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 25, 2014, 11:21 am
#2446
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
I often load (as recently as today) several VRs at once - no problems yet. But I leave the $ there for at least a week and I do at least one "normal" fee-generating transaction in the meantime.
It boils down to this... putting aside guesses about what they actually seek, the data points we've seen here suggest that if you don't exceed $2K per CA, if you leave loaded money in for a bit, and if you mix in some "regular" fee-generating transactions, you'll be okay. Start doing $8K/month, skip the regular transactions, load/unload with little delay, violate published limits, or move outside the box in any other way (including with another card under the same SSN) and you're much more likely to get cut off.
It boils down to this... putting aside guesses about what they actually seek, the data points we've seen here suggest that if you don't exceed $2K per CA, if you leave loaded money in for a bit, and if you mix in some "regular" fee-generating transactions, you'll be okay. Start doing $8K/month, skip the regular transactions, load/unload with little delay, violate published limits, or move outside the box in any other way (including with another card under the same SSN) and you're much more likely to get cut off.
Jan 25, 2014, 12:46 pm
#2447
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,291
That's exactly what I've been doing for a long time, but I got shut down. I'm posting about it as a data point for others to know, since I also believed what you are saying above, but now I have personal evidence to the contrary. MVD is a crap shoot. But IMO, at least it's a less malignant crap shoot than Netspend was, or GoBank. You have a fighting chance to last for a while - altho we do have reports of people getting shut down right off the bat without "breaking the rules" - and even when you do get shut down, you get fair warning and can spend down your balance.
Jan 25, 2014, 1:41 pm
#2448
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
If you don't mind (and you may have already and I just missed it), would you be willing to share more details about the specific pattern you had? e.g., how much per month were you cycling, how many "normal" (buying milk, etc.) transactions per month? Were you doing CA exclusively, and what was your max amount? Thanks!
Never loaded the daily max, never immediately unloaded. Stopped doing CAs a while ago when the CA based purges first started happening. I thought those were the keys issues, since I was avoiding looking like I was doing the frantic load/unload cycle. I lasted for a long time, but...oh well.
Also, doing small charges didn't make any difference. I've made small charges on cards in several other programs where I've gotten shut down and it didn't help: I would try to make the case that I was "just using the card the way it was intended, by charging items and paying bills". The CSR would put me on hold, and come back and say, too bad, you're account is closed. I'd counter with "hey, I don't understand, I haven't done anything wrong, I have don't anything against the Terms & Conditions that your own company has published". They'd still just say "you're not using the card the was it was intended". it's frustrating, but the T&C's always have a clause that says they can blacklist you simply if they feel like it. The point is, once they spot you doing larger than average loads and larger than average unloads, they don't care that you've done a few piddly charges to make it look good. It won't make them change their mind. I have no idea if the small charges help you last longer before you get on their radar, but I know for a fact, over 3 or 4 different programs, that once you DO get on their radar, the small charges won't save you.
Last edited by thegasguru; Jan 25, 2014 at 1:51 pm
Jan 25, 2014, 1:42 pm
#2449
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Los Angles
Posts: 2,101
How so if they shut down just the accounts they deem unprofitable?
most MVDs are grabbed and taken as hostage, profitable or non profitable. Terrorism never pays!
There are plenty of people who ring up lots of fees,
How do you know? more are crying not bragging! I question your motivation to relentlessly promote MVD.
and there are MSers like me that are generating decent fees for them
U sound like an exception, wait for your turn because no cow escapes the slaughterhouse.
most MVDs are grabbed and taken as hostage, profitable or non profitable. Terrorism never pays!
There are plenty of people who ring up lots of fees,
How do you know? more are crying not bragging! I question your motivation to relentlessly promote MVD.
and there are MSers like me that are generating decent fees for them
U sound like an exception, wait for your turn because no cow escapes the slaughterhouse.
AmEx Blue Bird makes -0- fees from me and never complain about the float, free BillPay no need to run for CA or MO. Hmmmmm!
