Vanilla Prepaid Cards Reviews

Was given a 200.00 card. Put it in the safe and never used it. Pulled it out to use it and had zero balance. The number had been used 2 times at an out of state location. Been trying for weeks to file a claim and all I get is a runaround! Their FAX will never go through no matter what I do. They then had me email it to tell me weeks later they never got it and to call back! My advice never ever buy a card from them!!

I was given a $100 prepaid gift card on 6/10/2019 and opened it at the cash register in the store in front of the employees. They swiped the card and it had $0 balance on it. So I called to check the balance on the card and it said my PIN number had already been set and my balance was $0. I never set a PIN number and had never opened the card until that day. So someone stole my money off the card before it was ever opened.

I was given a Vanilla gift card that had $50 on it. I spent $20 and was getting ready to spend more when I checked my balance. It was 38 cents. There were two purchases on there that I did not make. I contacted customer service and was given instructions for debating a charge. This was two months ago. I've emailed them at the address they gave about a dozen times and still no word. Needless to say I'm posting everywhere I can. Do not purchase one of these.

I was given a $200 gift card. When I went to use it it was declined. I called Vanilla Gift Card the people were extremely rude, unhelpful and they lied. They never got back to me! I was basically robbed and they did nothing! NEVER BUY! Worst company ever.

After many months of going back and forth, my son finally received a replacement card for the balance that was hacked. And while I appreciate that, I don't understand why it took so long to get the inquiry resolved.

There is no option to give zero stars, but that's what I would like to give this terrible card. I was given a $100 Vanilla gift card, and tried to use it at a spa, the card was declined so I ended up using my debit card. Later I went out to lunch, the bill was $45, and I tried to use the card, and the waitress could only take $30 from the card. Later in the day, knowing I should have $70 on the card I tried to purchase my daughter a dress. I could only take $4 from the card. Today I checked my balance. Sure enough the card started at $100. The Spa change went through---although the Spa told me the money didn't come to them. All in all a very pathetic card. DO NOT PURCHASE as a gift.

Bought one of these cards yesterday and everything was fine. Used it a few times and still had a $50 balance. Tried to use it today and it said I needed to call customer service. Someone reported my card as lost and now I'm out my $50 and I can't get it back! It was a brand new card so wow was it lost by someone??? The person on the phone was no help and kept repeating that my account was closed. So now the other person has my money.

I had received this Vanilla Prepaid Visa Card as a gift. It was purchased at Walgreens. Since I had the card and did not use it right away, I contacted customer service to find out how to activate my card. The first customer service representative I spoke with told me that the amount on the card of $35 was no longer available because fees were applied each month I did not use it, and the total amount was gone with these fees. I was stunned because I have had other Visa gift cards that have never had fees applied.

Bought two Vanilla Prepaid Mastercards from Walmart.com, went to their website to check balance and said zero balance and cards have expired and never used it. Please stay away from the name Vanilla Prepaid gift cards of Any kind, please. I’m warning you. It’s all a Scam Scam. People please keep your receipts if you want your Money back. It will take up to 90 days if you send in all your info, from driver's license copy of front and back of the fake cards and your receipt. If you don’t have your receipt don’t expect a refund. Also put in a complaint with BBB. I also told Walmart.com about it and they did check into for me. Vanilla want to discourage people from filing a dispute. Again stay away from these cards.

I received a Vanilla Visa prepaid gift card as a gift. It does not work at all. It does not even allow me the option to see the balance. I called the number on the card. I was told to email them a copy of my driver's license, a picture of the card, and the receipt. Of course I don’t have the receipt as it is a gift, so I emailed them a picture of my driver's license and a picture of the gift card. This was months ago, and I have not received a response.

Purchased a $250.00 gift card from Walgreens for my son's upcoming birthday. Purchased on 06/27/2019. Son's birthday is 07/03/2019 so we decided to use it on that special day for him and placed an order at Amazon.com. Got an email from Amazon the card was declined. Then we called the Vanilla company to find out what's going on. We were told the card has a zero balance and was used to purchase Delta airline tickets. I explained, "We just tried to use it for the first time. How can this happen?" They said, "We need all your information so we can send you an email which will contain a form to fill out for fraud in order to get money back." They also state, "You will get an email in 24 hours." At that point I made them read back my email to verify they have a correct email address.

Loaded $300 on my prepaid Vanilla Visa card on 07/06/2019. Checked my account 07/07/2019 and had a zero balance. Some genius thought it’d would be funny to hack my card and steal all of my money. Vanilla Manila said I can dispute the fraudulent transactions but it would take up to 90 days. So whoever used my card online at 9:42 pm ((which is bs because I had my card with me the entire day in my wallet)) and bought something from Color Pop in CA can say, "Oh it’s valid." and get away with it.

Lesson learned! Had I known all the fees associated with this card I would of never purchased. The main purpose is to have the ability to buy online or make transactions where you can’t use cash. The loading fee is reasonable but every time you swipe the card it charges you .95 cent. I was not aware of the fee until I saw and called the customer service and listened to the fees associated with the card. Once my balance is gone I will not be using this card again.

Gave my son a $50.00 birthday gift card only to find it was invalid and had expired. I purchased the card on June 3 2019. His birthday was on June 25 2019. It had an expiration date of June 28. This is ridiculous. I plan to report this embarrassing situation to not only Walmart but to the FTC. When I tried to call Vanilla I was put on hold for at least an hour and finally just hung up. Please people do not purchase any gift cards from Vanilla. What a scam.

I used the Vanilla card website to double check the transactions on the account. I received a message that stated “504 error”, I attempted a second time on the website and received the same message. I then used the contact phone number and checked the balance. I went to Walmart in my area the next day (less than 12 hours later) and attempted to purchase items for a client and was told that there was only $6.85 on the card. I immediately called customer service and was advised that there was an online purchase at Nordstrom that could not be challenged unless a dispute was made. This charge was NOT authorized and was not done by myself or anyone associated with my program. This card was purchased to be used in remote areas for clients in need of domestic violence supportive services. I still have not heard back after I filed the necessary paperwork.

My mom thought it would be nice to get me a $75.00 prepaid Vanilla Visa card for my bday. I went to use it at my hair salon and it kept coming up declined! Finally we tied $60.00 and it worked. I called right away and explained what happened. This is what I was told. They hold back 20% just in case there isn’t enough money on the card!! Why wouldn’t there be as that’s what you load the card for. So now I have a balance of $15.00. Tried using it a few days later, declined AGAIN.

I'm glad I only added $25 at a time! They are scandalous. First of all for each transaction they take .95 cents out for themselves. Then the other day I had about $17 dollars left. Rechecked my account because I don't trust them & there was $9 missing from my account even though I didn't have any pending transactions. Each purchase I make there's miscellaneous money missing without my authorization & it doesn't appear in my card activity. Kind of fishy. Btw why do they need our social security number for a something so little like a gift card... Made me wonder with suspicion so I checked www.myvanillaaccount website's security patch & it said the site isn't secure. Bingo! THEY ARE SCAMS SO YOU GUYS PLEASE STAY AWAY! DON'T FORGET YOU WERE WARNED...

Received a $200 card from daughter for my 80th birthday on 07/06/2018, tried to use on 05/19/2019, and was told there was no balance (embarrassing). Received the dispute form and sent it in, no answer and I do not know how to get to talk with someone. Everything is automated apparently to keep us from expressing our frustrations to this fraud company.

My children gave me $150.00 Vanilla Visa gift card for Mother's Day. I have tried to use it several times, and am now being told it was never activated, although my children showed me the receipt. Do not buy this card. Give cash instead. This card is ridiculous to try and use. Just listen to all of the restrictions cited if you call the customer service number. This is a terrible product.

My son received a Vanilla Visa gift card for Christmas 2018. We opened the card in May 2019 to make a purchase and it didn't work. Looked on the Vanilla website and it had a balance of zero. Called Amazon where a purchase using the card took place 2 months prior and they had flagged the Amazon gift card purchase with the Vanilla Visa gift card. Called Vanilla a series of times which culminated in sending me an email to fill out a written dispute which would result in an answer within the next NINETY days.

My parents got me a Prepaid Vanilla VISA Gift card for $150 last Aug. (2018). As it's expiration date on card said 7/26, I left the card in secured place until last week I opened the sealed card package. When I dialed in to check the balance, the automated message said the card is now expired. When I spoke to agent, he said it is not expired but it was never activated. In order to initiate the inquiry, I need to present the receipt of the store where it was activated. I strongly believe that this card has some mechanism where it has a logic set to reset the card if not used for certain timeframe. As the probability to someone secure the receipt for a year is really low. This is a rude awakening for me as for years it used to be my common mentos to offer others as gifts for various occasion. Never going to use this product in future. I am better off giving personal check or cash.

I bought an Vanilla card, couldn’t register it then their customer service said it could still be used as a gift card. I’ve Literally been to 5 stores and couldn’t use the card. I have $300 on this card and can’t use it or I can wait 10 days to get it back in the mail. But I’m 100% sure they won’t even send the whole $300.

First my disabled son, who is also a minor, was sold Vanilla debit card by Walmart. Given that he's a minor that never should have happened. Then allowed him to put $100 on it. I tried to get the money off the card but it wouldn't work. The company insisted that I give them his social to get the money back. Which I refused to do. They refused to fix the card after stating it's how they help the government prevent funding of terrorists. I told them if that were true then they would have required that info before accepting money. Just like a bank does before putting money into a new account. They refused to do anything to refund the money. At this time they have exploited a disabled child, and stolen $100. Also, Walmart has no business selling a card that requires you to be 18 to use to someone who isn't.

