As of April 1, 2015 Vanilla Reload cards are no longer available for purchase
Recently I outlined the basics of manufactured spending, including the key reload/prepaid cards involved and methods of unloading them. In this post, I’m going to expand on Vanilla Reload cards, the costs associated with them, where to get them, and how to unload them.
Vanilla Reloads are the most common and easiest tool to use in the manufactured spending game. These cards come with a $3.95 fee and can be purchased at participating retailers (i.e. CVS, 7-Eleven) with a mile-earning credit card in increments of $500. If you’re able to buy these with a credit card that pays out a category bonus at select merchants (i.e. grocery store, gas station, drug store), the fee is minimized further by the additional miles you’ll earn.
They can be loaded onto nearly a dozen prepaid cards and cashed out in numerous ways. One of the cash-out options involves ATM transactions. In addition to any fees imposed by the debit card company, the ATM operator will also charge one (usually around $2-4). Costco has one of the lowest ATM fees ($1.25), so that is a great place to unload your balance.
Below are the least expensive prepaid cards you can use to unload Vanilla Reload cards:
American Express Bluebird
Reload Limit: $1,000 per day/$5,000 per month
Fees: $0
Where to buy: Online, CVS, select grocery stores (Save Mart, Foodmaxx, Fred’s, etc.), Dollar General, Family Dollar other retailers.
How to Cash Out: Bluebird’s bill pay feature or Bluebird checks.
Bluebird is a prepaid card issued by American Express, billed as a checking account alternative. It is available online or at your local Walmart for a fee. Bluebird can also be loaded with a mile-earning debit card or PIN-enabled Visa or Mastercard gift cards.
Bluebird can be used to pay off credit cards, mortgage, or send check payments for services that do not accept credit cards (i.e. the landscaper, babysitter, etc.). However, most people simply load Bluebird with Vanilla Reloads and then use Bluebird’s bill pay feature to pay off their credit cards, make mortgage/rent payments, etc.
MyVanilla Debit Card
Reload Limit: $2,500 per day/$9,999 per month
Fees: This card has a myriad of fees, most of which can be avoided. Here are some of the fees you will likely end up paying:
- $3.95 Activation fee
- $1.95 ATM withdrawal (domestic)
- $0.50 PIN transaction fee
- $0.50 Signature transaction fee
- $3.95 dormancy fee (assessed each month to accounts with no activity for 90 days)
Where to buy: Online, CVS, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Fred’s Super Dollar, Murphy USA
How to Cash Out: Walmart money order ($0.25-$0.77 cents per $1,000), cash back at grocery store registers, ATM machines, Amazon Payments, Square Cash
These cards can be ordered online, or a temporary version can be purchased in-store for a fee. You can have up to two MyVanilla Debit cards at a time.
This product lacks the online bill pay feature of American Express Bluebird and charges a $0.50 fee per debit/credit transaction. Those who max out the $9,999 monthly load limit and subsequently unload the balance have had their accounts shut down, so be careful with this one.
You can load the balance on the MyVanilla Debit website or the Walmart register, though this is likely limited to debit cards.
American Express Serve
Reload Limit: $1,000 per day/$5,000 per month
Fees: $2.95 fee if you purchase the card in-store
- $1 monthly fee (waived in NY, TX, VT) waived any month at least $500 is loaded, or the card is added to your Isis Mobile Wallet
- 2 ATM fee (first ATM withdrawal every month is free)
Where to buy: Online, CVS, 7-Eleven
How to Cash Out: ATM, Amazon Payments, Bill Pay feature
The American Express Serve card isn’t talked about much, and that’s mainly because you can’t have a Serve and Bluebird card at the same time. Amex Serve can be loaded with mile-earning credit and debit cards directly without any fees, though some credit card companies will treat this as a cash advance, and you will not earn any points (in addition to incurring fees).
Even though cardholders get a PIN number, this PIN can’t be used to buy money orders or request cash back at the register.
Paypal Prepaid MasterCard
Reload Limit: $2,500 per day/up to $15,000 per month
Fees: $4.95 monthly fee
Where to buy: Online, CVS
How to Cash Out: Amazon Payments, ATM, cash back at grocery store registers, Money order, Square Cash
It’s important to note that the monthly load limit for the Paypal Prepaid MasterCard depends on how many other prepaid cards you have that are issued by Bancorp. Your total monthly limit from all Bancorp cards combined is capped at $15,000.
Netspend
Reload Limit: $7,500 per 25 hours/$15,000 per month
Fees: $1 per credit transaction, $2 per debit transaction, $1 bill pay fee, $2.50 ATM withdrawal fee. Transaction fees are waived if you sign up for the $10 monthly plan.
