Try making a small swipe purchase with one card. Also call the 800 number on the card and use the automated balance check - sometimes this will surface an issue.

I will try a small purchase. I forgot to mention I did call the 866 number and everytime I put in the card numbers it keeps saying "i had trouble getting your card number". The little piece of paper that the machine spits out after reads "Debit not available APPR. CODE = 04".

More datapoints from NW suburban ORD purchases:

11/21 - $1k purchase on a Delta Amex coded as purchase
12/3 - $4k purchase on Barclay (Miles & More) coded as a purchase

Hoping I won't find out on my next visit that I've been shut down like others, but I certainly can't complain...$5k of fee-free GCs to meet minimum spend is pretty nice.

"I had trouble getting your card number" is the same message I was getting after my cards got frozen. I think your cards likely have been frozen by Metabank. I sent you a PM, in response to yours.

Thanks Gator. Yes, confirmed. My account has been frozen and am getting a check in the mail. Anyways, my advice to people not frozen as yet is to spread the GC loads to BB over a longer time period. I believe my rush to load BB triggered their action.

AAA Clerk denied my $1000 gift card purchase today citing fraudulent activity. This was my 4th visit to AAA in four weeks where I've purchased a total of $3000 in GCs previously.

The lady first said you realize this will come up as a Cash Advance on your credit card, to which I said proceed. She then asked why I was buying them. She went on to ask why I buy them at different AAA locations (I've bought them at a total of 2 locations). She then went on to say she won't sell it to me at all because of red flags showing a pattern of fraudulent activity (I guess buying $3000 with of GCs during the holiday season over a four week period...) She said it is out of her hands, company policy, but make a point that scammers purchase GCs with credit cards then report their credit card stolen.

Didn't like the vibe at all

Confirmed, Amex only. I think they have an exclusive relationship (ours are the only membership cards that function as Amex prepaid cards as well, as far as I know).

Any data points from MSN? There next weekend and would love to pick up more.

LIH or PDX?

Purchased $3k last night at my local AAA office after calling in and having them verify (they made 3 separate phone calls while I waited) that I didn't have to be a member. Not sure who they called that cleared it, but they were assured it was for non-members as well, and my visit only took ~10 minutes to walk out of there with $3k spread out over 3 different CCs from my recent AOR.

The issue is that Metabank wants to make a profit. They make their money several ways but the two biggest are float and interchange fees. When you buy the GC and cash it out all at once as a debit card they probably lose money.

A profitable GC probably holds it's balance for a week or more (the float) and the user probably uses it multiple times as credit (interchange).

Thanks, my note was kind of a rhetorical question. ;)

Did you register all your cards?

I have a couple left which I just found out were frozen.

checks will be in the mail
 

called Meta Bank (number given by AAA), and confirmed that my remaining cards were frozen. This has been for at least 3 weeks. And there has been no notification of any kind, email/paper mail/phone. I did not know until i tried to use one card today. If I did not call today, they would just keep sitting on my money. What a bunch of d*bags!

I got my checks today for the frozen gift cards, so despite finding it untoward that Metabank would freeze the cards solely based on "discretion" when I didn't violate any policies, I do give them credit for turning the check around promptly.

Good news. Any risk in their clawing back the miles/points/cashback?

I did register all the cards but as previously mentioned, they seem to have your AAA info associated with the card once you swipe your AAA card and purchase the Visa GCs.

Yes, I was sitting on my remaining cards for a few weeks then only found out they were frozen after attempting to load BB.