Horrible!!! The first month of using this card.. we used it for gas and were skimmed. The next day after using at the pump, my Vanilla visa was used at a completely random company for the entire balance left on my card which was $117. I called Vanilla the next morning once I noticed and they said there was nothing they can do for me. Done!! Do not use this prepaid.

Have a Vanilla Visa Giftcard that I purchased in early March 2019 so I can make purchases online. I purchased something on Amazon and had a balance of 31.00 so didn't think much about it til recently when I needed to make a purchase. I checked my balance online and discovered I have only .45 cents. A transaction was made at the end of March and on description it shows PayPal, I've never used PayPal. Unfortunately I was hacked and clearly this is to common from reading all the other complaints. Don't trust VanillaGift!

$320.00 added on the 17th at Dollar General. Try to register zip code on the 18th. Website says bad gateway. Unable to access it...Update zip code on different browser. On 19th check balance online. It's zero...Charges to Saks Fifth Ave and Nordstrom have drained funds along with a pending transaction to Saks for 00.00. I call. Vanilla says they will send dispute paperwork To email. Not received yet. I have called the issuing bank BanCorp. No help. I have called Visa Usa that processes the payments. No help.

I took my Mom to an exclusive diner in her area as a treat for breakfast. Before leaving I called the Visa Vanilla Card # to inquire as to my balance & was told there was $17.47 remaining on the card. The breakfast tab was over $25 so I immediately took some cash out of my wallet to cover the difference between the card and the tab. When the manager ran the card he told me they were only releasing $14! I told him that I was given a balance of $17.47 about 2 hours ago, and he said he always has problems with this particular card because they always hold funds back. If they always hold funds back, I asked the manager how I can ever use the entire balance on the card. He shrugged his shoulders.

I found out my card number had been compromised in fraudulent purchases of almost $300. I call the MyVanilla customer service line and go round and round with them. Eventually they tell me they will expedite a replacement card 3-5 business days. Now we are 8 days into it and still no card. I put a complaint in to the BBB. Tracked my card after finally getting a tracking number that was already supposed to be emailed to me but wasn't, will be here in 2 more days. That is 7-10 business days, not 3-5. Needless to say I will empty that card and take my business elsewhere after that. They don't look out for their customers at all. DO NOT USE MYVANILLA! You have been warned.

I purchased my card at Walmart. Tried to register online but I was told to retry many times until I was finally told the account has been locked. I call the number on the card and get some offshore call center. I call back hoping to get a U.S call center and just sit on hold. I went to Walmart. Customer service said there is nothing they can do. Looks like I am out $300 and at risk of identity of theft.

I bought a prepaid Visa Gift Card issued by 'U.S. Bank National Association' from Ralph's. The card was frozen after registered. I called the number on the card. They let me fax my ID, SSN, Physical Address and DoB to a number. I did so. 2 days later, I call them again. They said the card is not activated yet. I ask them, "Have you received the fax". They forward my call to their Offline Dept. A lady said they received the fax, but the picture is not clear. She let me send the fax again with the pictures 200% bigger. I send the fax again, and call them the 3rd day. They told me the fax number is not correct and give another fax number.

February 2019 I used my Vanilla gift card at Panda Express. About a week later went to make a purchase, my card declined. Check transaction online. Unauthorized impossible transaction made. Do you card being put up I then called in to customer service was told to file a claim, they'll email claim paperwork. Filled out send in. Two months later no refund, was told card was sent out and returned to unverifiable address. Verified address to the same place I been receiving mail for two years now. They said everything matched. We will resend it. 15 days gone by still no card. Week later called in on the 8th day of shipment. Told to wait till 14th day. So TODAY from a supervisor I was told the card was never sent out. She can send it out now.

I bought a prepaid $150.00 VISA card for my parents for their anniversary last May. When they went to use it at Moxie's Restaurant in Toronto it was declined as they tried to use $146.00 (under the maximum $150.00 on the card). This was super embarrassing to say the least. I then called on Dec 27, 2018 and I asked for a refund (minus the $6.50 activation fee I paid at the time).

Well I purchased a Vanilla gift card a couple of days ago so the first time I try to use my card at a hotel. Since I was in another state needed somewhere to stay. Well the agent at the hotel tells me the card is being declined. I’m like how? I have enough money on the card so I call the number on the Vanilla gift card. The agent is like, "You have to wait an hour before using your card then we place a 20% hold on your card when you're trying to purchase a hotel stay on line." This is a rip off. That’s one incident. Next one on today. 5-1-2019 I tried to send a family member some cash using my card on Moneygram. Card declines so I called the Vanilla company, spoke to the agent, she’s like, "Can I have your name?" I gave her my name then she’s like, "What else name do you use?"

My husband bought me a card as a gift - so he paid 54$ for a 50$ gift card. Tried to use it at a restaurant; the server came back and said, "Sorry, your card didn't work." I called the number on the card, confirmed it was registered and the total amount. I assured the waitress it was good to use. She came back and informed me it only went through for 41$, we still owed 9$. I paid the difference in cash and left, acutely embarrassed that it looked like we were trying to short change the restaurant. I called and the automated system said there was now only 80 cents left on the card!

Money was used to pay for items that I bought online. Never got items so file a claim with dispute department. Told I have to wait 3 to 5 days process and ten for refund. Now take 90 days for a refund.

I tried to use my card on 3 occasions including a very embarrassing trip to the grocery store knowing that I had sufficient money. The card would not work. Tried to pull money from an ATM, still nothing. Finally call Vanilla only to be told that they had put "MY MONEY" on hold due to some refund I got from Walmart. Apparently they could not verify that I made the purchase using the same card, when it is clear as day on my statement! They had me send copies of receipts which I have done and have done nothing about the time and other inconvenience they have caused me. They should have had the decency to alert me rather than me finding out the hard way. I think it's time to go back to the Real banks where I know my money is safer and I don't get charged all those ridiculous fees for every transaction I do! I am not a happy camper as I still await this issue to be resolved not knowing whether they will notify me or not when it is!

I attempted to check my balance and end up talking to someone from company. Because I could not remember exactly all the info, they had to have a colored copy of my drivers license, my social security card, and some bill with my address. I send all of this and days later I called again. This time they stated the copies weren't clear enough. I don't guess they would have ever contacted me. I only found out after another inquiry. It is no longer worth the effort to try to get my money. My advice is never buy one of these cards.

Apparently, Visa charges a monthly fee for absolutely nothing, so if you don't use the card immediately upon receipt it is useless. This credit card company has proven to be nothing more than sleazy thieves at this point. I am cancelling my account with them and even my debit card and switching to AMERICAN EXPRESS and telling everyone I know to do the same.

Ok. I got a $500 gift card in October 2018 as a gift from work. Went to go used it and guess what? My balance was $2.30!!!! How!!! I tell you how. These cards are easily hacked. I file a dispute and come April just now getting another card! And guess what happened? Yep the card has been hacked again. Good thing I've spent most of it already. But the hassle!!! Please just stay away from these gift cards. They are not worth the headache!!!

I have bought $75 Vanilla prepaid card. After few days I try to use it. Somebody already hack my balance. Use it on Amazon. When I call customer service they tell me they going to sent dispute form in my email. Wait for few days. Nothing receive. Call again. Same answer. I have called 15 times. Still have not receive form yet. Now I give up. That is why never buy this Vanilla card again. Very easy to hack and terrible customer service.

I was bought two of these Vanilla Prepaid Visa cards both for £25 each. I did not realize but they charge £2.95 extra per card activation fee at the till so straight away the purchaser is overpaying. I have had the payment declined twice, so I leave it a few months and try again. I finally manage to use it in Tesco after it gets processed a different way. Now later on I can see they have took £2.92 off the remaining balance, I didn’t realize but if you don’t use up the full balance in 7 months they charge £2 a month admin fee! I didn’t buy them so I don’t know when this fee applies and 2nd if they could be used first time then there would not be a problem. Very unfair company, don’t buy in the first place.

Vanilla Gift Cards are difficult if not impossible to use when near the limit. I have $15 balance left. Can't use it anywhere that a tip may be added. Very difficult to use at other merchants. Most merchants run the card and you pay cash for the difference. With a Vanilla card you have to pay the cash difference first and then run the card. Merchants don't like that but Vanilla doesn't care. Don't buy Vanilla cards. You will lose money which is what Vanilla is hoping.

I just found a Visa Vanilla gift card on the bottom of my purse which I have not used at all. So I went online and to check the balance and it showed not valid number - tried again same results. So I called the toll free number - same results. Not valid number but that is the number they said to put in that is on the front of the card. Even put the expiration date which is 06/26 and the 3 digits on the back. Still same response. I just found this card and did not even know I had it so it has not been used. What is going on with this? I have looked at other reviews and the same scenario is happening. Can't someone do something about this? I even typed in Vanilla Visa gift card balance and the site is blocked for malicious software. Can't even get onto the site!! Is anything being done about this scam of having a Vanilla Visa gift card and then find out number isn't even valid on it. Now what do I do? Please let me know. Thanks! Helen **.

I bought a $30 Vanilla Prepaid Card for my son's birthday and he was so excited to finally get some online crap that he’d Been begging me to get and every time he tries to use it it says the cards been maxed out and we literally just got it out of the package.