Jan 25, 2014, 1:56 pm
#2450
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
the heavy hitters use MVDs services a lot so the small fees we do generate add up a great deal. Third and most importantly, we buy lots of VR to load the MVD with and each VR costs $4, keep in mind the same company profiting from MVD is behind the VR. So when they shut down our MVD, they make it so we cannot buy VR and lose lots of money that way.
tl;dr I can't wrap my head around why incom i so eager to shut down all ms'ers they must hate profit.
tl;dr I can't wrap my head around why incom i so eager to shut down all ms'ers they must hate profit.
Jan 25, 2014, 2:08 pm
#2451
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,291
Load $1 - 2K, usually $2K. Over the next 3 -5 days, make several small credit card charges. Then BP at WM for about half the balance on the account. Over the next 3 - 5 days, several more small charges. BP at WM for the rest, always leaving ~$20. Over the next several days, or weeks, a couple more small charges. After that, load $1 - $2K. Repeat. On average loaded/unloaded maybe $4K/month on any given card, never in a hurry.
Jan 25, 2014, 2:37 pm
#2452
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: IAH
Posts: 418
They face heavy fines if they do not maintain a defensible AML program. Suspicious behavior needs to be examined, documented and reported - what does it cost to pay an analyst per hour to do that? Upper management was probably shitting bricks when they found out people have been running 100K plus through individual cards - that is, if anyone had the balls to tell upper management. So why don't they just reduce daily/monthly/yearly load amounts and be done with it? As with their other decisions the answer is probably incompetence.
Jan 25, 2014, 8:27 pm
#2453
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Los Angles
Posts: 2,101
They face heavy fines if they do not maintain a defensible AML program. Suspicious behavior needs to be examined,
As far as they are concerned U are loading vanilla reload(VR) card to MVD, both are their products!(from left pocket to right pocket) Absolutely nothing is suspicious After all their target market don't have SSN or DL..
documented and reported - what does it cost to pay an analyst per hour to do that? Upper management was probably shitting bricks when they found out people have been running 100K plus through individual cards -
Who? that is an issue between(responsibility of) the credit card bank and the retail store sold, nothing to do with MVD.
that is, if anyone had the balls to tell upper management. So why don't they just reduce daily/monthly/yearly load amounts and be done with it?
Why are U trying to justify their questionable business practice?
As with their other decisions the answer is probably incompetence.
Incompetence cannot be the issue, they are the experts/pioneers for these type of products.
As far as they are concerned U are loading vanilla reload(VR) card to MVD, both are their products!(from left pocket to right pocket) Absolutely nothing is suspicious After all their target market don't have SSN or DL..
documented and reported - what does it cost to pay an analyst per hour to do that? Upper management was probably shitting bricks when they found out people have been running 100K plus through individual cards -
Who? that is an issue between(responsibility of) the credit card bank and the retail store sold, nothing to do with MVD.
that is, if anyone had the balls to tell upper management. So why don't they just reduce daily/monthly/yearly load amounts and be done with it?
Why are U trying to justify their questionable business practice?
As with their other decisions the answer is probably incompetence.
Incompetence cannot be the issue, they are the experts/pioneers for these type of products.
Jan 25, 2014, 10:02 pm
#2454
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 175
First card shut down at the first of the month after $45k+ since June/July. Bought second card with $500 load. Received personalized card in the mail and loaded $2500 in two days and cashed 2x$2748. Login is not active. Looks like this card has made it to the spend down crowd too. Oh well.
Jan 26, 2014, 5:58 pm
#2455
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
Thanks for the detail. Your report is the first I've seen that pretty closely matches what I presume would avoid shut-downs. Indeed, it did for you for a long time. You did say that you have multiple cards... that could possibly be a factor, especially as they shut them all at once (I think you said that). Also, not sure how the BP weighs in versus a CA. For now, I'm still going strong... our cards are under different people and we do a bit less volume than you did. We'll see how long it lasts.
