pier11

+1. That's my view too.
BigDawgFT? :-)

pier11

There are straight forward/easy/fast methods, Lemma mentioned. And there are YMMV and non-scalable/difficult methods... The latter might be used as emergency exit if one values his time less than potential loss.

raccah

So to recap - this issue exist only on the fixed cost Vanilla Debit cards that start with 4847 18 (which you cannot see from the outside) - correct? Variable cost VGC are OK so far? Meta bank and other fixed cost Visa GC are OK so far? Any Mastercard GC is OK so far?

Wondering as I want to start getting some 200 GC and want to make sure what is OK and what is not

Thanks!

craz

yea it seems for now only related to Vanillas GCs. I think it will affect all of Vanillas GCs even the variable ones, as I posted elsewheer on Sun I saw at a CV in CT new $20-500 Gold pkgs that had a pic of the new design card on them. Didnt buy any but any Vanilla product now Id say is a hit or miss, best to get the other brands that also work

raccah

OK, but what about Vanilla MC GC? Has anyone had issues there???

atxtravel

OneVanilla (black with clear window), gold and black on silver work just fine. The malfunctioning series still says right on the card that you can set the pin, and CSR insists it should work so it's probably just a defective batch.

prasha11

so with, "OneVanilla (black with clear window), gold and black on silver" bought at cvs, I can buy MO at walmart?

craz

does either have a small pic of the card itself on the front? If yes is "Gift" in very large letters smack in the middle of the card or small letters towards the upper left of the card

basically Im trying to find out if any cards with the new design very large letters saying"Gift" are of the 35 series that allows loading to BB or getting MOs, or are they of the 18 series and needs to used as a CC

BigDawgFT

Like vagrants prior post, I'm not giving away my methods (limited supplies, etc.), but, trust me, I'm saving more than the fees for which I am paying. Buying VRs cuts into my margin, however, making the transaction not as exciting. So, for now, I've moved on and I am no longer using this method to buy these VGCs.

pier11

Even though you did enough margin to cover that (unexpected) loss, it's still a loss in this particular VGC liquidation route.
While vagrants mentioned that might be better technics to liquidate those cards other that at loss.

BigDawgFT

Not sure I understand what you mean by loss. By the time I convert these VGCs back into cash, due to the added cost of VRS, I am at break-even or sometimes up to 1% ahead of my initial, up-front CC purchase. If the pins had worked on these VGCs, I would have been anywhere from .8% to 1.6% ahead. As a reminder, I still get all of miles/points in the initial credit card purchase that starts this chain of events. So, I'll take free miles/points all day. However, I really like to save some money to off-set other MS, such as the high fees of 5x at Staples, and so I have moved on. I liquidated my last VGCs with inopearble pins more than a week ago.

atxtravel

Gold packs have diagonal stripes, glitter on the bow and "gift for you" in a circle, also photo of the card at bottom-right. Can't remember what the black on silver packaging says. It's series 35 cards.

craz

Thats the pic Ive been talking about on the bottom right. Was "Gift" in big letters in the middle on that pic of the card or small and more towards the upper left side of the card in the pic?

here are the 2 cards themselves http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21730135-post87.html

from what I understand the new one is a series 18 and you can see the old one is a series 35 Its the series 18 (new ones) that have "Gift" in large letters.Im not interested in the card itself unless its a series 35 and has the large letters (which I doubt and if aseries 35 will look like the 'Old' in the link I provided). Im trying to find out if the pic on the outside has any bearing to what is on the inside (actual card itself)

As I posted up thread, this past Sun I saw the Gold pkgs with the new card pic on the front of the pkg.I didnt buy any fearing that the pic on the outside was what was inside, and from what Ive read it seems the new version is a series 18 the ones that wont allow any use except like a CC. just trying to reduce the odds of getting stuck with an 18 GC

atxtravel

For the $200 card that didn't work, they're new design. However, the $500 ones I get have been both new and old design, both 35 series, and both types work fine. I also had a $100 one from walmart that worked ok as debit, and that was old design and 35 series.

So it appears that packaging design isn't a reliable way to tell them apart.

MsArbi

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