I bought a prepaid OneVanilla card at Walgreens in Las Vegas in January. 500 cash. When I got home it hasn’t 33 cents on it. So to make a long story short...they keep saying they are sending a card...7-10 business days which NEVER arrives. I told them just to tell me the truth that this is a scam and I’m out of my 500. It’s been months. 500 cash I gave Walgreens. They both blame each other. Neither want to take care of the problem. I feel so foolish out of all the prepaids and gift cards to pick OneVanilla. When I saw everyone else’s post my heart dropped. How does this happen? Why do they sell fake cards at Walgreens?

My friend bought one Vanilla Gift Card from Walgreen store on Las Vegas in amount $200.00 and gave to me. When I try use a card and activation of card it show my balance $ 0.00. I was shock about that... I immediately contacted them, submit anything they need (copy receipts, copy both side a card) but they don't help or support us to get back my money. I think Vanilla prepaid card is a deceitful, unbelievable company. You should be careful when buying gift cards, so avoid this company.

A purchase made 3/10/2019 for $96.00 for some type of kid game. The card has only been used at one store and online only. I filed a claim with Vanilla, got a case number, got forms (email), filled out forms and their fax has a bogus number. Tried to contact customer but was told the card number was invalid. I would like to see a class action suit against this business.

I bought 4 Vanilla gift cards for my grandchildren for Christmas. All 4 $25 gift cards when they tried to use them had zero balance. I got credit for 2 but they refuse to give me back my $56.88 for the other 2. I purchased these through PayPal credit. I issued a complaint to PayPal, they sided with Vanilla Visa, saying that they were processed correctly. This company is a fraud and if you purchase through PayPal chalk it up. You're not getting your money back. Wish I could rate them a zero just like the balance of their gift cards.

The worst ever card imaginable to purchase. They pass the buck and no one knows anything for 7-14 business days. That's if you're lucky enough to pass some customer service reps interrogation process to speak to a supervisor. Supervisors say wait 24 hours and then you call on 24 hours they say wait 48... 3 years later I am still waiting for my $285 card to be replaced. I emailed the CEO President and Vice President. Do any of the Corporate people care that has idea?

I was also a victim of the Vanilla prepaid card scam. I purchased a gift card for a family member who is very ill and needed it to purchase medicine. I was convinced to buy the card by a manager at the local CVS pharmacy who told me this was a reputable and popular company for gift cards and they explained this would be the best way to send funds out of state to them for purchases since it was safe to send through the mail. When they attempted to use the card there were three fraudulent charges to Amazon, Google and company named IOS APP STORE and all but $0.14 was used from the card. CVS has done nothing to assist with the issue, I had an incident opened and after 2 months they mentioned I need to call the Vanilla gift card company.

I bought this card at Walmart for $100 dollars, my husband went to use it. Didn't work. Called. The card was used $98 purchase then it $100 credit that was never put on card then say $1.23 at Goodwill??? What?? Go back to Walmart. Of course "Sorry there is nothing we can do." Then the lady at Walmart proceeded to tell this is not the first time this has happened. Then says "I should talk to manager. We really shouldn't sell these cards!!!!!"

Do not ever buy a Visa gift card issued by Vanilla, it will never work. They will ping pong you back and forth between two different numbers to no avail!! Look for the word Vanilla on the top left corner.

Bought this card from Walgreens. I had a fraudulent vendor transaction. Time to get my money back from this company, They have a bad customer service. Do not buy the card! They did not promise that they would recover my money and I would have to wait 90 days. This is a bad company.

I never had a chance to use this card, the balance was transferred to a PayPal account. I do not have a PayPal account and do not know anyone with one. I am trying to get the money back but keep getting the runaround. I will not purchase a Visa card again!

My daughter was given a $25 Vanilla Visa gift card as a birthday present in January 2018! Biggest waste of money. I'll explain why - went online to check the balance, only to discover that all bar a mere $7.50 of the $25 credit had in fact been deducted in "Account maintenance fees", that is $2.50 per month! To make it worse, these fees only began being deducted in August 2018, what happened to the months prior??? The expiry date is not until 03/2022! An absolute scam! They should be ashamed of themselves. Please do not give this business your hard earned $$$.

On 2/26/19 I purchased a Vanilla Visa gift card in the amount of $200, which was a collection of his birthday money sent from family. I didn’t feel comfortable with my son having cash so I bought a gift card. He used it to make 2 purchases; games on his PS4. He had $115 left. The next morning I checked the balance and it was $0, there was a purchase for a Fiesta cellphone. Never heard of it. Called in, spoke with a rep who advised the card was used for this Houston retailer. I told her I live in Orlando, that’s a fraudulent purchase. She said she would send out a dispute package to my email within 48hours. On 2/28/19 Thursday, never got it. Called today was advised the same. I asked if there was an issue on why it wasn’t sent out. She said no very nonchalantly. This company is a scam. Looking at the reviews I’m not the only having this issue. I will not let this go. Everyone’s money on the gift card disappears, obviously it’s an inside job. BEWARE.

I was given a Vanilla Visa gift card for speaking at an event for the homeless around the holidays. A few days later I misplaced it. I reported the card lost right away and was first told that without the card number nothing could be done. I called back a few minutes later and the card was easily replaced however I accidentally gave my mom's address incorrect and had to call back and fix it was told it wasn't a problem. After a month the card still hadn't arrived so I call yet again and give them a new address. They tell me I will receive it in 7-14 days.

Updated on 03/16/2019: You card will be fraudulently drained. And, InComm will make your fraudulent claim process a nightmare with the intent to discourage claims! Unlike a bonafide bank card where you can get a refund with a single phone call, you must wait days for an email with claim instructions. Then you must prepare a written signed letter. (If you do not sign the letter, your claim will be denied for this and a dozen other stupid reasons.). You must fill out a number of forms and information blocks. If you skip one item on the checklist, claim denied. Then if you get everything correct, you must wait 90 days for a refund. I am making CONTINUOUS broadcasts about this VANILLA CARD SCAM on social media every day until I get my refund.

I purchased a pre paid Vanilla Visa Credit Card approximately 6 months ago to keep as an emergency. I went to use it today and declined. Upon checking the number etc online I find the balance ZERO even though I had never used it! IT’S A SCAM.

I generally keep a $50 Visa gift card in my wallet for emergencies and when I get a new gift card I rotate it out. Replaced my gift card that has been in my wallet for a while and checked the balance, it was zero. It had one transaction from a few months ago via Paypal which I do not use. The security on these Vanilla Visa gift cards is obviously very bad. I will cut my losses, never hold a balance on one of their gift cards again, and will advise others to use them ASAP and not to count on them being secure.

I have a Vanilla Prepaid Mastercard that I added $360 CASH to. I bought a plane ticket and paid for 2 hotel rooms. When I tried to use the card again, it was declined. I found about about the 20% hold after the fact. So I was NOT going to pay another #3.95 to add more $, so I decided to withdraw the money. I AM UNABLE TO USE THE DEBIT FUNCTION, ONLY CREDIT. The card has been repeatedly declined for every debit transaction. I spent an hour on the phone, with no results. I have also been told that the money on hold will be release on March 16, 2019... In a month. I am also awaiting a refund from one hotel and they said it would take about 10 days. This card is a scam and a nightmare. The world needs to boycott this card and the government needs to BAN ALL VANILLA CARDS!

Was given the Visa Vanilla $100 card as a gift a couple of years ago and forgot about it - found and was very happy that was within the expiry date and I had $100 to spend - free money! Looked at the balance online and it was down to $22.50, because I didn't use within the first 6 months, Visa has been charging $2.50 maintenance fee EVERY MONTH! Called Visa and nothing can be done about it obviously. Absolutely ridiculous! What is even the point of having this card?

I purchased a $100 Vanilla Gift Card on October 16, 2018, and mailed it to my daughter by USPS Priority 2-Day Delivery; expected delivery date according to post office was October 18, 2018. She never received it. On October 22nd, I called the Vanilla Card customer service number and was advised to email them proof of my purchase of the gift card and proof of my identify (utility bill), which I did. Here's a recap of the ABSOLUTE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE, OR LACK THEREOF, IN HISTORY:

My brother and I got $100 gift cards from this company. On the outside, the packages looked normal but when the packages were opened the barcode had been cut and the 16 digit number on the front had been scratched out. It looked like someone tampered with the card prior to packaging it. Dealing with the fraud department has been a bit of a nightmare. One representative told me to go back to where they were bought but that was incorrect. I was also told they would send 1 of the gift cards in 2 weeks and it’s now been a month and a half and still no card. We will see what happens when I get the new card but clearly these cards are easy to tamper with. I will never buy them again nor recommend them to anybody.

My daughter purchased a One Vanilla Prepaid Visa Card for me for a gift. I checked the balance online the first time and it was correct. A day later a checked it and the $365 she gave me on the card was transferring to someone I did not know, PayPal account. I immediately called One Vanilla and the person I spoke with said it looked like the money was coming back to the card but she did not know why. She said when it came back I could call and request a refund check as I told her I did not want another one of these hackable cards. I called for my refund check and was told someone else had called on the same card so I had to file a dispute. I did that and sent all the documentation they required. I called and verified they received all the documents they needed from me.

The card expires on March 22, but we just checked the balance and $2.50 has been taken off the balance for the past 8 months! I've just seen the tiny mouse type on the back of the card which does say $2.50/month will be deducted from the balance after the first seven months from issue. It's so small, it's literally barely legible. Why do they take money from the balance? This is daylight robbery. I would NOT buy this card again.