However, I think we do have plenty of evidence that doing rapid max loads and unloads, and going heavy on the CAs will get you shut down much quicker.
Jan 26, 2014, 6:29 pm
#2456
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: CVG
Programs: AAdvantage, Delta Skymiles, CapOne Venture, Citi ThankYou
Posts: 486
Spend Down
Spend down
01/26/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/26/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/22/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/20/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/15/2014 Wal-Mart Store Bill pay
It was just a back to back load.
Any chance of getting this usable again? Any chance they just want info?
01/26/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/26/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/22/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/20/2014 Vanilla TopUp Redeem $500.00
01/15/2014 Wal-Mart Store Bill pay
It was just a back to back load.
Any chance of getting this usable again? Any chance they just want info?
Jan 26, 2014, 7:10 pm
#2457
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Los Angles
Posts: 2,101
There is no rhyme or reason.....only opinions and theories.
MVD is no more a viable tool for MS, and hope the moderators take proper action.
Jan 26, 2014, 7:43 pm
#2458
Suspended
Join Date: May 2012
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, AS, DL, BA, F9, IHG Plat, HH Gold, CC Gold, SPG Gold, MR Silver
Posts: 1,786
Load $1 - 2K, usually $2K. Over the next 3 -5 days, make several small credit card charges. Then BP at WM for about half the balance on the account. Over the next 3 - 5 days, several more small charges. BP at WM for the rest, always leaving ~$20. Over the next several days, or weeks, a couple more small charges. After that, load $1 - $2K. Repeat. On average loaded/unloaded maybe $4K/month on any given card, never in a hurry.
Never loaded the daily max, never immediately unloaded. Stopped doing CAs a while ago when the CA based purges first started happening. I thought those were the keys issues, since I was avoiding looking like I was doing the frantic load/unload cycle. I lasted for a long time, but...oh well.
Also, doing small charges didn't make any difference. I've made small charges on cards in several other programs where I've gotten shut down and it didn't help: I would try to make the case that I was "just using the card the way it was intended, by charging items and paying bills". The CSR would put me on hold, and come back and say, too bad, you're account is closed. I'd counter with "hey, I don't understand, I haven't done anything wrong, I have don't anything against the Terms & Conditions that your own company has published". They'd still just say "you're not using the card the was it was intended". it's frustrating, but the T&C's always have a clause that says they can blacklist you simply if they feel like it. The point is, once they spot you doing larger than average loads and larger than average unloads, they don't care that you've done a few piddly charges to make it look good. It won't make them change their mind. I have no idea if the small charges help you last longer before you get on their radar, but I know for a fact, over 3 or 4 different programs, that once you DO get on their radar, the small charges won't save you.
Never loaded the daily max, never immediately unloaded. Stopped doing CAs a while ago when the CA based purges first started happening. I thought those were the keys issues, since I was avoiding looking like I was doing the frantic load/unload cycle. I lasted for a long time, but...oh well.
Also, doing small charges didn't make any difference. I've made small charges on cards in several other programs where I've gotten shut down and it didn't help: I would try to make the case that I was "just using the card the way it was intended, by charging items and paying bills". The CSR would put me on hold, and come back and say, too bad, you're account is closed. I'd counter with "hey, I don't understand, I haven't done anything wrong, I have don't anything against the Terms & Conditions that your own company has published". They'd still just say "you're not using the card the was it was intended". it's frustrating, but the T&C's always have a clause that says they can blacklist you simply if they feel like it. The point is, once they spot you doing larger than average loads and larger than average unloads, they don't care that you've done a few piddly charges to make it look good. It won't make them change their mind. I have no idea if the small charges help you last longer before you get on their radar, but I know for a fact, over 3 or 4 different programs, that once you DO get on their radar, the small charges won't save you.
making several small charges kills the slim profit margin...makes no sense to do that
Jan 26, 2014, 9:29 pm
#2460
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,291