Comparing and understanding Vanilla cards
 

I'm sure this info is strewn about, but I thought it might be helpful for folks to have it combined in one place. I've been doing MS for a bit, but I still get confused with the different varieties of Vanilla!

Vanilla Reload (VR)
- Can't use them directly to buy things. You purchase these cards to add funds to a prepaid debit card, like the Amex Bluebird card. They typically cost ? and can purchased with an initial value up to $500.
- VR cards can be used to fund [debit cards to be listed here]
- Used to be able to buy them with a credit card at CVS, but due to a recent (Apr 2014) change in CVS policy, most if not all CVS stores will accept only cash to purchase VR.

My Vanilla Debit (MVD)
- This is a reloadable Visa card which you can use to purchase other things.
- NOTE: Some have had bad experiences with this card (funds withheld, accounts shut down)
- You can initially load it with a credit card at some locations, with a value up to ?.
- You can only reload it with a bank account or VR.
- Setting pin?
- Experience with money order purchases?

Vanilla Gift Cards (abbreviation?) (these are also branded as "One Vanilla" cards)
- These are disposable (non-reloadable) Visa cards that can be used to buy things, with an initial value set up to $500. They can be purchased with a credit card in at least some locations.
- Their PIN is set to be the first PIN you use with the card.
- You can use them pretty reliably to pay for money orders.

Any Vanilla cards I've missed?

Most people use "vgc" as "visa gift card". There are more players in this game than just vanilla!

Strawberry is my favorite flavor :p

Busymike, good point.

TTnC4me, I've been hanging out here (at least lurking) for a while; I know about that thread. But it has a tiny & generalized wiki, and not a great signal to noise ratio. I was trying to focus on a reasonably narrow segment of MS and including need-to-know basic info right at the top for newbies and more experienced MS'ers alike.

For all practical purposes

1) VR is dead because 'cash' only.

2) MVD keeps locking your funds and shutting down your accounts.

3) VGC and OV are the same

Now, is it time to close this thread?

1) At CVS, yes. I've heard some have had luck getting 'em with CC at Valero stations.
2) Didn't know this. Sounds like that'd be worth noting in the initial post, eh? ;)
3) Interesting. When I was at CVS today, I could have sworn that there were different looking "Vanilla Gift" cards and "One Vanilla" cards, but perhaps I was mistaken.
4) :shrug: suit yourself, but that seems pretty cranky when I was just trying to helpfully summarize some stuff.

Thanks, Paul! I appreciate your more positive sentiment. I'm tempted to go off on a rant about elitism and lamentable 'bootstrapterism" but I'll refrain for now.

No, wait, I'll say a few words. Not everyone has the time to read 4200 posts to glean useful info. There's also often reasonable and fair asymmetry of info sharing; some people may need spoon feeding of MS stuff, but give awesomely useful advice about, say, mileage runs in a different forum. I believe what goes around comes around, and as long as people are respectful and make some effort to Google things, then it's all good.

Several rude and condescending posts have been deleted.

Once again, if you think a thread is unnecessary, don't reply to it. The moderators cannot close or delete it unless it actually violates the guidelines.

You are correct, they are different cards with different designs. However, for all practical purposes, they function the exact same way.

I know I'll be buying One Vanilla next time. Hate that big cursive "Gift" across the front of the Vanilla Visa. Thanks for being helpful.

I like OneVanilla. Next choice will be Vanilla Visa. Last is Gowallet version (Staples/Vons).
The first 2, you choose your Pin on first use. Gowallet, you have to create it online after you create a username/password.

With one important difference. The former is $5.95 / $500 card and the later is just $4.95.

There are non OV VGCs that are $4.95

Thanks for the info.

I appreciate the updated wikis on some of threads here at FT. I don't have time to look through 80+ pages especially when the thread was started several months ago and conditions have changed. The wiki consolidates the relevant information.