I got a Vanilla gift card for Google Play. Now it's saying I cannot use the card for 24 hours. I called the 1-800 number. Talked to a lady. After our conversation she said my card was ready to be used. I tried the card after I got off the phone. It came up as error again. I called back and now this other lady says I have to wait 24 hours. This is crap. I will never buy another Vanilla card again

I agree totally with Amanda from Australia. I also am from Australia and had a carbon copy experience with Vanilla Visa Gift Cards. Am advising all I know NOT TO BUY these gift cards. They charge YOU $2.50 per month for looking after YOUR money. How do you figure that one out. Someone is lining their very deep pockets. Shame, they have given other gift card companies a bad reputation.

These cards are designed to rob customers of their money. Don't waste time and money, buy gift cards from accredited banks, like TD Bank, Bank of America, Amazon, etc. My Son Got this card as a gift, He decided to save it and use accumulated cards and money for a cellphone. Guess what? If you don't use the card, they will charge you an "inactivity" fee of 4 dollars and 20 cents. At the end, you will have zero dollars on the card if you try to save it... Customer service rep only can say "that's the way it is". I wonder when a major lawsuit against fraudulent business practices will start against whoever this so-called company belongs to! Plus, the Rep told me they also charge 50 cents every time you use the card... Really?

My son bought me a $50 AUD Vanilla gift card last year. It has an expiry date on the front of 3/22. I have been trying to spend the $50 for the past few months but card wouldn't work. I rang them to find that after 7 months a $2.50 per month service fee is charged. For what I don't know. I advised that the small print was so small that I could not read it and was told they would not thing the fees. I asked to be put through to a supervisor and the guy with an American accent hung up on me. This is disgraceful. I have never known of a gift card reducing in value from service fees being taken out. And you have to pay $5 for the pleasure of buying the card. What a way to treat a senior citizen.

As I said I would do, on my review dated 28 Jan 2019 here is an update. After many hours of discussions & e-mails to the Fraud Dept. Vanilla has re-issued me with a new 100.00 prepaid card. I would recommend, if you have issues, to stay persistent and respond as best as you can to their requests. Although it may seem never ending, a satisfactory result can be achieved. I have activated my new card, and it appears to be approved. Note: I haven't actually used it yet, but it should be fine, if not, will advise.

Received a gift card at Christmas, first try card was declined. Went on website to check balance but server was down. Tried a couple days later and server still down. Went to search company then found this website about all complaints. Sad, gifter and receiver both lose.

50$ gift card had $13 in fees - I was given a $50 gift card as a gift from my son. He paid $55 in store. Used the card in a spa. The bill was $40. Was charged $48. Called Vanilla. They said if you use the card for a service such as haircut, spa, doctor, etc. there is a 20% additional fee by Vanilla. I said, "There is nothing on the card or accompanied literature stating this." The Customer Care person said "that's the way it is." Another way to say it is "Too bad, we got you."

Bought OneVanilla gift card $100 for son for Christmas. He never got it. I called 5 days later, holidays' so wanted to make sure it was lost. I had to provide a copy of receipt, proof of address. I did. Took several emails and phone calls for them to finally tell me "We located your card and it has a zero balance so we cannot refund you anything." WHAT. Well no kidding! It was stolen! NEVER EVER EVER BUY THIS COMPANY'S CARD.

I purchased 2 OneVanilla cards for $175 each (total $550). The cards are useless saying zero money on them. I have been talking to OneVanilla for over 60 days. They just keep lying and at this point they are not returning my phone calls. Cards were purchased from Walgreens who also refuses to help. Shame on Walgreens for selling bogus cards!

Do not purchase one of these. I have bought dozens of Vanilla Visa gift cards over the last several years. I send them to my kids who live out of state for birthdays and special occasions. I have bought them in increments of $100 to $500. I never had a problem until November 11, 2018. I purchased a $100 Vanilla Visa gift card and mailed it to my daughter. The card was lost in the mail. I called customer service on Nov. 11 to inform them. They looked up the card via the serial number that I had on my proof of purchase receipt.

My husband has received a few Vanilla VISA gift cards from his boss over the past couple of years at Christmas time. We don't seem to have any difficulty using the cards (which are usually $100.00) for an initial purchase but heaven forbid you leave a balance. We have 2 cards with a bit over $30.00 on them, another 2 with just a couple of dollars. We know the exact amounts left on the cards and have attempted to use them at hair salon, restaurant, liquor store and Walmart (that I can recall). NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW HOW TO USE THESE CARDS AND USE THE REMAINING BALANCE!!!!

I was given a OneVanilla gift card for $300. The card was in a sealed package so nothing on the card could be seen. I registered the card with OneVanilla putting all the information on their database - card #, expiration date and security code. I had the card for 1 week and used it at the supermarket where expiration date and security code is not given. When I went online a week later my card only had a 12 cent balance. Someone used my card to purchase something at Nordstrom for a $203 purchase. The store is in California and I am in Delaware. I did not make this purchase. The only place anyone could have gotten card information is from the OneVanilla database.

Multiple transactions on a $200 card cannot be processed. Target. Total Wine. Balance still $200, but I can't use it. Been on hold 17 minutes so far. This company must go bankrupt. I've checked the funds twice online and it says it is ready to use. But transactions cannot be processed.

I bought Vanilla visa gift cards 6x $500 = $3,000. Balance were checked once & kept away in safe deposit box that no one can see cards #. Few weeks later all money was missing. Someone that knows to break in vanilla visa system and could be internal. It's not my fault and vanilla visa has to take some responsibility. Vanilla visa treats customers like crap and make you wait 90 days of dispute when you pay for a product and you don't get anything. I made phone calls to merchants and call vanilla visa every week while vanilla it's taking their sweet time of 90 days. It's a scammy company. Customers come last to them. Vanilla visa gift cards are 99% unsafe.

We had one of regular clients try to use a $50 card at our salon. It declined multiple times, so I checked the balance online and the funds were there. Apparently they hold 20% of the balance if you are a service business so that the client is forced to tip 20%. We did not know this until we called them... Half an hour later finally spoke to someone. We could only approve the card for $40, but how would we know that? And why should they do this? I believe that they hope the balance stays on the card and the client never uses it. They were not helpful at all and they did not make sense when they tried to explain it. They make more money this way so why would they fix it? Don't ever buy this card for anyone!!!

I have received $40 gift card for a birthday party. I went to use the card today on Walmart and it's declined. I came back and checked on Vanillaprepaid.com. Original value $40, Purchases: $0.00 and Credits: -$40. This card expires in 2026. I have called 1-800-571-1376. They said that their system is down and they don't know when it will be back. I have called VISA folks and they suggested to call financial institution which is Vanilla. I called them they didn't provide why it happened like this. PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS CARD.

I received a $25 gift card as a birthday present. The card expires in 2022. I went to use my card a few months after receiving it only to have it declined every single time! I today tried to check the account balance only to see I had $10.00 remaining on the card (of which I’ve never made a successful purchase). The money that was taken out was described as “account maintenance.” I called Vanilla to query this only to be told that after 7 months of not using the card I would be charged $2.50 per month for not using it. This is like purchasing a jumper and if the jumper hasn’t been worn, cutting a sleeve off each month until used. What a scam! I recommend no one purchases this product and makes everyone they know of, aware of this scam!

Followed the instructions on how to use the card. Declined at 2 different stores. Called 800 number; told the card was never activated and they needed personal info to activate. I felt uncomfortable having to give personal info to this bank to use a gift card already purchased. They said a case cannot be opened without the personal information. So the purchaser of this gift basically burned $25.00 plus the fee to purchase the card. This bank has cheated how many people out of the money from gift cards this way?

I was given a $100.00 Vanilla Prepaid Visa by my employer about a year ago. I finally decided to make use of it and gave it to my wife for a purchase. It was limited to a $20.00 value and upon checking the card at Vanillaprepaid.com Found this: Original Value $100.00. Purchases: $20.00. Total Credits: $0.00. Available Balance: $5.27. Sure would like to know where close to $75.00 went.

My son purchased a Gift Card for me for Christmas. I went to use the card today and the full balance was drained earlier today. The purchase was made to an online Investment Account called Stockpile Investments. I called Vanilla and all they could say is they would investigate and contact Stockpile to confirm if it was a valid transaction. Well of course it's valid they stole my gift card number and used it online. They have the name, address and SSN of the thief. Why can't they do something about it? I have the card and the purchase receipt... Such a lousy way to do business. I asked what the chances are of recovering my stolen funds and all she do was laugh. I would caution anyone of ever using this gift card company, they don't protect the cards with PIN numbers either. You select the PIN with your first purchase, so anyone can steal these card numbers off a retail rack. DON"T PURCHASE THESE GIFT CARDS.

I was given a $25 Vanilla Visa giftcard by my daughter for my birthday, I went to check the balance before using it & found the balance was $7.50. Fees took the rest, reading the small print on the card after I found this info. THERE SHOULD BE A CLEAR WARNING ON THE FEES BEFORE PURCHASE.

Updated on 01/06/2019: I still did not receive my fraud packet. So I called again and customer service said they would note the file again and get me a packet asap (24 hrs). The looong TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY that is inside with the card and in my opinion should be on the outside but no one would buy this gift card if they were able to read before purchase...you have within 60 days to provide in writing details of the transaction you are questioning.

I bought a $250 gift card for Christmas. The literal minute it was activated online it was stolen. Customer service has given us nothing but the runaround. I will continue to post this where ever I can in hopes of no one going through this again. This was a gift for a child. Save your money and your loved one's disappointment.

