Vanilla Visa Gift Card Scam , Internet

This company and their so-called gift card should be put out of business.

My Vanilla VISA experience was so bad, it's hard to know where to start. Maybe at the beginning.

First, if you have a problem using the card, expect to get the runaround. The seller (Walgreens in my case) will tell you that once they've sold the card they take no responsibility. Vanilla VISA will tell you that any problems you're having have to be resolved by the seller. Of course, the rude customer service people will only tell you that once you've jumped through a dozen secret hoops in their phone system.

Next, everything V V says about using their card online is a lie. Don't bother trying. Even after you've "registered" the card, transactions will not go through. It could be that Vanilla VISA just doesn't understand how to pass the registration info to the merchant, or it could be outright malice... it's hard to tell. Also, be aware that they will take a $1 "preauthorization" from your balance each time you attempt to make an online transaction. This is money you will never see again.

Finally, the card seems to have about a 50% failure rate. This is a $200 card being used for small transactions, so it's not a balance issues. Again, it could be that Vanilla VISA just doesn't have the capacity to handle however many authorizations they take in a day, but my success rate in using the card has been ridiculously low.

I highly recommend staying FAR AWAY from Vanilla VISA