I'm in the Southeast. I didn't know the issue was happening up north as well.

I'm in the Southeast in Middle TN.

Hmm. This response was a bit testy.

I'm getting 2%-5% rewards at drugstores on a close to unlimited basis. It's easier for me to load beans than to drive to Wally World to load at a kiosk or with a human. I try to avoid MOs unless I have to use them so I don't tick off any banks. By remote, I mean I have to drive an extra 7-10 minutes. I want my go to locations to be stocked again.

You've totally lost me on how it is relevant on what reward card you are using or what MOs have to do with it.

VRs are 3.95. VGCc are 4.95
Assuming that you are using BBs for both and loading in WMT kiosk vs @ home (for VRs). So, the only difference is really $1 / card and if you need to drive extra 7-10 miles vs. closer CVS + WMT then fuel + car's wear & tear expenses are simply more expensive (maybe except if you'd go for $5k every time).

I agree with Dapper.

I have almost exclusively used GCs because VRs can't be bought for credit near me.

However, when I am in a location where I can buy VRs (maybe once or twice a month) - I purchase as many as possible even if it means I have to drive 15 minutes out of my way.

Why? Well although I have quite a few places to buy GCs near me - the closest WM Kiosk is either a 60 minutes round trip away (out of my way), or 40 minutes away next to a location I only get there 1-2 times a month.

With VRs I can load them from home. The important thing here is the daily limit. I usually find myself with thousands in gift cards but I can only load $1K/day at WM on BB. If those GCs were instead VRs, I can load 1K/day without having to drive to WM.

So depending on your schedule and availability of stores, VRs can definitely be more flexible. I wouldn't think someone crazy for driving an extra 35-45 minutes to pick up a stack of VRs instead of GCs. Heck, at 5% one card will more than pay for your gas and wear and tear.

Also, unless I am mistaken - you can only offload $100/day,$1K/month using GCs from home - so if you can't get to a WM easily, GCs from home are not really a viable option.

It's quicker for me to liquidate GCs through MOs than it is through WM. Plus I, like most folks, abhor WM. Buying VRs are still one stop, regardless of how far I have to drive.

Well said. Vrs are more convenient and a cheaper option.

Also...a bit off topic, but I wanted to thank you all for having this discussion. While double checking the info for my last post I discovered two things:

1) That you can link and drain debit cards on BB up to $100/day. Maximum linked 4 Debit Cards at one time.

I don't know if i knew this before and forgot it. For some reason I thought there used to be a charge to unload Debit on BB. Anyway, this isn't a huge deal, but it does allow me to drain another $100/day $1K/month which comes in handy for when I have a bunch of $100 cards that I sometimes come into. Question to anyone else linking rotating debit cards to BB - have you been cracked down on at all (like at Serve)? Right now I have just linked 3 $100 GC Debits that I will drain the rest of this week. I am concerned that rotating them out regularly may raise flags.

2) That my Wife's Serve account has been "unlocked." My Serve account was crippled last year from linking debit - so I switched to BB. Shortly after that my wife's was also crippled. We had sent in all the verification they requested, but even after a few months, we still couldn't link a debit card. Based on this conversation, I just tried again and was successfully able to link and drain a $100 card. I then deleted that card, added another, and drained it too. So, it seems as if they unlocked her account - although they only allow you to link one Debit card at a time. I will probably abuse this long enough to offload the stacks of $100 cards I have...but only 2-3 a week. I figure if they lock it again, I'm no worse off than before and because I have already proved to them once that everything is legitimate - they might back off.

Anyway, just wanted to share for those of you that might still have a Serve account tucked away...it may have gotten "unlocked" if you have just let it been sitting a while.

There used to be a $2 fee for online BB load, but it is not there anymore.
Good find.

Love and Ben, I thought I saw someone post that BB got mad at them for draining GCs online and told them to knock it off. Just an fyi...

I like the way you're thinking.

Seems to defeat the purpose...spend less time and money...but as long as break even...I guess.

It only took 2,100 posts to come to this conclusion. haha

ok
 

ok after reading these posts I have made my tinfoil hat and am peeking out the windows looking for the black helicopters. As of today $496 is the new $500 for me and my wife...no more DL scans.

I respectfully contest that statement.

It depends on a few factors... primarily what card are you using and the proximity of CVS vs OD+WM. I generally disregard the latter, as long as it's in a 10-15mile radius.

For a cc with no bonus cats and high point value (like SPG), VRs are a good deal but for something like Chase SP/Ink... not so much. Also, cpm using 5x from office store is .67cent whereas it is .78cent from VRs.

However from convenience point of view - VRs all the way.