Getting rid of vanilla gift cards
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7
Getting rid of vanilla gift cards
I lent my friend $500 and he paid me back in vanilla gift cards, 5 x $100 of them the mastercard debit variety. What is the easiest way to convert these back into cash? I'm not trying to earn points or anything.
#2
I do not have experience with MCs since I always try to avoid them in the first place.
#3
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 161
Can you only buy MO with Vanilla at DG and FD? Or does metas and other VGC work for MO there?
#5
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SAN
Programs: Delta Gold. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Explorist.
Posts: 1,673
or if you live near an Albertson's you might be able to buy MO there with them.
#6
DG (and FD?) have the "Vanilla Load" and you can load the GC to certain pre-paid cards. Metabank works great too. I've never tried MC and other brands GCs other than Metabank and Vanilla. Also not sure about MOs.
#7
Join Date: May 2015
Location: LAX, BUR
Programs: AS,AA,JB, HH Gold, Starriott Titanium Elite, Hyatt Explorist, Global Entry
Posts: 1,933
#8
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: PHX, SEA
Programs: Avis President's Club, Global Entry, Hilton/Marriott Gold. No more DL/AA status.
Posts: 4,422
When I get prepaid cards from mail in rebates, I add them as Amazon payments and reload my gift card balance (so that the card is empty ASAP). But not $500 worth.
#9
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 595
Exactly my thoughts. Give them back to your friend and ask for payment back how you gave it to him. If you didn't give him GCs, why accept them as payment?
#10
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,503
Dude I would insist that you return the 5 x 100 Vanilla GCs and ask your friend to give you back $500 in cash. Why the hell would he waste more money buying 5 x $100 Vanilla MCGCs and pay the $4.95 fee per card for an extra $25 in total? Why should your friend make your life difficult and make you jump hoops to get your $500 back OR make your friend find a way to exchange the Vanilla MCGCs into $500 cash. Even if you were buying WM MO's with Vanilla MCGCs you lose out on paying $1.76 to buy 2 MOs since you could only do 4 swipes per transaction.
#14
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,503
$500 may not seem like a lot to you but imagine if you lent someone $5000 and they paid you back in 50x$100 Vanila VGC/MCGC..