Vanilla Reloads Transfers To American Express Prepaid

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Update: No news here at all, but if you only started paying attention to Vanilla Reloads once Bluebird came around then you can come out from under the same rock that I was under!

Related:
-Another Flavor Of Vanilla: My Vanilla Debit Card
-Today’s Escapades
-Meeting A Spend Threshold In One Night.

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Maybe I’ve been asleep at the wheel, but this is news to me at least.  You can transfer funds from Vanilla Reload cards to American Express Prepaid cards.

I still have a few prepaid cards from back when they were offering a bonus to signup for them.

My wife and I both have bluebird cards, so that’s an easy $10,000 of spending we can do per month and cash out for free.  This just adds a little more free spending.  With a prepaid card you get 1 free ATM transaction per month and additional transactions are $2.

You can find more info on loading your prepaid card from Vanilla Reload or from Green Dot on the FAQ page.

In case you need to meet spend thresholds cards like Vanilla Reloads or Vanilla Debit are just perfect.  They’re also great for just getting cheap miles, especially with CVS earning 5x on Freedom this quarter.

You can find free ATMs in Brooklyn inside and outside the Barclays Center.  In Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh you can go into any Getgo gas stations for free ATMs along with your free gas.

You can withdraw up to $400 per day from your prepaid card.  My wife and I have 6 cards, so that’s nothing to sneeze at!

HT: @chiefmbh via Twitter and Thingywingy via DDF

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54 Comments On "Vanilla Reloads Transfers To American Express Prepaid"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

rots

just ordered my free prepaid card….thanks.

Benji

I don’t understand. Haven’t Amex prepaids had this ability for at least a year. This was originally the best option for vanilla reloads because the others like net spend would shut you down. I was brand new to the game last may, and this was how I met spend on my ink bold.

John

What is the value of transferring funds from the vanilla reload to amex? Why would I want to do this instead of going through bluebird?

Is there something I’m missing? It seems like moving money from one place to another and I don’t quite see the benefit.

Please help me understand what I’m missing.

Reuvenhunt

I threw mine out once the funds were withdrawn. Can I order more for free?

YT

What is the benefit to transferring from vanilla reload to the prepaid Amex?

ahr

how come I’ve never seen you mention that you can transfer funds directly to your linked bank account with bluebird?

aussie

This was the big 5x points on everything before Bluebird. Been around for ages…

moves

Do credit card companies know when you purchase a prepaid card such as Vanilla reload, or does it simply register as a purchase where you bought the card?

skunk

once i transfer the funds to the amex prepaidcard how do i transfer them to my bank account ? TY

Curtis

This is originally how the VR game started. Living under a rock??? 🙂

Jack

Is there a monthly limit to how much you can deposit into a Bluebird account via Vanilla Reload?

chaim

Here in maryland, Family Dollar and Walgreens both do not accept credit cards for VR. I’ve tried at CVS but they seem to never have any cards!

Also, you mentioned Green Dot- is that worth getting? And I think it says right on the card- “CASH ONLY” on some cards and not others. Do you know why its written on some and not others? And I tried using my credit card and CVS wouldn’t let me buy. Sad especially since this week you get $5 back
🙁

Nun

Still haven’t found Vanilla Reload cards in the Providence and southern Mass. area…

jack

Does opening and closing vanila cards hurt your credit?

CC

im still really confused about all these reloads. If i open a credit card, and need to spend 1000 dollars, how do i do that for free? can you explain it, in simple mans terms? thanks

Anonymous

so can I buy a green dot with CC and unload to AMEX prepaid and cash it out?

martin

so can I buy a monypack/green dot with CC at CVS and unload with AMEX prepaid?

ddawg

Does this work with any amex prepaid card? Or it only works with a specific one? Do you think it would work with the prepaid cards I got last week via amex syn with twitter?

Janos

In which office supply store can I get a reload card for the bluebird to charge a simply cash Amex that offers 5% cash back when charging at a office supply

Jon

I havent had any luck getting the VISA prepaid cards with CVS. Checkout counter people keep telling me (tried on multiple days with different workers) that I cant use an amex cc to buy a prepaid VISA. Thoughts?

one vanilla

Dan
Can the one vanilla or other via gift cards be used on Amazon payments?

SFuzzi

Is using vanilla reload or MVD or the AMEX prepaid against AMEX or Chase rules as qualifying purchases? I am highly confused about this. Are these cash advances? Is this perk abuse? (don’t understand why if credit card is getting their fees on the purchase).
But, I dont’ want to risk having my cards cancelled.

Also, even though I live in a CVS town, I haven’t yet found vanilla reload or MVD. Maybe Dan has bought them all ;). But my question is why would any CVS or walgreen not allow you to buy them with a credit card anyways??????

TIA

Stacy Smith

Do the vanilla cards have to be AMEX or can they be Visa Vanilla cards that can also be loaded to AMEX bluebird?

