I am also interested in confirmation of the PIN. Other MB sources (GCM, Staples) do indeed come with PIN set to last 4 as stated, so I believe the likely answer is yes.

I haven't tried to use the card(s) without activating first. I don't have the letter in front of me so I'm not sure if it explicitly says they have to be activated. There is a sticker on the card that says to go to giftcards.com/activate

The letter did say that the initial pin is the last four digits of the card number.

Pin is last 4, someone would have to try it without activating. That's a tough situation to be in when you are buying a MO and it doesn't go through. TIA to the brave soul

When I get my next shipment i'll try. I have a spot that is very cool, so if one doesn't go ill take out another one.
The letter does not say anything about activating or using. When I added to my wallet it did say zero balance and asked if i wanted to activate it.

I take it from the wallet thing that these need to be activated. Kinda makes sense. I guess you could just check balance on the site without activating and see if it works? I already cashed my set out.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to avoid fraud holds for Amex cards? I've made three purchases from giftcards.com with two different amex cards, both with healthy credit lines. Every time it is blocked, and I have to go in and say it was me, and then reattempt the charge. Any way I can give Amex the heads up and say "please don't block this?" Using the SPG Business card and the Hilton Surpass.

after logging in to the acct, next to available credit, click on 'check spending power', then put in $ amt for the expected purchase in box 2 & submit

Deleted, got confused with GCM

Brand new to MS. Recently got a Serve One VIP, and today tried to place my first vgc order for a single $500 card at giftcardmall.com, order declined. Then tried giftcards.com. Order immediately cancelled. I tried to pay with chase sapphire, is this a no go? I have plenty of space under my credit limit, and all my spend to date has been normal stuff. I guess this is going to be harder than I thought!

Welcome to FT!

I'd first check if you have a fraud alert from Chase. If not, call the phone number on the back of your credit card and inform them that you are planning to make a purchase at giftcards.com. Sometimes the banks need to be warned in advance.

Anyone else find that since they switched to blackhawk the app wont scan the cards anymore?

Yeah that seems to be a widespread problem.

could u elaborate about what didn't scan the cards... the retailers can't scan for purchase MOs or load to prepaid card?

The mobile app will scan the card for you instead of having to type it in when you activate it. It probably doesn't work now because the numbers on the card are not raised. It's a minor inconvenience.

Minor in the sense that I get 10 cards a day from them and need to manually input 16 digits each time, yeah.

Also, every single card from my last batch the app said a balance of $0.00, then it failed to activate, then I had to back out and re-enter it, and then it would show up as the amount with no indication that it was activated.

Then I could change the PIN and just hoped it worked.

Also 10 sealed envelopes inside a single rate envelope, with no tracking number.

Ugh, support went downhill.