A relative gave me a Vanilla gift card for my birthday and when I went to Target to use it, it was declined. I came home and checked online and it said there were no funds on the card. I called customer service and they told me to send them photos of the front and back of the card, my mailing address, email address, and barcodes, plus receipt. I send them everything except the receipt because the buyer didn't give me a receipt. Because I did not have the receipt, they denied my claim. Actually they said I could have stolen the card. They blamed or accused me of theft. Please do not ever buy a Vanilla gift card. Read all other reviews.

The worst gift card I have ever had. They have the nerve to automatically hold out 20% if you eat in a restaurant. Do yourself a favor. Buy an American Express gift card so that you are not embarrassed by gifting this card to someone. You will regret buying this card. I couldn't even use it to buy my groceries online. It was not accepted as a payment method at Kroger's.

I was given a Vanilla Visa gift card as a thank you. I have had it for 2 months and just tried activating it. It was a $25 card and when activated there was $4.95 remaining out of the $25. How can this happen when it hasn't been used. They take monthly fees out. One would think this shouldn't happen until the card is activate. I would not recommend this company to anyone. What a rip off. I will be putting the word around so that others don't get caught out like me.

Vanilla Gift card didn't work. They used the "not activated correctly" scam, when I called. The customer service is customer fatigue, distract and finally ignore. They were absolutely NO help: No refund. No new card. No gift purchases. $40 bucks more for the sinister Vanilla prepaid card mafia! Avoid like the horrible company they are.

Purchased card at Wal-mart for $4.95 added $200.00. Tried to make a purchase for $36.19 online and was denied because billing and shipping address were not the same. The next morning starting at 9:52 am three charges were made for a total of $195.32 draining my balance to $4.68. Called OneVanilla. They said it would take 90 days and I was better off going through PayPal as the charges were through them. PayPal agreed to reverse the charges but I would need to request a new card because a hold was put on it. OneVanilla said I cannot get a new card until the money is put back... Today I went check the balance to see if the money was back...invalid card number... DO NOT BUY ONEVANILLA debit card. Total scam!!!

My experience has been terrible. £50 purchased on a Vanilla card in July 18. Unfortunately nothing was loaded and I've been fighting with them for 6 months for a refund. I have sent pictures of the card and the receipt as requested. They manage to wriggle out of every corner I back them into with the most recent reply being that the receipt I have is not connected to the Vanilla card I have with a zero balance which clearly states £50 Vanilla card. Very frustrated and angry. PLEASE be careful and make sure the card is loaded at the retailer you buy from but you won't know really until you go to use the card. Terrible customer services with people that clearly don't give a damn.

It's a game. I go online with all the info I should need to check the balance and "somehow" they can't tell me. They direct me to call the number on the back and get jerked around some more. I turn the card over and I CANNOT SEE the phone number without a magnifying glass (not exaggerating). So I'm beyond skeptical with Target and VISA. I suspect they are hoping I lose the card and then, THEY WIN?

My Vanilla gift cards were not activated correctly and Walgreens will not accept responsibility and blamed Vanilla Visa, and Vanilla said it's Walgreens cashier's fault it didn’t activate accurately. I have opened cases with both Vanilla and Walgreens to try and correct this error. While my money sits in a system cloud or stolen. This has been a exhausting experience and I will never buy another Vanilla GC again. A scam/system error has occurred somewhere and can’t wait until this is resolved, if ever!

My daughter a $25 gift for her birthday. When went to use it at a store, we learned that the balance was gone. I immediately called customer service and they told me that it was used for iTunes purchase. They immediately sent me a form to complete and send back to them. I complied. They said that I should give them 90 days to complete the investigation. I waited four months and called. The person who answered the phone claimed that they had actually sent me a replacement card within one month after I submitted the form. He then made me wait and wait online claiming that he was asking his superiors and finally, after over an hour waiting, that they have issued a new card. He told me that it should arrive within 10 business days.

They have extremely high fees and want one's SSN and DL number for a PREPAID card. They don't need it -- it is abuse of customers and a huge security concern in case they are hacked which is very possible.

This is the worst customer service ever!!! They advertise you can use this online wherever Visa is accepted. Then when 90% of places decline the card the company says they can't force any merchant to accept the card. Your money will be stuck on a card you can only use to buy fast food. It's a pointless card with a more pointless team of customer service people.

My grandson died October 10, 2018. I clearly explain this on every call. My job purchased me a gift card to help with funeral expenses. The night after the funeral I lost the card. I called banks the same night. Sent them all requested documentation. They said the gift receipt and original packaging was not sufficient. I then went to the location where purchased and got a copy of the original receipt. I sent that in asking with proof of address, ID, DOB... everything as requested. It's now December 8, 2018 still no replacement card or headstone for my grandson. Every time I speak with someone I get a different story and this is supposedly the second card marked to me that I have NOT received. Worst customer service ever.

I purchased a $200 Vanilla gift card and it is still not activated. I did everything they asked me to do through emails with proof of purchase, photos of driver's license, front and back of the gift card and they still have not activated this card but now say I'm going to have to be patient... I'm sorry - almost 2 months I have been patient. Terrible company, terrible customer service. They keep giving me the runaround. You talk to somebody different every time and they give you different information. Very inconsistent. Poor training. Walmart should be ashamed to have them on their website

I could not register the card online. It took a hour to register the card on the phone. I only used it once then I got denied the 2nd try. When I called customer service I was told my PIN and birthday was not correct. That I need to email a copy of my driver's license. It would also take a couple of days for the process to go through before I can use the card again. I was not comfortable with that at all. Especially when she could not tell me what the subject should be on the email. It took several times before she could give me a solid answer. Not to mention the email does not match the company in any way. I didn't do it and called the next day.

I too received a VISA Vanilla Prepaid eReward for a large sum of money as a wellness program bonus from my spouse's employer. Just as someone else described, I selected this option over others because believed it lended more flexibility. It did not. Major retailers have declined me over the phone (Target) and local small businesses in person. In addition, it is unusable online if the order amount exceeds the ecard amount since you must process it as a credit/debit card. There are issues all around with this product. I notified a Vanilla Customer Support Representative because we have three of these eRewards and all she told me was she was sorry and that she hopes more merchants accept it in the future.

Although this card states that it is accepted where VISA is accepted is a lie. I received $150 gift card. I planned on spending some of it at Kohl's Black Friday sale online. I attempted several times to pay and I kept getting an error message. I contacted Kohl's directly because I thought it was something wrong with the website. They too could not get it to process. So then I contacted Vanilla Visa only to be informed that Kohl's is one of the retailers that they block you from using online, however it can be used in the store. So basically the statement accepted anywhere VISA is accepted is FALSE. I was told if I send the receipt along with the card I would receive a refund. Yeah okay how do I tell the person who gave me the card that. I don't know maybe a class action lawsuit can be filed for false advertisement, paying the activation fees and then not being able to use it properly.

I purchased a $200 card on September 25, 2018, for my granddaughter's birthday. Card was lost in the mail; never used; balance unused. I have called "customer service" multiple times since October 2, 2018. I got a case number. I faxed and emailed receipt of purchase and proof of address. Many times I was told that the fax and emails were not received, even though I had proof. Then, a month later, I was told that the fax and emails had been received. I was told that a replacement card had been mailed, which I would receive in 5-10 days. I have not received it on November 8, 2018. The most irritating aspect of trying to deal with "customer service" has been that, whenever I call, I am told that the previous "customer representative" entered in my case was different from what I had been told. Do not purchase a One Vanilla card. God knows I never will again.

I was given a $100 Vanilla Gift card from my dad for my birthday. Within a week of receiving it, someone from FL (I live in TX) stole the info and used it to pay their utility bill, but I didn't know about it until a couple of months later because I hadn't used it yet. Once I figured out it was stolen I immediately called and tried disputing it. For some reason I wasn't receiving the form and after 2 months I FINALLY received it. About 2 weeks later I received a letter in the mail saying that there was nothing they could do because I didn't file the dispute within 2 months of it being stolen, even though I didn't know it was stolen until after. Everyone I talked to was super sweet and helpful except the supervisor. She was rude and could care less that my dad’s hard earned money was stolen and just kept saying they weren't going to help me. DO NOT PURCHASE THEIR CARDS!!!

Do not buy Vanilla credit card! I put $480 in it because my bank is 4 hours away from me and I need to come up with money to pay my loan to bank. I gave info to my bank and he came back said denied I tried use for $5 on Starbucks it worked fine, told him try charge $5 on loan bill he said denied. I told him, "Don't worry. I will go to Walmart and issue money order off that prepaid visa..." The lady at money center told me denied. Won't let me issue money order. I found out Vanilla won't let you pay your bills as long as it's not from the bank. My loan bill is from bank and it will denied my Vanilla prepaid card. I'm stuck with $480.

I received a Vanilla Prepaid Card for a significant amount of money as a reward from my employer's wellness program. I selected the Vanilla card over a store-specific gift card because I thought I would have more flexibility with where to use it. I was wrong. I tried to use it at several different retailers both over the phone and online and was declined multiple times. When I called Vanilla customer support to inquire why the card was being declined she said that those specific retailers block their card and gave me no remedy for actually using the card. I finally realized it could be loaded onto my Paypal account. I haven't tried using it this way yet but I don't have high hopes. At this point I feel like this card is as good as Monopoly money.

I purchase a One Vanilla prepaid card and load $175 on it, before I can even use the card someone else used the card and is claiming ownership of the card. I called the merchant who was kind enough to refund back my $175, but now One Vanilla has put an hold on the card and all my money. I sent them my receipt, packaging front and back of the card and my driver license. They still would not release my funds. I think this whole thing is a scam. People buy the cards load money. Someone use the money and then they hold your money hostage and make you send the paperwork, little did they know as they are recording all their call so am I.

