Mar 3, 2014, 9:28 am
Last edit by: uncommonsensical
“My Vanilla Personal Reloadable Prepaid Debit Visa card”
https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com
FAQs: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/myvanilla/faq.html
T&C: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/m...Policy_ENG.pdf
Fees: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/m...RhFOmbp3hiKogJ
There isn't a bill pay function with MVD.
How do I load funds onto MVD? There are two primary ways to load funds onto your MyVanilla Card: 1) Direct Deposit (direct deposit all or part of your paycheck, social security, even your tax return refund right onto your MyVanilla Card); 2) At any Vanilla Reload Network retailer; just bring your Card and the amount you want to load onto your Card - Note: This can be either purchasing a Vanilla Reload card or possibly using a retailer with loading function on the cash register such as CVS. $3.95 fee applies to both methods.
CVS Credit Card Load Data Points:
Credit Cards used treated as a purchase:
FIA Fidelity Amex
Credit Cards used treated as a cash advance:
??
What is the load limit? You can load a maximum of $500.00 per day onto your Card, and there is a $2,500.00 total maximum deposit limit per day from all deposit sources (loads and ACH direct deposits). The daily ATM withdrawal limit is $400.00. The daily Cash Advance or "Over the Counter" limit at a bank is reported as $2,500.00/day. Some reports that this is actually / month. Maximum loaded amount on MVD card is $9,999.
If you can find Vanilla Reload cards that you can purchase with a credit card, max out by getting up to 3 registered MyVanilla Debit cards and you can load up to $2500 x 3 per day. And if you have a bank near you that will give you cash advances, you can take the full balance off each card for a $1.95 cent fee.
If you do not have Vanilla Reloads available near you, you want to find a bank that will allow you to cash out temporary cards. These are the ones you buy at CVS for $500 plus $3.95 fee and then cash them out en masse for a 50 cash advance fee apiece.
In Essence
Get new cards, spend some random amount and then get put in shutdown mode to spend off what is left, unless you utilize one old weird trick that prevents shutdown mode.
Liquidating a shut down account as of 3.31.2014
Various reports, and I can also confirm- If you receive the "invalid username or password" message when trying to access your account online, that's the indicator that you have been shut down. Check again for a day or so (just to make sure it wasn't an issue with their website). If still unable to access- you've been shut down.
If you don't want to call and talk to them, you can confirm yourself whether your account is still alive to liquidate by calling 855.686.9513. If you are able to hear your balance, you can liquidate- and you can liquidate quickly without any problem. I liquidated $8,200 over the weekend: 5k Saturday, the remainder Sunday (Walmart BillPay and MO).
https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com
FAQs: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/myvanilla/faq.html
T&C: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/m...Policy_ENG.pdf
Fees: https://www.myvanilladebitcard.com/m...RhFOmbp3hiKogJ
There isn't a bill pay function with MVD.
How do I load funds onto MVD? There are two primary ways to load funds onto your MyVanilla Card: 1) Direct Deposit (direct deposit all or part of your paycheck, social security, even your tax return refund right onto your MyVanilla Card); 2) At any Vanilla Reload Network retailer; just bring your Card and the amount you want to load onto your Card - Note: This can be either purchasing a Vanilla Reload card or possibly using a retailer with loading function on the cash register such as CVS. $3.95 fee applies to both methods.
CVS Credit Card Load Data Points:
Credit Cards used treated as a purchase:
FIA Fidelity Amex
Credit Cards used treated as a cash advance:
??
What is the load limit? You can load a maximum of $500.00 per day onto your Card, and there is a $2,500.00 total maximum deposit limit per day from all deposit sources (loads and ACH direct deposits). The daily ATM withdrawal limit is $400.00. The daily Cash Advance or "Over the Counter" limit at a bank is reported as $2,500.00/day. Some reports that this is actually / month. Maximum loaded amount on MVD card is $9,999.
If you can find Vanilla Reload cards that you can purchase with a credit card, max out by getting up to 3 registered MyVanilla Debit cards and you can load up to $2500 x 3 per day. And if you have a bank near you that will give you cash advances, you can take the full balance off each card for a $1.95 cent fee.
