Sounds like the bait and switch technique. Why people run into these situations where they don't take 20 seconds to briefly check if the last 4 digits match the cards that they purchased is beyond me. I would be curious if the funds might have already been drained by the employee who activated these cards the first time. Unless they had a ton of PP MCs sitting right there by the checkout stand next to where you bought the PP MCs this should not have happened. Sounds like you create quite of a bit of mess for yourself. Good luck.

Wow, if it's the cashier, that's pretty aggressive. Don't they have security cameras that would catch this? I admit that sometimes I'll get caught up in small talk and don't watch closely enough. I will be watching like a hawk from now on.

This happens when you get comfortable with the cashiers. I usually buy 2 pp and 2 ov in one visit at this store twice a week so I don't think employee is crook but you never know..... I will be watching like a hawk from now on..... I will stop by this ra tomorrow and will update

Let me clarify before you start crucifying anyone by saying that my opinion is just pure speculation. I wasn't there so I don't know what the real situation is on whether it was an honest mistake or a jaded employee.

However I find it very unusual that a barcode on any product that needs to be scanned could be coded wrong where the wrong 4 digits are activated on the receipt. I mean has that issue ever been the case (unless its a scammer who placed a sticker barcode over the real barcode but that is not the situation here)? Its just too convenient that the OP bought 2 PP MC cards and exactly 2 PP MC cards were "incorrectly activated". Activation errors just seem too fishy IMO because I just can't see how normally activation errors can happen unless Incomm's end or the retailer's system is down. But if that was the case we would see many reports about this and there are just too many people buying VGCs throughout the US at any single time and you don't hear too many reports about this.

I have two Paypal accounts with different websites. Can I use one Paypal account to send myself money by credit card $1000 with the other account? I use these accounts (especially one of them) for accepting payments for my website so don't want to risk getting shut down. I have used AP before, but still have $1000 spending left I need to hit on one card now that AP is dead. Not sure what Paypal allows and doesn't allow.

Credit card fee is I think 2.9%, or $29. If you go to your friendly neighborhood pharmacy/gas station/grocery store and load two PPMC for $500 each, it will cost you $7.90.

As for transferring between your own accounts, it's probably ill-advised but I've been doing it for about a year now.

With Amazon Payments going buh-bye, I will have to find another way to pay my monthly rent starting in January (less than $500 a month). Even with the fees, do you think Paypal is worth it (I believe 3%) in order to use it as a mechanism to continue churning through credit card offers?

If you are willing to pay the 3%, why not use something like williampaid.com to pay your rent?

If you are paying 3%, it's not worth it. Doing it right, PP is basically break even, slight mm. But tread carefully! Read this entire thread, search the interwebs-there's a circles and arrows bit on the how to. AP was a no brainer, this takes some time to figure out what you can get away with.

Take home message with PP, go balls to the walls and you'll get shut down.

For BB/Serve loads sure, no way you're getting CB for PIN-based MO purchases though.

Thanks. I am overseas so my options are pretty limited. Cannot buy any debit cards or the like here. Trying to figure out a substitute for AP. I am willing to pay the 3% to hit the spending requirement for a sign up bonus.

IIRC, the fees would be 2.9% plus .30 so for $1K it'll be $29.30. I don't think you'll have a problem because paypal likes these type of transactions where they earn fees instead of those sent to F&F from an available balance.

I haven't used it recently, but Google Wallet allowed $250 of free payments per account. It's just 1x per lifetime per account.

Update: I stopped at this RA and talked to a manager on a shift and explained everything to her. She was super nice and basically went to the shelf where all the cards are on display (prolly 100's if not less) and went thru each and every card and finally found the one matching my receipt. She mentioned that may be I grabbed two cards (which were sticking together) and Cashier scanned the one at the bottom (or top) and while I was busy picking up some other stuff at the counter , the other fell through ( the one that scanned) and they usually put it back on the shelf. I was amazed how this things played out in the end.

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