I wanted to share my experience with everyone here. I started buying cards several years ago from this company and I have never had problems with the cards. If you're getting a card by mail you will need to provide them with an SSN which is required by law. I never have to give any information to setup my cards because I buy the Vanilla Gift Master Cards or known has One Vanilla Gift Card which you don't need to activate. There's several types of cards you can get on the market. Vanilla Gift Cards or One Vanilla Gift Cards you will not need to setup with any information. Cards by mail, you will need to provide information such as ID, SSN and Address.

I have yet to be logged in to this card. The phone recording says the exp. date is invalid. Not true. When I log in and type the characters over and over again (that I can BARELY see, it continually comes back with the statement: "Characters do not match the image below." Not true. This card SUCKS!

I received 2 prepaid cards as a gift to find out one of the cards was not activated properly. I called the customer care team and they fixed the card that was not working to find out the other card is now not working??? So upset that I have to keep calling them and they are not very helpful. I will never buy a visa Vanilla prepaid card again.

I purchased a MyVanilla prepaid card on 9-22-2018 and was told at register after I loaded $230 onto it would be immediately available for use. I went outside tried to activate the card and it keeps declining due to identity verify. I tried to return it right away within 10 min of purchase without even leaving their parking lot on 9-22-2018 as I couldn’t use it and was denied due to it being a prepaid card. I called MyVanilla card the same day. Set up a pin and gave my information. They said they couldn’t verify all. I would need to email them color copies of my ID, front + back of the prepaid card and copy of the receipt before would be activated to InComms email they gave me. I sent in the documents as they requested on 9-22-2018.

I got a $500 debit card for Christmas, and have been using it a little here and there. Today at lunch time, I checked my balance on your Vanilla website, and when I hit the "sign in" button to check balance, it displayed what looked to be scribbled letters. I tried it again, and the same thing. I signed in to the website just below with the same process. It let me in, and said I had $112.80 left. Great... When I got to work, I went into my eBay account to make a purchase of $96.00 and would not accept it. Impossible!! I just checked it less than two hours ago. I checked my balance on the website I knew worked, and it said my balance was ZERO!!! Somebody had taken my $112.80, and there was no way to contact the company, phone number or email. What a rip off, and nobody gives a rip because they already have been paid at the purchase date. I would not recommend that anyone buys this rip off. Get cash next time,

Your site is a hazard to the security of any user who checks the balance of their card. Highly recommend some external pen testing to be contracted, too many cases of card details being stolen after checking the balance on your site. I hope someone starts legal action against you in the hopes you get your heads out of your behinds and look into these reports. Perhaps an internal audit is needed?! You obviously care more about the sale of the cards, versus the experience and security of the user. Plus your support is a joke, 90 days for a fraud review, goodness. Must happen so often you have a large backlog. Please for the well being of your customers and your business increase the security of your website and cards.

So I HAD Vanilla cards between my wife and I. We decided to go this route versus the traditional bank route, big ** mistake! These people are thieves and cannot and will not explain their actions! I enrolled in direct deposit for my work check and their big thing is “you’ll get paid up to two days faster.” NOT ONCE did I ever receive my pay before Friday, the regular scheduled day. And not only that one week it didn’t arrive until 9:00 A.M. on Friday so don’t believe that line of **! After three weeks of direct deposit I logged into my account and noticed that the status of my card said spend down instead of saying active!

Do not purchase Vanilla Cards visa gift card are a scam and customer service is poor!!!! If I could give an evaluation with a black star I will give it but this option does not exist!!! I received a "Vanilla gift card" on September 6, 2018. On September 11 I went to Marshall (8661 Colesville Rd, City Place Mall, Silver Spring, MD 20910) to pay for a purchase. The cashier opened my "GIFT CARD VANILLA" but I could not pay with it because the transaction was declined. To check if I had done well, I returned home and checked the website of Vanilla Gift; Also call the consumer attention line to listen to the instructions. On September 15 I returned to the same Marshall store, to try to pay with that card and again the transaction was declined.

Purchased card on 7-11-18 for 250.00. Used card one time at airport. Card was hacked Immediately. Called Vanilla One Visa gift card to report it. Talked to customer service rep. It's been 45 days and still can't get my money back. People! Listen up! Don't purchase this card - unreliable, not secured card, bad news! Purchase the American Express cards - secured and dependable. If your card is compromised American Express will refund your money Immediately! Still trying to get my money back from Vanilla One Visa gift card!

Card was used for motel reservations and to pay bill. When trying to pay bill Vanilla they have slapped a 30-day hold on funds, $300, and no amount of talking to their supervisors will get them to release the money. Don’t use Vanilla.

SCAMMERS. I got a call yesterday from "Publishers Clearing House". He said, that I had won 5 Million dollars and a brand new Mercedes Benz. I asked him, "Was this a scam," and he said, "NO Mam...You are a Big Winner, and we will fly to your city and present you with a certified check for $5 Million and a new car tomorrow at 11.30, and the tv station will be there also unless you prefer it to be private." Then I asked him, "What's the catch?" He said, "No catch... but you have to go to Walmart or CVS and buy a "One Vanilla" card and put $150 on it, and call me back to confirm that you have it, and then we will make arrangements to fly to your city tomorrow to present you with your grand prize." Well, I googled "One Vanilla Card" and read the reviews, and all of them were bad. People said how it is a scam... and DO NOT Buy a One Vanilla gift card!

I got a $500 card as a birthday gift. I use it a couple time without a problem but the third time it kept getting declined. The balance on the card was just a few dollars less than the total of the purchase so I was thinking I would apply it towards my purchase and pay the rest with another card. Not possible. It just kept getting declined. I even called the merchant and they tried to run the card on their end but it was declined by the bank (Vanilla Visa). So, unless the card's balance is same or higher than the purchase total you can't use the card. Or you have to ask a merchant to split the amount and charge exact balance amount first and then pay the rest with cash or other card. No online retailer offers that option. Not very convenient. I wonder how many people just get frustrated and leave the few bucks on the card unspent. It's a great deal for the bank as it all adds up I'm sure.

Received $25.00 Visa debit card as a gift. Unable to use. Called Vanilla - company that issues gift card who reports they are unable to activate the card without a receipt. They report they are unable to refund the gift giver without a receipt. So - no instructions on card to gift buyer reporting need for receipt. No receipt. No money. Sounds like a wonderful investment by Vanilla to immorally gain money.

After providing information to register and check my balance online, I have been receiving non-stop emails for credit offers from random companies. I can only assume that this company misused my information. I also had a problem when I tried to replace a card with a remaining balance and was told I needed to provide the receipt from the person who purchased the gift card. Do not do business with this company.

The Vanilla gift card customer service supervisor is the worst... I lost a $25 dollar card. I called the 1800-571-1376 number and was given an email address ** and was told to forward the original receipt along with proof of address. I sent the email June 16.2018 attached with the original receipt and my ConEd bill. On July 23rd 2018 I received the replacement card. When I tried to activate the card I was ask for my DOB year. I told CS I was never ask nor told to give my year of birth. When I did give them my year of birth it didn’t match what they had on file.

Vanilla Gift Card (Incomm) located at (corporate office) 250 Williams St NW Fl 5 Atlanta, GA 30303-1032 phone number 770-240-6100 Brooks Smith-CEO, Phil Graves-Pres., but they will tell you that their address is P.O. Box 826 Forston, GA 31808. Vanilla Gift Card allowed a charge of $10 and $1 to process on a gift card that I personally purchased and when it was brought to their attention Incomm out of Atlanta REFUSED to refund my money. I have filed complaints with Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, and many other sites. PLEASE do not fall victim to the FRAUD/SCAM company and IF you do NOT buy any of their products you will be helping to put this company out of business.

Wow this card is **! Had no idea had to register and bunch of BS! Tried using card for bf acct and it kept declining sooo finally called CS. They told me since I tried to purchase more than I had on there it made it so I needed authorized action and now I can't even use my card till 17. 2 more ** days! My bf stuck in jail with no commissary. No nothing! This card's a BIG ** SHOW!!! Don't recommend to NOBODY!!!

I would like to provide you guys a review: you have to be the worst customer service company I have ever encountered! My mother gifted me a card worth 100$ and somehow it wasn’t activated at the point of sale... how would she know?!? Now I am trying to use it and your customer service team has asked me to ask my mother to go back to get the receipt. This doesn’t make any sense! I have used many gift cards and yours has to be the worst. We just lost 100$ cause your process is broken and your customer service is completely incompetent! You are the worst company - you really should be shut down by consumer protection agencies. You are cheating customers!

I am leaving this review because dealing with this company has been the worst experience of my life. I bought two prepaid cards for online bill pay. One loaded with $200 and the other with $500. 00. I purchased them on 06/30/18 at a Dollar General. Literally the very next day before I was even able to use the larger of the two there was a $500.00 deduction from my account. I hadn't done any transactions with it. I called in shock and not knowing how it could have happened. I called and spoke with two reps and a supervisor. I explained how the only interaction I have had with this card was when I had to activate it.

I bought a 50 dollar prepaid card for my daughter as a surprise for babysitting, I have called customer service 3 times in 2 days trying to get the card to work & nothing... Instead they freeze my card & now I'm out 50 bucks & my daughter has no money now.