If you do not have Vanilla Reloads available near you, you want to find a bank that will allow you to cash out temporary cards. These are the ones you buy at CVS for $500 plus $3.95 fee and then cash them out en masse for a 50 cash advance fee apiece.
In Essence
Get new cards, spend some random amount and then get put in shutdown mode to spend off what is left, unless you utilize one old weird trick that prevents shutdown mode.
Liquidating a shut down account as of 3.31.2014
Various reports, and I can also confirm- If you receive the "invalid username or password" message when trying to access your account online, that's the indicator that you have been shut down. Check again for a day or so (just to make sure it wasn't an issue with their website). If still unable to access- you've been shut down.
If you don't want to call and talk to them, you can confirm yourself whether your account is still alive to liquidate by calling 855.686.9513. If you are able to hear your balance, you can liquidate- and you can liquidate quickly without any problem. I liquidated $8,200 over the weekend: 5k Saturday, the remainder Sunday (Walmart BillPay and MO).
My Vanilla debit
Jan 10, 2014, 6:12 pm
#2296
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: NYC
Posts: 415
Since I'm doing that, you try the slow load and we come back here in a week and see who got to load more.
Jan 10, 2014, 6:33 pm
#2297
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 112
I have one left that is still alive. Thinking about opening 5 browsers of VR.com between the phones, tablets and computers and hitting the final load button all at once to load 5 VRs to make sure it isn't shut down in the middle of the loads. Could maybe even pull it off with 10 VRs if you do it at the precise time the limits reset.
Jan 11, 2014, 9:20 am
#2299
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 32
I have a Question about MVD, does these cards have to be activated before use? (say if i go cvs and get a temp $500, can i go straight to a bank and CA it out) i read somewhere in this forum someone does that before i was curious if that still holds true?
Jan 11, 2014, 9:51 am
#2300
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Boston
Programs: UA, AA, USairways, HH, Marriott
Posts: 57
Another sad data point just today
I lost online access a week or so ago, but didn't get around to calling in until today. My usage was all VR and WMMO. I was told that my load-unload activity was suspicious, and that my card had been converted to a "gift card" that could not be reloaded, used at an ATM, or used online. Anyone else heard similar? Wasn't even given the opportunity to submit docs, etc. to reopen.
Maybe I'll try buying another one and see what happens... any thoughts?
Maybe I'll try buying another one and see what happens... any thoughts?
1. Loaded 2.5K on my MVD w/o problem yesterday
2. Tried to load my 1st VR today and got the red-colored error message: "This card is INVALID. Please check our lists of accepted card partners and try again. For assistance, please call the customer service number listed on the back of your prepaid card. Error Code: 43"
3. Lost online access
4. Tried to load via phone. Was able to hear the balance of $2.5K, recent transactions, and all the other things (thought I was fine then...). However, when loading via the phone, got the same error: "you card is not valid....".
5. Transferred to a CSR from vanilla reload and was told after a long holding (>15min) that my card was converted to a "gift card" by the system. The rep did say it is uncommon and that usually the card would be put on hold and request the customer to send in documents. But, in my case, it was a conversion! (is this the "spend down" mode everybody is talking about). Was told the conversion is not reversible even if I'd like to wait. Can't load any more amount into the account.
Background about the card: I think I am a "conservative" user. Usually wait at least three days after the last load before doing the CA withdrawl in bank. The unload amount never goes more than 5K. Most of time one load/unload cycle per month. The last activity of this card before what happened here was a CA unload of $4.5K more than 30 days ago. As for what I might have done wrong: (1) I have never put any everyday transaction on this card, purely load/unload... (2) always load to the $2.5K daily quota when loading.
That's all. I would still like to thank incomm to allow my MVD manufactured spending for so long (probably since last fall). It is sad to see it is gone. Don't know if my ssn would be blacklisted. My other two MVDs are still fine even after this. They do have the exactly same load/unload patterns, though the two are relatively new. Hesitating what to do next.
