jasonvr

Did not happen to me. Followed the instructions upthread and had $500 exactly on the card and drained $500 without an issue

It's all about saving the $5 fee, especially when doing this in large quantities. Look around this forum for the Chase deal. Easy to find

jasonvr

New advice. STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THESE CARDS!

Soon after I made my post above I called in to activate the next set of cards to load onto my BB. Got a helpful agent the, activated a card without issues, so I asked if I could activate a few more in the same way. Sure, no problem. Did a total of 3 with that agent and didn't want to push it anymore, so I said thank you and hung up.

Dialed back, got a different rep and asked to activate another. He went away for a bit and then came back, gave the limitations speech and then proceeded to tell me that the 4.95 monthly fee had already been deducted by the system so my balance was 495.05 and that they would charge me for credit and debit transactions.....Wait, backup, they already charged me the monthly fee!!!!!

The online cardholder agreement is silent about it, but in very fine print on the package and in the included CH agreement (which of course you cannot see until you buy the card and open it), it says that the first monthly fee will be deducted within 36 hours of purchase!!!!!! I'm not sure who in their right mind would expect a monthly fee to be assessed that fast, especially after having just paid a 4.95 purchase fee, but one would think this is the kind of thing that our lawmakers should actually be working against instead of the ridiculous cr@p they usually deal with.

Note that the first agent said NOTHING about the fee already being taken out, and it is clear that the two I activated yesterday squeaked thru before the fee could be charged.

Also note that there is no way to automatically check the balance on the card once you've got it activated for limited use. The automated system instantly tries to push you to an agent and there is no online access.

So, shame on me for not reading the package closely enough and making a logical assumption that a monthly fee would be be assessed, I don't know, after a month of having the card. Lesson learned. I've got one more card that needs to be activated, I think I'll do a full activation on it just to confirm that is exactly what is happening (I'll never buy another one of these, so no fear of having Paypal lock me out for trying to churn them).

Edit:
Yep, 4.95 fee confirmed online. On the plus side, by registering it online, they give you $3, so I've only lost 1.95 on that last card.

jmw

Thanks. I had a bad feeling about the phone call workaround so I decided to pass. If it was a normal GC, I would have used my multiple j4u accounts to grab as many as I can.

I would not link any of the prepaid cards to a Paypal account. I would rather eat the $5 loss than give Paypal an excuse to freeze the remaining card funds or my main account, which I need for my side businesses. I would not even put the linked prepaid debit card through BB. I would spend like a normal person to use up the funds.

nayrb3

Jason,

Thanks for your post. After reading your previous post (not this one), I called paypal to see if they would consider putting the 4.95 back on my card after I complained a little (I was geniunely frustrated that I would have to pay $10 right off the bat). After a few minutes with the rep, I asked if there was anyway that he could put the money back on the card. He said yes, but each time I made a swipe with credit it would be a $1 charge and $2 charge for pin. I told him I was only going to make one pin swipe (to BB) and that I would rather him put the money back on the card. He agreed and put me on hold, when he came back he said the money was put back and I then had him to it to my other card. I called paypal immediately to check the balance and the money was not there. I called back five min later and my new balance was $500 dollars. I then went to WM this morning to load to BB. Since I was in a hurry I went to the kiosk to load with the cards, went through no problem, but I chose to load $498 in case they assessed the fees (was in a hurry). I called paypal to check the balance of my cards and they each have $2 - great! I'll probably just use them at starbucks to drain the balance of the last $2 on each. So, in the end I did save the $12 (thx to not having to buy gc's), but what a pain. Ah well, live and learn. I also have the BCP unlimited for a year until Sept, so in the end I make $60 (instead of 48) so not that bad of a deal. I make about $540 per month minus $108 in gc fee's, $432 a month aint bad. These safeway promo's are even better, helps on the gc fees.

I would encourage you to call paypal back. Tell them you don't want the 4.95 fee. They will say, "We can credit the money back, but everytime you swipe you will be charged x dollars", (I do think they are trying to help you avaid fee's which is why the do it, as most will actually swipe many times before card is drained) which according to my experience wasn't true. Just say, "Yeah, that's fine, put the money back." That's what I did and saved myself $10 bucks.

Good Luck.

thehawk75

So, within about 36 hours or so of purchase these bums actually do charge the monthly maintenance fee!

I hardly feel guilty at all any more for wanting to just one-and-done this thing without even registering.

So, in essence the standard purchase fee to sign up for the program is actually $9.90. What a joke.

At any rate, I actually burned through 6 of these.