Was sent a Vanilla Visa Debit gift card for $200. After using it for two purchases totalling around $75 at Kroger gas and supermarket, I tried to use it to buy a sandwich the next day and was told my card had insufficient funds. The sandwich was less than $6. So I went online to vanillagift.com, logged into with my card info and found out that the remaining $120 had been charged online to SQ *TECH EXCHANGE at 1:30 in the morning, while I was sleeping. My story ends the way that everyone else is. I don't know how they get manage to keep selling cards but I will never see that money again. According to their site, you have to assign a ZIP code to via your account before you can shop online, which I did not do before the purchase was illegally made. Go figure. If you are unfortunate enough to be the recipient of one of these, I advise you to use it at a brick and mortar store and use the entire amount in one day before they can take it from you.

This is the worst prepaid card I've ever dealt with and will never again!!! They rip you off and keep your money. I use prepaid cards every day and my daughter accidentally picked up this one for me. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS CARD. YOU WILL REGRET IT!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS CARD. THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM! My son received this card as a birthday gift from a friend. It was intended as a gift card but unless he registers it with very personal information i.e. DOB, SSN he cannot use it. I called and spoke to a customer service rep who said we needed to know the purchase balance. Since the card was a gift, we had to ask the person who gave my son the card. He said $20. I called again and was told that was the incorrect amount and there was nothing he could do for me. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

I purchased this card on 5/1/2018, it is now 5/25/2018 and we still have not been able to use this card. They have given me so many runarounds and I am over it. Their customer service sucks and give you no real RESOLUTIONS to the problems you are having.

This has to be the absolute worse excuse for a gift card ever. They have a rule that if you use the card anywhere that there might be a tip or an additional charge like a hotel, they only let you use up to 80% of the value initially. There is a waiting period, not sure exactly how long I've been told so many stories, before they release the rest of the money. Absolutely stupid rules. If you have a $50 gift card you should be able to use $50, no matter where you use it. It should not give you any more than $50 credit, period. I would not recommend these gift cards to anyone, they are really terrible.

It takes about 7 minutes to get through the automated attendant to speak with a person. I called to ask how I can protect this card because I was planning to mail it, and I had previously had cards in the mail stolen. It took a total of 29 minutes to get a person who told me how to put the card on hold or 'deactivate' and then I gave her a password that would allow the person who was receiving the card the ability to reactivate it. This was a gift for a customer. The last thing I want is to put them out by wasting their time. The spent time trying to get it activated.

Was charged for items I didn't need at a Wal-Mart and asked for 110 dollar refund. Told it takes 10+ business days for the refund and customer service atrocious after reaching. Also card does not state it's no good for most purchases and not able to be used for international purchases... TOTAL SCAM and they will get your money and you cannot under any circumstances get a refund no matter how badly you want it. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

I purchased this card with $150 value to be able to shop online, and NOT give out my real credit card number. Well, I found about 75% of online merchants will not accept this card. The reason they give, after talking to their customer service departments, is "our payment processing gateway is not accepting this card!" The sheer number of such rejections leads me to believe this whole bunch of cards by Vanilla is flagged or auto-rejected in some way. The brick and mortar merchants: about half of them accept it and rest don't. If I can't shop online, this has no value for me. Do NOT buy this card.

I loaded a OneVanilla Mastercard at Walmart to purchase a drone on Amazon. The first transaction went through for 295.00 however I returned the purchase due to a defect. Amazon quickly refunded my $. A couple day later I attempted to use the card for $5 and the card was rejected. I immediately checked my balance and saw a pending transaction for $225.00 (that was close to the amount left on card which was less than $230.00). That was on Sunday 2/18/2018.

We put $150 on this prepaid card through Dollar General yesterday. Her daughter went on a trip. She took it with her for food, tried to use it for dinner and it was rejected. So we get online to check the balance and it was at zero because there was a pending transaction through Amazon for $150. We then proceeded to call the company Vanilla Visa credit card company spoke to 3 different people all on different levels and they were unable to help us with the situation. They said we have to wait 45 days to get this resolved and they couldn't stop the pending transaction. So then I asked him if we could fill out a dispute form and he said. "No. Not until the transaction goes through."

Got the Prepaid Debit Card for the very first time and had my whole payroll check direct deposited! I got a deposit on Monday, tried to use the card on Tuesday and did not work. I called customer service and found out that they put a Restriction on my card. I would have NEVER even know if I had not called in to customer service. They said I needed to send in identity verification and don't you think that I somehow should have been notified of that information. I emailed the requested information to email address they provided and did receive an automated email response that the information was received!

My husband and I received a $100 Vanilla gift card for Christmas in 2014. Reading the back of the card there is no indication that they will take out a certain sum each month. We assumed there was no rush to use it. The expiration is 06/22. Tried using it today to discover that only $32 is left on it simply because they kept taking monthly fees out. This is ridiculous and outrageous! My poor mother in law thought she was being kind by giving us this card instead she was ripped off. Why is this even legal?

This company is awful!! Customer service reps DO NOT understand English. Put a freeze on my account because I was aggravated and hung up. So now they have my utility bill money and won’t unfreeze my account and want personal verification after I’ve been a consumer for 2 years and spent thousands of dollars. So come tomorrow morning my utilities will be shut off and I can’t do anything about it.

PLEASE SHARE THIS, everyone should know so they can protect themselves from the VISA prepaid card scam! We had bought two Visa prepaid cards to use online and BOTH turned out to be frauds. Somehow (don't ask me how) these scammers switch out the real card for one that looks real and when YOU buy it, bang they have a card worth money and you are left with headaches and frustration. They can go to the website and check if the card is active, they don't have to sign up or anything just put in the numbers and they will see its active and that's when they use it. Thankfully the amazing staff at Shoppers could help us and we did not lose money but what a week long runaround nightmare (not Shoppers’ fault, they were great). The prepaid visa people you call through the 1 800 number on the card were absolutely USELESS and I would have been out the money if not for the Shoppers Drug Mart staff.

I got a Reloadable Vanilla debit MasterCard card at my dollar store. I looked at it and it says nowhere that I had to be to buy it or anything. So I put the $120 without anything wrong. The cashier did not say anything about it either. She did not say anything about being 18 to buy it or use it. So I go online to register it and it says my birthday and I place it in. Then under it it said that I needed my Social Security. Now I’m thinking something off. And then it says you got to be 18. Now they locked my card with my 120$. Not theirs. Mine.

I bought one of these cards to pay bills with. It took about two weeks for the permanent card to come in the mail. When I try to log in to their website, it tells me I have the wrong password, which is ridiculous. I gave my password twice when speaking with a rep to activate my temporary card. I read the fees not listed on the package before I purchased the card. Who knew there would be a fee of 50 cents each time you use it, and a dormancy fee if you don't use it for 90 days! It also stated it was free to do a balance inquiry online to keep the dormancy fee from applying to your account. Well I can't log in to my online account because it says my password is incorrect! Hmmm... seems shady to me. I will not be using this card and will try to cancel it... I think I will have a hard time about it however. Green Dot Money Card is awesome! DONT BUY THIS CARD!!!

Someone give me a $50 dollars card, same day was activated there were two transactions for 25 dollars, I didn't, they told me to start a process by around 6 month, don't spend your money in this kind of cards. Somebody wants to give "you!" Not a big company, some presents, so better cash. Good luck and tell all your friends don't buy Vanilla gift card.

My son bought me a £25 gift card last year. It has an expiry date of 2021, I therefore didn’t think that there was any rush to spend it. He bought me another one this year for £25. Now, there is an upfront fee of £2.95, which we thought was OK for the service and as I now had two of these cards, I thought I would spend them. I had two purchases in excess of £18, so I put them on the two separate cards. Last year’s card was refused. I checked their website and found that they take your money, £2 a month, if you have not spent it after the first seven months. Apparently I had £15 left on this card. I therefore ask, how can it possibly have an expiry date of 2021, this is an absolute lie, as it would notionally expire this year!

My Vanilla is one of the worst prepaid visa card I ever had. I had a credit come back to my card from another card for $109. And they stopped letting me use my card until I faxed them a copy of the reset and I sent it to them 3 times. They cost me problems because I had auto bill pay and they declined my card. They say they are protecting me but I felt like they are the ones trying to steal from me. I went with this card because Rachael Ray promotes it but it is the worst card I ever used. Going back to Green Dot. It the best prepaid card!!!

Got cards as a gift. Exp date 2020. Had balances on both cards. Went to use them and Vanilla Visa charged me $2.50 a month until depleted. Wow thank you Vanilla for taking my money! Wish I had saw all the bad reviews. Dont buy it!

Bought this card for my daughter and put $400 on it. It’s a prepaid card and in order to register it and use it we had to give all our personal information to them. Then was told that if we didn’t disclose all our information that the card wouldn’t be able to be used. And when I told them I would rather go get a refund and buy a different card I was told that I wouldn’t be allowed to. That I would have to wait on the company itself to send me a refund check in 7-10 days. Are you even serious?! This card is a total ripoff and customer service is no help at all. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD!!! This is a complete scam! I’m wishing there was a zero stars so I can pick that one!!!

I received a Vanilla Visa Gift Card for my birthday, 11/2017. I did not open the card until 2/2018. I attempted to use the card for a store purchase. The purchase was denied. I then attempted to use the card for an online purchase. The card was denied. Then I started my research. Why so many Vanilla Sky websites? Used a different website which gave directions on how to access Vanilla Sky and set up an account and pin number. Finally got an account set up and immediately checked "balance." This indicated that I had "0" funds left on a $50.00 gift card and even gave the stores, dates, purchases and purchase amounts. How is it possible to have a Vanilla Visa Gift Card which is tightly sealed in its packaging, brand new, and yet all the funds on the card were already used??

