thehawk75

Half off the 'fee' for the 'Univision MasterCard Prepaid Card'

Anyone ever PIN one of these without SSN and just 'one and done' them?

Haven't much looked into the prepaid program itself yet, if anyone wants to chime in on that.

jasonvr

This offer is back. It's a J4U coupon that is present on all the accounts I have access to (i.e. not targeted). Anyone tried these? The website says you can actually load up to 950 in one transaction... The 9.95 monthly fee is a killer, but I wonder if you can load and unload fast enough to not get hit with the fee? You can also WD up to 500 per day for free at Allpoint ATMs

jasonvr

Well, I decided to jump in and see how it worked. Got some good information, and the best is that it can be easily used for MS.

Once I got to the store, picked up the card and called the number on the package to better understand the product (before I bought it). Especially considering was that the fees on the package were different from what is on their website.

Here's the skinny. They have two different fee programs which you can choose from when you register the card. 5.95/month as is stated on the package doesn't allow for free ATM WDs. The 9.95/month program as is stated on the website includes the free ATM WDs. Talking to the CSR, the monthly maintenance fee is charged the first time 1 month after purchase (unlike PP which charges almost immediately). Also, the max load at the store is 500, not the 950 stated on the website. Asked the CSR if there was a problem having more than one card (since it seemed that it needed to be registered) and she it was unlimited.

All that sounded good, so I took it to the register, put the club card number in and half the fee went away just like it was supposed to.

Couldn't get the website registration to work on my phone, so I called the number. Input card number, expiration date and initial load amount and was immediately able to set a PIN! The next question asks if you want additional benefits by getting a personalized card which you can answer no to....and then you're done!! Card is fully ready to be used and PIN is active. Drained it about 1.5 hours later.

nayrb3

Thanks for the doing the legwork on this one Jasonvr. I will definitely pickup one next time I'm at Safeway. I also saw that my local ad has the paypower prepaid cards for $0 activation fee, but was thinking about skipping it since anything paypal is just a hassle. I remember last time they had something like this, I got hit with the $5 fee upon activation anyway, so not worth the hassle. Unless of course, someone has some info that makes this card different from the other paypal cards or a workaround besides driving directly to WM after purchase...

mile ho

Not really clear on the fees you paid. Did you pay 5.95 to purchase the card and then they refunded half of that when you registered it? Is that what you're saying?

jasonvr

The card has a purchase fee of 4.95. The J4U deal cuts that in half, so you only pay 2.98 to activate it. The cards have monthly maintenance fees of either 5.95 or 9.95 depending on which program you choose upon registration (if you register). As long as you drain in the first month, you'll avoid the maint fee completely so you are left with only the reduced purchase fee.

I just saw the PayPower deal in the paper ad as well. No literature in the store on it and not in the Vons app either. AFAIK, PayPower is not in any way associated with PP (it is issued by Metabank). I'll have to look into these as well. 0 fee is even better than 2.98

cbn42

jasonvr, thanks for this report, it is most helpful.

When you called to register, did you have to give your name, SSN or any other personal information? If not, this seems to be scalable, and may be worthwhile even without the J4U offer.

fidbrat

How did you drain it? MOs are hard with MCs. Was it ATM or something else? Do you happen to know if it supports Bill pay to ccs?

jasonvr

Call in was totally automated and didn't require ANY personal information. Literally I only had to enter the card number, expiration date, and the original load amount and from there I was able to set a PIN and decline receiving a personalized card. At that point I drained to BB. It is theoretically scalable since there is no identifying information and the fee is actually lower than a normal GC. The only thing would be ensuring that the CSR I talked to was actually correct about when the monthly fee is charged. I didn't wait around to find out since I drained the same day.

And interestingly (and I should have posted this earlier), it drained without any of the normal MC issues. I swiped at a register and it asked for a PIN. No having to hit cancel or anything like that. Just swipe, PIN, done. Didn't try it for an MO though. I didn't look at any features of the card since I was just interested in draining as soon as possible. I would imagine that features like BP would require a full registration of the card.

mile ho

From the website looks like a one-time coupon. Anyone try more than one?

jasonvr

It is a one time coupon (i.e. it disappeared from my account after I used it). But there are such easy ways around that....

nayrb3

I just got back from Safeway as I was returning a redbox movie there, so I thought I'd pickup a Univision Mastercard. I was able to buy it no problem, $2.48 came off instantly as expected. As a side note, was pleasantly surprised to see that I also earned 1000 fuel points for the purchase as well, enough for $1 off of my next 25 gallon fill up tomorrow morning, or $25 saved. Whenever I buy other visa, mc, or amex gc's there, I never earn fuel points. These may replace the gc's I had been buying since they also earn fuel points, plus they are are $1 cheaper per card.

I checked on the paypower visa gift card from the circular. The packaging of the card says cash only and my cashiers are sticklers for that, so I was unsuccessful. They have had this promo in the past and I now remember why I was unable to take advantage of it. Good luck to anyone else whose cashiers don't care, hopefully you have success and are able to scale before the deal ends.

mile ho

If the Univision earns fuel points then I'll buy a few. That's great news! Thanks.

jasonvr

Just checked my receipt and did indeed earn 1000 fuel points as well. Sounds like a mistake. That's happened in the past though when they had the deal for money off when purchasing Amex GCs. Makes this deal even sweeter. Too bad the only station around me where I can do a full $1 off is not close at all. I cap out at 20 cents/gallon at the Chevrons Plus with only one card purchased per club card, can't really rack up fuel points on one card.

Really interesting that their block on earning fuel points seems to be strictly limited to the straight up VGC and MCGCs and everything else will likely fall thru the cracks.... (though I don't remember earning fuel points when they had the PP card deal a while back)

Edit:
Checked an old receipt for the PP cards, no fuel points. So it seems to be hit or miss on which products are blocked and which aren't.

rampartmovie

Will this print an additional coupon after the purchase for next time? Is this like the previous 10 off 100 safeway/vons deal?