NAT

Ive been having issues purchasing VR at CVS stores with a CC they keep on telling me that its policy that they can only be purchased with debit or cash. Any ideas??

glasses dude

It says on the card it can be used to reload prepaid amex

Dc

Wow that sounds great. What’s the sign up bonus on the vanilla?

jason

dan you kee posting these complicated “shtick” you are trying to pull when in reality its very simple… purchase MVR cards (my vanilla reload cards) from CVS for a 3.95 fee you buy $500 card… buy as many as the store will sell you or keep buying them and take them all at once to CHASE bank and they will give you cash for them after you have activated them as a DEBIT card with a pin even though you wont need the pin at the bank.. and you can walk out with CASH or deposit cash back into your account ALL FREE WITH NO FEES!! comon dan.. why make it complicated

jason

@NAT: Nat i purchased 30K with CC at CVS with no problems.. the only problem was some places wouldnt let me buy more then 2 cards (500 each total 1K pr person per day) but no problem with CC

jason

@SFuzzi: they are considered Purchases and not anything else..it goes on you CC as a purchase from CVS.. find them and buy away!

jason

@CC: simple terms.. go to CVS and purchase two “MY VANILA RELOAD CARDS it will cost you 3.95 EACH CARD FOR TOTAL OF $7.80 AND THEN READ MY ABOVE COMMENT ON HOW to cash them out.. good luck

jason

@jack: MVR opening MVR cards has nothing to do with your credit

NAT

@jason:
which CVS locations??

Sam

Are Vanilla Reload Cards available in Brooklyn? If so, which store sells them?

Balt

Is there somewhere else, other than a chase bank which isn’t common in baltimore, to cash out the MVR?

jack

not including the chase freedom current bonus, I don’t see spending $790 for 100k pts as worth the time, effort, and expense it takes to earn them. Plus taking the risk that Chase will shut you down. That’s 100 trips to whomever has the VR’s, buying 2 cards a day. I don’t know what you do for a living but my time is worth more than that.

Return

@jason: doesn’t Visa limit the number of MVDs you can register? (And don’t you mean My Vanilla Debits and not My Vanilla Reloads?) … you can’t activate MVRs as a debit card

JTP

Jack- $790 for 100K points are worth (at a minimum) $1000. Much more if you redeem them properly. Sounds very worth it to me….

kdl

JTP- Jack is right, definitely not worth the time, unless u are getting 5% back or meeting a spend requirement

Stew

@Jason. There is no “My Vanilla Reload”. There are Vanilla Reloads. You can use them to reload a My Vanilla Debit. What I have done is to buy the VR, load it to MVD and then gone to a bank (any bank will do) and received a cash advance from the card. The bank does not charge a fee, MVD charges $0.50 for this transaction (cheap enough). Is this what you are referring to?

Joshua

When I try to add funds to blue bird via debit card they say I can only do 100 per day?? What am I doing wrong?

JTP

@Joshua:

Probably because you are going directly from debit to BB. that was the allure of the vanilla reloads, where the limit is much higher.

Manhattan

my cvs in Manhattan says it needs to be bought with CASH only no CC any ideas?

ari

@Manhattan the CVS on the upper west side I think on Amsterdam accepted credit card for a vanilla reload. The manager came over to the cashier and said it was fine. good luck

confused

i live in a cvs riteaid town – tried a few stores but none will let me buy with a cc!

AwayD

To @Jack & the rest

Your Math is pretty bad if you say 790 for 100K points/miles
$ 500 reload costs you 3.95, hence $1,000 costs you 7.80

Subsequently, you spend say $10,000 and if you do cash advances at any bank as described – your actual cost for this is $78.

Now, spending $78 to get (at very least) $1000 is a deal i can take any day.

More from Vanilla Reload rep– supposedly you can REFILL existing MVD at the register @ CVS – so no need to go hunting for the Vanilla Reloads (my area doesn’t have them) – so for now I was
1. buying MVD (you can have up to 3 simultaneously)
2. cashing them and calling to close and
3. repeating as needed to fulfill spending requirement

AwayD

@AwayD:

That is of course 3.95 + 3.95 = 7.90 for 1000 in MVD and hence $ 79 for 10,000 in MVD that you later go cash advance at the bank

chani

where do i get free atm machine near monsey

Walt K

@AwayD,

You almost got there. $79 will get you $10K of spend, for 10K points. Those above are talking about about 100K points, so that gets you to $790. This is assuming 1pt per dollar.

Jack

@Return: visa limits you when u call and activate to three but I did online 30 with no problem…
@jack my time is valuable but it wasn’t me buying them.. Had someone else do if for me 😉

Steve

@AwayD:
Jason- Sounds good but How do you turn 10k points into 1k dollars?

AwayD

@ Steve & @ Walt K

We are talking about meeting spending requirements.

Example — AMEX Premier Gold – 50K points sign on bonus when you spend USD 3000

+ Let us say AMEX Business Premier Gold – 75k Points once 10K spent.

So you have to spend 13K USD to get 125K points bonus + 13K points from your spending

In this particular example your actual spending is 7.9*13= 102.7 USD to get 128K points (which is at least 1280 USD)

(you can take any other card bonuses and calculate– I think i described good enough:))

AwayD

My math is horrible …

125K points sign on bonus + 13K points from spending equals to 138K of course.

So net expenses on buying MVD/andor Vanilla Reloads you have a nice +1278* USD of pure tax-exempt dollars

(138K at redemption price of 1 cent per point (which as Dan points is a ridiculously bad redemption – you can get flights that can exceed 1278 USD twice or 3 times in value)

yossi

I was at 3 CVS’s, Wallgreens and a Family Dollar this afternoon. None would sell Vanilla Reaload or MVD with CC, Cash only. Wallgreens said they could only sell Vanilla Gift cards with CC. Stores were in Brooklyn and Queens.

rxgeek

Ohio people-Discount Drug Mart now has Vanilla Reloads. They have you sign a logbook when you purchase, for unknown reasons.

wpDiscuz