Bluebird

Walmart Lesson: Always Check Your Visa Debit Cards After The Fact

ByThe Miles Professor

On Saturday, I stopped by a Walmart to load some Bluebirds and buy a few money orders with some OneVanilla prepaid cards I had. I prefer to load Bluebird at the MoneyCenter ATM and, luckily, the one at this Walmart was working. Normally, the process is fairly smooth. I just enter the amount I want to load onto the card, swipe the cards and check on the printed receipt that my Bluebird has the right balance. This time, although the machine was working and attempting to print receipts, the printer was out of ink and the receipts were coming out blank. I saw this as no reason to abandon the plan. The machine appeared to work and I did get an email confirming my load once I loaded the first one. However, I knew I’d have to check all the money went where it should when I’d be getting home.

I loaded a few Bluebirds with $1000 each. When I got home and logged into my mom’s, I saw only $500 on it… which means that $500 did not go through along the way. I am not a fan of writing things down exactly which card goes to which Bluebird; that would be way too time consuming and I need to be efficient. But I do have a system. I make sure to check all the money is present where it should be immediately when I get home before I forget what I did. OneVanilla cards have a simple way to audit the transaction history by just visiting the OneVanilla website and typing in the card details. I went through my cards one by one and found that one of them had $500 on it. A $499.99 transaction went through, but then was credited back to the card. It never made it to the Bluebird at all.

$499.99 being credited back to the card as it didn't go through
$499.99 being credited back to the card as it didn’t go through

Everything is fine. I have the Visa gift card that didn’t go through and will load it next time. Although it’s annoying to not have $500 loaded and have to load it again, it’s not a big deal to me. I do a few different things at Walmart so it doesn’t cut the store visit productivity for the day down by much. The lesson to be learned is to never assume payments land where they should. Always check and make sure all the money is where it should be before throwing away any OneVanilla cards!

13 Comments

  2. Hi MP. how r u? Very important post. It happened to me once. So now if I load more then one bluebird I use rubber bands to put the bluebird card with the visa debit cards for each transaction.
    I see u put $499.99. Is there a reason u didn’t put $500?
    Thank you

  3. Has anyone else had a problem buying money orders at wal mart with more than one vanilla one gift card ?
    Example 1k mo with. 2 $500. GC’s ?
    This since new software last week ???

  4. @ Rich or anyone.. please help…I am taking the plunge and planning on opening up a Bluebird account.. I have a lot of “spending” to do on 3 new CC signups. Did you buy Vanilla Reloads gift cards with a CC and then load them or use them to buy a money order? If so, could I send the money order to my landlord as a payment for rent?
    Any other helpful tips would be much appreciated.

  5. “…some Bluebirds”?
    How exactly would you have more than one Bluebird if it asks for birthdate/Social Security when you apply?

  6. thanks for the info, had the same problem with my $200 and didnt realize until I logged in.

  7. @Rich. There has been a register change and I covered how I dealt with it in this post: http://milesprof.wpengine.com/2014/06/08/walmart-onevanilla-bluebird-cvs/. Not guaranteed to work, but may help!

    @Denise. You can load prepaid Visa gift cards onto a Bluebird at Walmart. I explain how in this post: http://milesprof.wpengine.com/2014/04/29/load-bluebird-without-vanilla-reloads/

    @D. James: I typically bring my parents’ cards when I go and help them out by loading theirs too :)

  8. Bluebird sends an email when it loads. Usually it’s instantaneous so I check my phone while I’m loading. Where are you buying $500 visa gc’s? The only places near me are drugstores. I have little use for HH points anymore. Grocery stores only carry $200’s now. Ugh.

    1. This is true! While I can check my Bluebird via email, I cannot check my mom’s or dad’s. I generally buy the Visa gift cards at drugstores like Walgreens or CVS.

      1. Have them create an email filter to forward all Bluebird emails to your account, then you will know instantaneously.

  9. I do appreciate folks posting these cautionary tales. Manufactured Spending can be an incredible travel tool, but there are going to be hiccups and one should always be prepared. BTW, I was very impressed by your performance in the Mile Madness tournament!

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