Last edited by frugalman; Jan 11, 2014 at 10:03 am
Jan 11, 2014, 2:11 pm
#2301
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,291
I think your $5K might have flagged you. I never exceed $2K (because I read several places that was an amount that it seems wise not to exceed) and I've followed pretty much your pattern with several cards for many months without issue. I also do about one "non-MS swipe" per month for a jug of milk or whatever, just to keep the fees (albeit minimal) flowing.
Jan 11, 2014, 3:27 pm
#2303
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: MR,UR, UA, BA, AA, Hotels
Posts: 581
Jan 11, 2014, 6:02 pm
#2305
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 546
Next question: how will they distinguish MS from desirable use? Well there are various ways... but they can either 1) manually look at accounts one by one; or 2) run a query search on their user database. In this scenario, I doubt that merely reaching the $10k/mo limit is enough to be singled out for adverse treatment since a regular user can achieve this just as easily as an MSer, so the query search would not single out people who acheive 10k/mo loads.
Last edited by silver4300; Jan 11, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Jan 12, 2014, 2:01 pm
#2306
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
Take Heed
Ok last week my MVD #2 was Denied when I tried to get some MOs, knowing what that meant I loaded it to the brink on Fri and some to my #3 as well. I called up and they kept telling me they sent me an email to reset my password.
After doing this 3 times and never getting an email I called back and the rep read me the email address on file, yes it was mine but it was the 1 I attached to my #3 not my #2! and I calling about my #2 and using that card #, it seems once I activated my #3 they changed all the info to match whatever I inputted for that card
So it seems they may just be looking at everything on a cumaltive basis, dont know if its something new but I wasnt able to load my #3 once they looked at my #2 she something about being way over the limits, yet I played it easy with #3
btw the good thing they opened both to Spend Down,jumped in my car and CAed it all at my bank
After doing this 3 times and never getting an email I called back and the rep read me the email address on file, yes it was mine but it was the 1 I attached to my #3 not my #2! and I calling about my #2 and using that card #, it seems once I activated my #3 they changed all the info to match whatever I inputted for that card
So it seems they may just be looking at everything on a cumaltive basis, dont know if its something new but I wasnt able to load my #3 once they looked at my #2 she something about being way over the limits, yet I played it easy with #3
btw the good thing they opened both to Spend Down,jumped in my car and CAed it all at my bank
Jan 12, 2014, 8:16 pm
#2307
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: MCO
Programs: AA 1MM, BA, UA, HH Dia, CC Gold, SPG Plat
Posts: 795
Jan 13, 2014, 10:56 am
#2309
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 486
My nine day adventure with MVD is complete.
Day 1: load $500
Day 2: CA $499
Day 2: Locked out online and phone; read in FT that it may be because the CA fee took balance to the negative rather than actual shutdown.
Day 3: Load $1000, CA denied 10 minutes later. Phone MVD, send email to get account unlocked
Day 5: Realize I didn't attach documentation to email, resend
Day 7: Online access restored, account is now in spend down mode
Day 9: MO for balance. Brain fart (it was early in the morning) made me leave $1.40 too much in there because I wanted the remainder to cover the MO fees, which of course were included in the amount charged.
I do have a plan for using the card in the future: signing up for things online that give free trials but require a card number and charge you if you forget to cancel the subscription at the end of the trial.
Day 1: load $500
Day 2: CA $499
Day 2: Locked out online and phone; read in FT that it may be because the CA fee took balance to the negative rather than actual shutdown.
Day 3: Load $1000, CA denied 10 minutes later. Phone MVD, send email to get account unlocked
Day 5: Realize I didn't attach documentation to email, resend
Day 7: Online access restored, account is now in spend down mode
Day 9: MO for balance. Brain fart (it was early in the morning) made me leave $1.40 too much in there because I wanted the remainder to cover the MO fees, which of course were included in the amount charged.
I do have a plan for using the card in the future: signing up for things online that give free trials but require a card number and charge you if you forget to cancel the subscription at the end of the trial.