I bought another MVD card at CVS, but for some reasons I wasn't able to register it (they could not verify my identity for some reasons). That was strange since I already have a MVD card. Anyway, the rep told me that he activated the card and I'm free to use it, but I cannot setup a PIN. Because of this, I want to get rid of this card quickly. I'm thinking about a CA. What is the procedure? Should I go to teller and tell him I want a CA for $500 (amount on the card) or for $498.05 (minus $1.95 CA fee)?

So I have loaded ~$9800 on my card. If I don't want to go through the trouble of MO or Cash advance, could I just ask to close my account. I think I am ok to pay $9.95 fee. Has anyone done this. Do they ask for SSN copy etc before sending the check. Any help is appreciated.

If you don't care if the account is closed, will be a heckuva lot easier just to do a CA. Of course, you may want to do that in less than $3000 increments, to minimize the chance of a SAR.

But I'm just curious: why did you put nearly $10K on the card if you didn't want to go thru the trouble of unloading it?

I am thinking that instead of doing CA in 3-4 batches and pay $8 fees and risk SAR etc, it might be just easy to ask them to close the account. and if this works fine, I may do this again.. i.e. get a new card, load close to max and then request check by paying fees. Will it work ?

:DI'm guessing they probably track you by your SSN, and wouldn't allow you keep repeating. I base this on my experience at having been banned by several other programs. Once you're out, you're out. It's also why, even tho I still go pretty large, I work my way up reasonably, always stay just before the maximums, mix in regular spend, etc

Looks like supermarket cashback incurs a $1.95 ATM fee. Won't be doing that again, thank you.

I noticed on the fine print of the My Vanilla personal reload prepaid card that they have $3.95 a month non-activity fee after 90 days of non-use.

If you have a 0 balance, will you still incur the fee and start incurring a negative balance or does it stop at 0?

removed

I suspect nobody knows yet, since when the cards WERE usable many people were using them a lot.

I would guess that the cards would incur the fee at 90 days. If your account was ever monitored and "unofficially" closed, I would close the account to avoid being charged the fee.

If you have 0 balance, fees can not be assessed.
The monthly non activity fee is so that the issuing bank can start to decrease their "liability" of the amount that is loaded on the card until the card reaches 0 balance.

They will gladly assess fees that bring the balance into the negative.

Whether they will come to collect those fees is anyone's question.

I signed up for MVD only to realize that there are better ways to manufacture spend. I'm not going to take chances as they have my SSN. $3 might be a small price to pay against risk of being reported for collection.

I have a question. My card was put on "hold". I called and was told that due to my activity they decided to close my account (according to their words - the card is not for loading and immediate unloading. However, I used it only for big purchases at WM, never did a CA or ATM). Anyway, the rep told me that they would unlock my account for 48 hours in order to let me withdraw the money. I did, but it is almost 5 days after 48 hours deadline and my account is still "active". Is it a glitch or I may continue to load on this card?

They're giving you another chance but they're watching. :)

Cancel this card and open new one, start from fresh 'or' I would call them and ask if everything is OK and reset before loading anything on the current card