Where to buy: Online, select grocery stores
How to Cash Out: Amazon Payments, ATM, Bill Pay feature, Cash back at grocery store registers, Money order, Square Cash
Netspend was big before Bluebird came around (and before they started shutting people’s accounts down). Cashing out large amounts too quickly will get you shut down. Some folks got shut down even though they were mixing in regular spending along with bill pay. Don’t think of Netspend as a long-term manufactured spending tool, and definitely don’t load money onto the card unless you can do without the funds for a while – after all, if your account gets shut down, it could be weeks before you get your money back.
There are of course other prepaid cards you can load Vanilla Reloads onto, but the ones listed above have the lowest fees and eliminating cost is essential in the manufactured spending game.
The ATM is fee-free in Quick Chek stores (in NJ area) as well as in Wawa ( NJ/PA etc)
Good to know. Thanks!
Hi can you tell me how long do you wait between the date you buy a VR on your cc and the date you don the bill pay on BB? Will you accumulate several thousand and pay it in one lump sum or rather sendseveral $500 or $1000 payments?
I usually do it right away. I pay off the entire amount (usually $1,000) and it’s been totally fine.
You list the monthly limit of Serve wrong. It should be 5000, the same as BB.
Fixed. Thanks frugal guy!
Serve is better than BlueBird, you can load it with a credit card and also get Amex Offers.
Just be careful which card you load it with. Generally, Citi and Amex will code these loads as cash advances, which won’t earn points and will accrue fees.
According to the flyertalk wiki and also my own experience Citi does not code these loads as cash advances. As for Amex, the wiki says that they do and do not earn any points
I have Serve, spoke w them today…its 10k per month.
Finding it extremely hard to find Vanilla Reloads in the Bay Area
Any specific stores we can get it from in the Bay Area.
Thanks
Sorry should have been more specific. Finding it extremely hard to get Vanilla Reloads with CC.
There are two CVS stores on Market Street in SF, plus the ones in Berkeley accept credit cards.
Hey there, are you allowed to have two MVD cards? Does that mean you can do $20k per month just on MVD?
Yes, you can have two MVD’s and do up to $20k per month. However, maxing them out can result in account closures, so I’d take it easy.
Hey Pointchaser, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.
How much would you recommend per mvd card?
I’d keep it around $5k per month (since the limit is $10k). That should keep you under the radar.
What is MVD?
I guess it is MyVanillaDebit
Yes, sorry that wasn’t clear.
Thanks. It isn’t you. I’m new at this and trying to absorb as much as possible. And getting use to the abbreviations.
I’d truly appreciate the opportunity to email someone and speak with them over the phone. I have so many questions and so much of this is confusing to me.
Donnie Flowers 502-235-0920 d.flowers54@hotmail.com
No worries at all. It might help if you check out the Beginner’s Guide first. Feel free to email me if you have specific questions.
my wife and I have both have Bluebird accounts. In what way can Evolve, Paypal, and Netspend be utilized?
You can use Vanilla Reloads to fund your Netspend account. My Netspend account was shut down the first time I used Bill Pay and others have had similar experiences. I’m not familiar with Evolve, but the Paypal debit card can be loaded with both PayPal Reload cards and MoneyPaks.
I just used Evolve with my MVD this weekend. Evolve allows you to input the amount for each account into the system and add up the total of you bills which you then pay with your MVD. It shows in the MVD statement as one purchase for the sum of all the bills through Evolve. Therefore the fee is only $.50 for all bills. There are no CC companies in there as of now but I tested my car insurance, phone and most interesting my mortgage with small amounts to see how they would show up and everything posted within 2 days. That leaves more room on my BB since I no longer need to use it for my mortgage. One problem is that I need to do over $3K in one transaction because I can’t split payments for one of my bills. Seems like Netspend would be the solution sounds like I should stay far far away after reading the problems you all had. Are there any other good options for reloadable debits that offer a higher purchase amount per transaction? I will keep looking…it must be out there.
Paypower is a great alternative. They can be loaded with ReloadIT cards, which come in increments of up to $950 (with a $3.95) fee. Paypower does carry a monthly fee, but it may be worth it to some. Check out the post and let me know if you have questions!
Would you say most of this information is still accurate?
It’s not. I’ll update this page shortly.
Thanks. I tried buying a Vanilla Reload last night at Walmart and was unable to purchase with my CC. I later realized I might have been able to purchase it with the pin-enabled GC I had.