oh brother!

NEPony above is good way out.

Alternately you can offer your friends and relatives the $500 value card at a discount. Calculate at rounded off 2 cents a mile for what you earned and discount accordingly. also prepay / overpay large bills AFTER making sure they refund the overages !

Those are good suggestions HMPS but I re-read the OP and this will be a major obstacle to even use the GCs as CCs:

UNLESS cards are activated, they can't be used as payment so that if let's say, insurance company is willing to accept CCs for auto/home premiums, these unactivated cards will not go through.

NEPony may not have other options but call and speak to a rep. Hopefully, the rep is cooperative and willing to help.

Can't you talk to rep and get a refund?

any update???

Update
 

Update regarding my 'situation' with NetSpend cards.

First thing I did is I went back to grocery chain where I bought the cards. As expected, they said that they don't refund any gift or reloadable cards. I expected as much, but figured I would try this as it would be the easiest way to get the money back.

Then, researching these cards further, I uncovered an interesting tidbit - non-US residents can obtain this card as well, by registering with appropriate ID - driver's license or passport.

To make a long story short, I have activated four of the cards using NetSpend web site, applying as a non-US resident (which is indeed my case - I am here on a visa :) ). My card got activated, with the caveat that within a month I need to fax a copy of passport/drivers license etc. As I don't plan on keeping these cards, I will skip this particular step. As a side note, I don't think the site actually validates name/address/document # :)

I already used these cards to load BB, proving that the approach works.

So, hope this helps others who might find themselves in the similar situation :)

How did you register with other id? Online or via the phone?

I found a cool place that will let me buy reload with a CC. However, when the lady swipes the reload carton on what looks like a debit card reader with a number pad and chooses $400 she gets a print out saying "Transaction Rejected"? Any idea how to help her activate that reload card? Thanks

Netspend charges
 

Bought a $400 Netspend visa card.
Nube questions, direct me to Netspend wiki if there is one, I couldn't find it.
If I unload it, should I unload it for $398 as there is a $2 fee?
Does card default to Pay-As-You-Go plan?
No way to select plan when I activated card that I saw.
To avoid account maintenance fee, do you just cancel card after you unload it?
Better to just buy new card than try to reload?
Thanks for the help!

Hi all, I'm new to the netSpend card. Im sure this has been answered before, but can u pay credit card bills using the funds from netspend account? If yes whats the fee.

Thanks

If you load and dump or have high amounts per transaction and pay off your CCs, you will be shut down before you can count to 3. NetSpend is for doing tons of very small transactions Its target isnt someone with a CC its someone who cant get a CC. Load too much and you will shut down and they will hold the funds till you get the FDIC on their backs.Im talking from experience

Thanks for the quick reply. Doesn't seem too useful for my purpose (meeting min spends on new ccs). Since I already have it now I guess i'll just load small amounts every 3 months to avoid the account maintenance fee. Withdraw it all at once and close the account

Are there any shut down risks if I buy Netspend Reload Packs to load my Netspend account? Just looking to add money up to 5k to max up the savings bonus.

did you find out this answer? i'm at 1500 and cannot load anymore.

If you're in TX you can reload at most (if not all) HEB's with a debit card.