but vaguely remember a similar issue once when I did. So plan accordingly.
Are you saying that the swipation of the bb just to get er loaded up w debit counts as one of the four? Ok good to know. Thx
Yes, that was my experience at the Customer Service Desk of a neighborhood Walmart, the only kind of WM anywhere near me. I was trying to load BB with GCs, and the BB swipe counted as 1 of 4 swipes. I had hoped to use a $500 debit along with 5 $100 GCs but the max I could load on both my husband’s card and then mine was $700: BB swipe, $500 Paypower swipe, MCGC swipe and another MCGC swipe. And the same day I tried to get an MO too, and I believe it was the same limit exactly although I don’t recall which cards I was using buy the MO.
I am a newbie and fairly nervous about trying this. First, I obtained a Bluebird card. Then I bought $500 worth of ONE VANILLA at CVS with a credit card (no problem.) I tried to transfer the $500 online to Bluebird with no success and thought I had wasted the $500. (Should have listened when Miles Prof said to start small.) Called OneVanilla and they were no help. So I went to Wallmart. The clerk said she did not think I could load the OneVanilla onto Bluebird. I told her to try anyway. She did, and the machine asked for a pin. This card did not come with a pin, but I had read this blog, and picked any 4 numbers that I could remember as a pin. Voila! The $500 loaded onto Bluebird! So it will be a pain to make a trip to Wallmart every time, but worth it. I can pay my mortgage, Kohl, and other bills with Bluebird, and get points for things I usually did not get points for.
Your not getting points for things you usually don’t get points for or for paying your mortgage or your kohls card. You are getting the points for using your credit card period. Whatever you do with the giftcard has nothing to do with earning points. I just don’t understand the logic in these statements. Your also bringing unwanted attention to this game by saying you want to load a bluebird with a one vanilla.
I think what you’re trying to point out is you can use your Bluebird to pay your credit card bill or transfer to your bank account as well. While that’s a possibility, some people are not comfortable with that. Thus, without mortgages or payments that don’t normally accept credit cards, they would not have an outlet for their Bluebird funds… as a result, they do get points for paying their mortgages.
I have used mc, visa and one vanilla gift card at walmart kiosk, cash register and customer service. But for some reason none of this worked so far for me. Every time I get transaction not allowed. I follow the exact steps that everyone follows..
You probably hit your limit.
The Walmarts in my area are no longer accepting oneVanillas to load BB here in north Dallas and the MoneyCenter was out of order :-(. Where else can I load a BB account?
I don’t know any more ways to load a Bluebird at this point.
Bad luck for me tonight in south Riverside County, CA. I bought one $500 Vanilla Gift Debit Visa 3 days ago and was able to load it onto my Bluebird at the Customer Service/Returns Desk. So I bought two more yesterday and when I tried to load them tonight, they kept swiping as credit instead of debit.
I just got off the phone with Vanilla Visa Customer Service. I explained my situation and she had no idea (I figured they wouldn’t but it was worth a shot). I’m going to try this next: buy something cheap like a pack of gum, tell the cashier I am using a Debit Card, swipe the card and hopefully be prompted to select a PIN which would then “convert” it into a debit. Thoughts?
That sounds like a cashier issue and I’ve had a few of those, unfortunately. I would just try a different cashier – you can load Bluebird at any register so, hopefully, one will get it right :)
umm SAMETHING HAPPENED to me last night here in Houston TX, I was able to load as of 5/27 but not yesterday 5/29 , I tried at 3 locations and all came back as credit….and one of the money center came unlock the register has told me they have updated the system and no longer accept my onevanilla as pin based debit….my only alternative way is use target load with some fees now….
It does sound like it, but I went to two different cashiers with the latter being a manager. The transaction wasn’t behaving correctly. Not only would the registers prevent the cards from being swiped as Debit, the keypad never prompted me for a PIN and only quickly flashed passed the signature screen. Commenters on other travel blogs have reported that Walmart allegedly made an update to their POS systems early on 5/29 (yesterday) to prevent this exact transaction from occurring.
I was reading some post over on FT to cancel and then press debit on your end of pad with success, funny thing was the cashier I had helped with the exact step but no avail. Perhaps some steps was still missing.
There is a thread about this on FT.
I think the more we all blabber about it all, the more the stores (like wmt) will implement more changes and hoops to go through that quell our efforts
I just tried 2 Walmarts in Miami and neither worked. I used both a One Vanilla card and a Simon Mall gift card. I even tried re-swiping and doing the old “change payment type” and “debit” switch. This prompted me for a pin but still didn’t work.
Hey gang… Just got back from Walmart and got errors trying to load 4 $200 staples GC’s to the Bluebird. Worked a week or so ago and definitely under the $5000/month limit. Didn’t go through. Even tried doing it as a $200 by itself and same thing. Looks like this might be the end of these loads too..
I need help. I just purhased a vanilla visa from cvs the vanilla visa can have a pin number after first use. I went to walmart and tried to load my bluebird and it didnt asked me to select a pin number and the transaction wasnt allowed. do you know if I need to buy something first before and set my pin # and then load my BB?
I loaded my $5K in May with the last successful attempt being $1K the morning of 5/29. When I went today, I tried two different registers, but both failed with credit being the only option. I was hoping it was a fluke and I went to another store and it failed there as well. It appears that this option may no longer exist.
People have been reporting issues loading OneVanilla or InComm issued cards at some Walmarts at the register. Others still do work… and the OneVanillas seem to work at the kiosk, but not the register. If your Walmart is nearby, may be worth a shot to load it at the MoneyCenter ATM.
I think something has changed at Walmart starting this month. I have been loading my Bluebird with Vanilla Visa since Vanilla reload went away with no problem at all..until yesterday. It was a simple one swipe $500 load, but nothing would make it work. I have also been buying Vanilla Visa with AMEX gift cards at CVS, until yesterday. Their cash registers would not allow the transaction. I am 0 for 2 this month.
This is dead at Kiosk now too. I loaded a $500 Visa Vanilla to my BB last week and tonight it would not load (debit not available) and based on the FT threads its dead all around now.
I tried to upload $200 from a Visa GC to my BB at Walmart, and it was a new clerk who had no idea. I live nearby, so I just left and told him I’d try again. Seemed easier than waiting for a manager and all the hassle.
BUT…
if this works properly, I am supposed to just say “I want to put $200 into my BB.” Then the clerk hits some buttons and I swipe my BB card. Next it is time to pay. I now swipe my debit/GC card and it charges me $200. I walk away. In theory, is that how it’s supposed to work? I need to swipe both my BB card and then the debit/GC card?
The bluebird website says you can load a max of $200 per day and $1,000 per month from debit cards. Is that limit per debit card?