Great question! Surprised no-one has asked it before. Well, except on most pages.

Answer is No, you can still buy $20-$500 One Vanilla cards with cc. My Vanilla Debit (a reloadable version) is cash only.

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Philly, Center city & South Philly are done. My friend just cleaned out VR in Northeast, I'll try that store for Serve soon.

San Francisco, CA data point. Bought $5k in VRs this morning without issue, cashier said these have been a "hot buy" lately but made no mention of a switch to cash only. I came back to the same CVS a few hours later to load my 3 Serve cards and a different cashier said sorry, cash only for Serve loads from now on. I said I heard it wasn't cash only until April 4th, and the manager said it's actually April 3rd, and allowed me to load my $3k.

I had to load the Serve cards $500 x 6; I wasn't able to load multiple Serves with one credit card swipe (it gave me an alternate tender error when the cashier tried).

Geographic MS opportunities was one of several factors for me when evaluating a recent job offer.

I just successfully bought (4) VR cards using my CC at 11am today in Compton, CA.

Bring some protection though. It's in a bad neighborhood and there's lots of shady characters waiting for you outside while you walk out with thousands of dollars worth of VRs. God bless America and the right to bear arms :p

Thanks.

Nice to hear a snarky comment followed by good information ^ The VR's were my first (and other than AP) and only foray into the world of MS. I have gotten comfortable with BB and there's a WM being built directly across the street from where I work. I was thinking of using TCB to buy Visa GC from GCM to fund the bird but have gotten used to doing things in person.

So based on the above comment, are the One Vanilla cards exempt from the new CVS policy or do I need to the mail route for my GC needs? I know, I know, read, search, etc but so many of the avenues are already shut down and/or obsolete that I figured it would be worth a shot to see what folks are having the best luck (if any) in funding their BB in person with...

I think this will be a hit or miss, depending on the cashier. Last time I tried, the cashier lumped it all together and says, they're all cash only, yes, including OneVanilla GC. Don't take my word for it, as YYMV, but that could be a bit of a pain too.

Yes, the cashier (as always) can be a barrier, but it is not hard-coded (well, based on the fact that the register prevented me buying a VR but allowed One Vanilla) so you can always try another cashier or store, whereas that option isn't there for VR soon!

Why the love for OV? Do your WMs not allow MOs with GCs?

Maybe speculate that this is driven by Incomm (aren't all the products listed theirs?). I suspect they had some kick-back to CVS to cover interbank fees that exceed the reload fee, but they've pulled the plug.

If true , the funny thing is incomm will see its revenue tank as there must be a staggering imbalance in their sales comparing $20-$50 occasional loads of their target market and MS $5k daily loads. They'll be more profitable but I bet someone's head will roll as they massively miss their targets.

I've noticed some cashiers have a knee-jerk reaction to cash-only - even if the register is not hard-coded. The strength of reaction seems to vary among cards:

MP > PPMC > VR > variable VGC > pre-set VGC > generic GC.

Perhaps the word "Money" or "Cash" promotes a cash-only reaction.

Anyone had any luck in NYC today in Manhattan?

Was working just fine yesterday......however multiple stores tried this morning rejected the transaction at POS (cashier was unaware and tried, but POS rejected and wanted cash only).