United772A

I have a stack of Vanilla Visas each with a remaining balance under $10, ever since I started getting declines when using the full amount. Any suggestions on how to best drain them? It would be much easier if there was some way to register a name and billing address...

I've noticed many newer self check-out kiosks (like Walmart and Whole Foods) now have options to do partial payments, but is there a limit? Say, 4 x splits per transaction? I'm talking about buying actual merchandise - not money orders, gift cards, etc.

SanDiego1K

I have limited experience so this is just a partial answer. I had $7.70 on a debit card that i loaded into Apple Pay. I used it at a grocery store two days ago, then used a store card and drained it, then used another store card. The cashier wanted to know the balance on the initial debit card.

United772A

Does that work without a name and billing address associated with the card? I guess I'm somewhat unclear as to how this helps - regardless of payment method used, you still have to tell the machine or cashier exactly how much you want to charge...

Barring data points, I might have to just try a self-checkout kiosk and see if it cuts me off after X number of splits.

theroz

I drain them at a local supermarket all for < $1 and most just a few cents, use self checkout and keep it to 10 cards per transaction. Best is that mkt auto drains, so we both go in and split what we buy so its 20 cards per trip Any card that had min of $20 was used for doctors co=pay

knopfler

You were able to load a VGC into Apple Pay? What kind of VGC was it?

United772A

Cool, 10 to a transaction would be great - I have almost 20 right now, all < $10 and most < $5. It sounds like I could swipe 10-ish and just finish the balance with a proper bank card. To my knowledge, Vanilla Visas won't auto-drain - at a kiosk you have to hit "split payment," key in the card's exact balance, swipe, rinse and repeat.

gregorygrady

It depends on the store. I've auto-drained like 40 VGCs (each with under $2 on them) at Kroger self-checkout (SCO) kiosk in a single transaction a few months ago. I routinely auto-drain VGCs at Safeway/Albertsons as well at SCO. I find it easiest to save up all my sub $5 VGCs and unload them all at once to buy a GC at SCO during 4x promotions for Kroger fuel pts. I'll get a $100 GC for something I need like Shell or Amazon or eBay GCs, get 4x fuel pts in the process, AND drain lots of useless small VGCs. Kills lots of birds with one stone...........

Bigzamboni

When in doubt, I find it easier to just do a few smaller transactions and finish up with 5 or so swipes, rather than risk a problem.

Shoprite in the Northeast used to max out at like 3 or 4 swipes, and often would deny after the first if you did credit and not debit. After that it was cash or store GC only. Once I had to go to another register to buy a store GC then finish up my SCO transaction because I didn't have cash. Was a real pain. They seem to have improved and you can get more swipes in, but I haven't tested the limit past 5 yet.

Albertson's owned chains I'm pretty sure you're good up to at least 10 swipes.

Stop & Shop / Giant requires a manager override at some point, either 8 or 10.

Aldi seems to auto-drain now where in the past you needed to enter an exact value, but haven't tested a limit.

Out of my Element

I had a virtual AMEX card that was nearly worthless even when new. Rejected everywhere: Staples, Amazon, Walmart, etc. I finally used it for a donation and had $7.77 left. Another forum suggested I could buy an Amazon GC with the AMEX, even though they wouldn't take it for buying stuff, and that worked easily.

Hobo_Joe

Aldi prompts to enter an exact value when you choose to split pay at the SCO, but it will still auto-drain if you don't. I've swiped 10 small balance VGC's in one transaction with no issue at Aldi SCO, and this is my current go to for these. Amazon is another option but it's a pain to add new payment methods, reload, then remove for those small balances.

balwx

I swipe them at my local Shop Rite

AJNEDC

Not quite. As you are performing a card present transaction, name and address not required. When you or the cashier swipe the card/ it will consume all of the remaining credit (the $10) on the card; the cashier or till will then ask you for an additional form of payment to pay for the remaining amount of the bill. You provide one until the amount due is zero. Some merchants have rules around how many forms of payments they will allow per transaction. At my previous companies, we only allowed 3. At my present, we allow 4. You won't know how many are allowed until you try.

Good luck. Just be aware that if you do not use your GC for 5yrs escheat rules kick in. And each state has its own version of escheatment.

steveholt

You can add them to your Amazon account and top-up your Amazon balance for the exact amount remaining on the GC.

cruisr

I drain them in Dunkin, grocery stores and at self checkout at WM

ericdabbs

The key is to find places in-store when you swipe that allow you to select the "debit" option instead of credit. If a store defaults the vanilla cards to credit, it will always try to charge the full amount of the transaction and not what is on your card. Most grocery stores to auto drain on your card if you select the debit option. You could try reloading your Amazon account but I am not sure if they check for zip code or anything.