5 of them had no issue since I basically cashed out the day they were bought. The 6th one I didn't go to WM until a couple days later, and, oops $500 not available, only $495.05 (as I found out after calling them). After a frustratingly long conversation (while pacing around the WM), the rep just agreed to issue a refund check for the full $500. So, waiting 20 business days for that. Apparently he couldn't simply refund to the 'active card'.

Well, kind of glad this promotion is done. Don't want to be tempted to buy another one of these things again.

But... if you do happen to buy one, you'd better make sure you are ready to cash out the day you buy, your it will cost you $4.95.

aegt123

Same with me. I had cashed out 5 of the 8 cards that I bought withing 4 to 5 hours, so I never learnt anything about the 4.95 charge. Will try to call them and see if they can put in the 4.95 back in the remaining 3 cards.

At least I (and hopefully others) got 1000 MR per card.

hawkandhoo

After reading the first few posts, which gave the green light to this deal, I went ahead and bought a PayPal card on Monday, given that the Safeway promo was expiring soon. I didn't see the follow-up e-mails warning about the problems until last night, but by that time it was too late.

I called to activate the card today and was dinged for the monthly fee. I asked for it to be refunded to my card, but the CS rep refused. At that point, I just wanted to get out of a bad situation as soon as possible, so I loaded the $495 to my BB. I will NEVER buy one of these cards again.

This is the first time in several years of reading FT that I have been burned by following the advice that I've read here. But I'm not going to worry over losing $5 -- FT has helped me earn/save thousands of $$$ over the years -- and I still appreciate the efforts that jasonvr made to warn people about the problems with this card as soon as he could.

Steve in Olympia

Five days before you bought the card, I posted a warning on this thread:

Anything sold by PayPal is going to be a headache.

jasonvr

Agree that you posted a warning, but I'm not sure that anyone in their right mind could expect the monthly fee to be assessed that fast. I'm sure everyone, including me, looked at the monthly fee warning and thought "I'll drain it long before a month is up". I now agree about PayPal, but I'll extend it to anything associated with PayPal (since they don't actually sell it, it's just got their brand on it)

VaguelyAsian

I'm in NorCal also and have never had a problem purchasing GCs at Safeway or any other chain store with a CC. Safeway often runs GC promotions so I go there frequently. Last month there was a Mastercard pre-paid GC with a $15 rebate which even after the activation fee, makes you money (sometimes the activation fee is waived also). Safeyay also sends Personalized Special Offers that show up in your J4U account occasionally.

Has anyone tried to purchase GC from the Safeway jump page - http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/Gi...-Landing.page? Would Safeway recognize that transaction and give you credit for whatever promotion was running at that time or Gas Reward Points?

hawkandhoo

Yes, and while your post was informative, it's utility was limited because it was obvious from your post that you had not actually purchased the card or tried to use it. There were two subsequent posts, one by aegt123 and the other by jasonvr, which described actual experiences buying and unloading the card -- both of which seemed positive. The information seemed credible and reliable, which prompted me to give it a try, too. The rest of the story is well known....

jasonvr

And my experience has gotten even weirder. I went to load another 2 of my cards onto my BB at WM and decided to call in to confirm the balance. Note that these cards were activated with the first CSR who didn't mention anything about the fee. I checked both cards with the CSR and both showed the full $500 still on the card (i.e. no monthly fee taken out)

So, I think what is becoming increasingly obvious is that some CSR's activate the limited functionality cards on the monthly fee program, and some activate with the per swipe fee program, with no rhyme nor reason. In fact, I believe one the three cards I activated with the first CSR got the fee while these two did not. The card activated with the second CSR also got the fee, as well as the one I actually fully activated. Completely FUBAR

Steve in Olympia

Gosh, I am sorry that I wasn't more helpful in saving you from yourself.

Instead of just warning you that there was a $4.95 monthly fee, I should have actually purchased one of these cards, let them charge me the $4.95 fee, and then reported back to you about how foolish it was to buy one of these cards.

I sincerely apologize for my lack of diligence on this matter. I will try to do better in the future. I obviously need to take more personal responsibility for your conduct.

thehawk75

Guys,

Don't be so negative. No one duped you into buying the cards, I got the fee as well, and yes, it's asinine, but, you deal with these things in life and move on.

At any rate, here's a real silver lining to this. I got FUEL REWARDS for these purchases!! Not only that, I think it was 4X fuel points too (as per the promotion on other store branded GCs they're currently running). I don't know if it's a glitch or not, but, all my accounts in which I bought these things on Monday and Tuesday show fuel rewards.

I'm going to be saving $1/gallon for the next 8 fill ups (well, until end of July when whatever is left expires).

jasonvr

I'm not being negative. Live and learn

And you're lucky on the gas rewards. I got a rock (meaning I got nothing on any of my accounts)