I made a purchase on a disposable Visa gift card. When I went to use the card, the first purchase went through. The second purchase I made went through, but then overdrafted my account 32.65... which locked me out of my Apple account. I went ahead and made the purchase to reactivate my Apple account. I have been closely working with an Apple representative to get my refund back. I called in a month ago... and the supervisor I spoke to told me that there was nothing on their end. Let alone the customer service is atrocious... half the time they don’t know what they are doing or try and control the situation saying they could do what supervisors do.

As of Friday February 9, 2017 my replacement cards has not been activated. Each day I call I am told the problem has been escalated and the card will work in 24 hours. Today is Thursday February the 15th. The card is still not activated. I requested a refund TODAY of the 347.00 on my Visa gift card and I was denied. I was informed I cannot receive a refund UNTIL it shows that the compliance team is not able or has tried to activate the replacement card. FYI: I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau on Incomm. (770) 240-6100. 25 years in business. 250 Williams St NW Fl 5 Atlanta, GA 30303-1032.

This card was given to me for my birthday by my friends. 250 CAD$. The card was lost. It was never activated as I called the card company to advise them. They confirmed me that the balance is intact as no one activated the card. That was in October 2017. We are now in February 2018 and I have still not received my card. They are so messed up, unprofessional, they have high level of bad management. No communication between operation and customer service as they only communicate via e-mails internally. The information that is given to you is never accurate. NEVER AGAIN. It's unbelievable.

A $50.00 prepaid card was given to me as a Christmas gift. These cards do not have a pin number. 2 months later when I tried to use it for the first time at a CVS Store it was refused. I tried using it as a gift or credit card with the same result. DO NOT purchase these cards for anyone and should be banned as they are a scam.

Visa gift cards are great because you can use them just about anywhere (except online... Amazon for etc). They won't accept it. However; the biggest issue is the service fees they charge. I was aware of them. No service fees for the 1st year once the card is activated. What they don't tell you is the card is activated once it is purchase, not the first time you use it. So after one year of activation, they will charge you $3.00/mo for service fees whether you use the card or not. They also charge a fee for when you buy the card. The fee depends on how much the card is worth. Like a normal Visa, there is also an expiry date. I would steer anyone from buying the Visa or MasterCard as gift cards. I'm sure they have similar policies. Instead buy gift cards for the retail stores you plan to spend it. I would suspect most of those don't have the same conditions where they penalize you for not spending the card quickly or right away. Good luck.

My dad doesn't deal with banks but he needed a visa card to pay a bill so he bought OneVanilla. He tried to pay over the phone for the bill but was told the card wasn't fully activated till he submitted verified his zip code. I went to their website to see if I can do it online but there was no button to edit his zip code. I then called the number on the back of the card to do it over the phone. The representative then told me they don't accept my card. Which I responded, "That is weird because it is your card, I just need to add the zip code." She then told me she'll transfer me to another person who can help with the zip code only for her to hang up on me.

Received a card for $100 for my birthday. Went to use the card online and the transaction was declined. Went to use the money in the store and told it declined. I called the worthless customer service department and told too bad there is a zero balance and they can't help me... SCAM... THIEFS... CHEATS... Do not buy, do not trust them!

So I bought this card from my local Wal-Mart after reading the back of the card. Seeing as there is no monthly fees, I purchased it and put my entire paycheck on it except $20. I only bought a prepaid card to use till I'm able to have direct deposits. Considering I work night shift, I'm not up at 9 am-4 pm to deposit it into my bank account. I go online to register, the system says the pin I entered was wrong when they didn't even ask for a PIN. So I called them to set it up. The woman on the phone couldn't hear a thing I was saying. She blamed my accent for this which I found slightly rude of her to make it seem as though it was my fault that she couldn't hear. I get off of work and go to put gas in my truck, the cashier (whom I knew) said that the card had been reported stolen. Strike 1.

Disabled son got 25 dollar gift card from Grandma for his birthday and gave to him on 1/3/18. She used her social to setup in store. It locked up first try. Had to send in tons of crap to keep hearing the same thing. Call back within 24 to 48 hours. It is now the 17th and was told to call back in 48 hours to activate card.

Customer service lied, called customer service 9 times. Each customer serv rep lied to us. Lied to a total of 9 times as to cause of issues with card. Was told by one csr that she had to let us go, we were using too much of her talk time. Other csr supervisor told us his boss would call us in one hour. No callback. Called back to find out there was no higher supervisors. Lied too more. After telling another supervisor the discontent we were feeling, he told us we couldnt even ask about the reason the cards could not be used because they were gifted to us by our parents as Christmas presents. One problem was the fact that the cards had an exp date of 6/26. The system showed my exact same card having a 2027 exp date on file with the company. Csr said that the ccv numbers were not the same in the systems as what's on the card. No one could help us make our purchase.

I purchased two $100.00 Gift Cards as gifts for my son and his girlfriend. I went online to confirm the balance on each. I had some trouble with the website and had to try 2x to confirm one of them. I threw away the store receipt after confirming the balances. This was at the end of November. The 2nd week in December I mailed a package to my son with gifts that included the gift cards. He opened the package shortly before Christmas and discovered that his card had a zero balance. I immediately called Vanilla customer service after my son texted me a pic of the card. They tell me that the 100 dollar balance was donated to The Lost Boys nonprofit on 12/5 located in Seattle Washington. I just received a denial for my dispute advising me to file a claim with the delivery carrier. The money was stolen before it was even mailed. I chose this card because there were no fees. NEVER AGAIN!!

I have been a customer for the last couple months. I try to do a dispute of some charges and no one is communicating about if I'm getting approved or if I'm getting denied for my disputes. The customer service representatives are very rude. Most of them seem like they are from another country but the ones that are from the US or seem like they are sometimes be helpful but everyone else that you talk to are very rude and they don't have any sympathy for what you're going through. They tell you that they're going to call you back send that information. They hang up on you when they place you on hold and I yet still have not received any mail in email or physical mail. Some of the supervisors are very rude as well. I will never ever in my life recommend my Vanilla to anyone. They do not listen to you. They cut you off. I'm very unhappy. I've never felt this way about a card company ever in my life. I will no longer be using them for anything.

Although having some wait time, the representatives are very respectful and fulfill your needs with as little trouble as possible and give you the best possible result for your specific needs at that time.

When I started using it I had no issue but immediately after reloading the card it wouldn't allow me to purchase anything through Google Play, DraftKings or other purchases. I choose this card because the fees were the best. I thought from the options I had put upon calling them tonight I was told I had to wait 1-2 hours before speaking to a representative, on top of that the website wont allow me in, just makes me type that crap that's hard to see over and over, and the android app wont work either... I have no way to view my balance. The card is registered with Google Play, DraftKings and activated by Vanilla. It's not right!!! Did they take my money or they or I get scammed. I don't know. It was 25 bucks but I'm not rich and I enjoy the little things. No bank account nor a PayPal account either... NEVER AGAIN.

I purchased 5+ Vanilla Visa Gift Cards for my friends as Christmas gifts. As far as I know, three of the five have been activated and used. No problem there. However, since I purchased too many cards, I decided to used the remainder for myself. I attempted to used one of the gift cards valued at $100 to which it was denied twice in the same transaction. This is when I learned that you must activate the card before use. Why buy a sealed gift card to which supposedly no one else can access just to activate it? If it's sealed it should be ready for use upon breaking the packaging. I tried to call and activate the card with the number on the card would not go through their automated system. I had to speak with customer service.

My mother, who lives in another state, gave one of these cards to my daughter for a Christmas present. Today we went shopping only to find out that this card was not activated and there was no money on it. I called customer service to find out what I needed to do to get it activated and they told me that I'd need the receipt to get it activated. I told them that since it was a gift I did not have a receipt. They told me there was nothing they could do without it. So now, my mother has given Walmart and this company money and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. I would recommend not giving these as gifts in case something like this should happen to you. If I could give less than one star I would. Very unhappy.

I purchased a 25 gift card for one our employees. Card expiration date is June of 2025 and has not been used. I called them on the 13th. Send it all the documentation required. Have been calling for the last 5 days and the issue is still not resolved. I spoke to a Supervisor this morning and all she could do is escalate and again it is not resolved. The worst customer service. I will not purchase a card again. I would recommend for no one to buy one ever again.

I wanted to buy Shark cards for GTA Online, so I thought I could do that this Christmas with 2 cards with 150$ in total value, one 100$ card, and one 50$ card. Tried entering it into PSN, only 50$ from the 100$ card was transferred. That’s it. Tried again MULTIPLE times, nothing else would work. Tried linking the cards to PayPal and using that. Still didn’t work. Tried MULTIPLE times too. Tried setting ZIP codes to both cards. STILL didn’t work. Tried purchasing cards from Walmart.com MULTIPLE times. Purchase cancelled EVERY SINGLE TIME. Spent 2 days trying to use these, including Christmas. For the love of God, don’t buy these for online shopping. Please don’t.

With children scattered around the country, we’ve typically used Vanilla Visa cards for Christmas gifts. Thinking, apparently wrongly, that if anything happened and the card was lost or stolen, that it could be canceled, a stop spending issued or at least tracked to see if it had been used by someone else. In Key West, we are still recovering from Hurricane Irma. This year, funds are tight with all of our money going toward rebuilding our home and replacing lost vehicles etc. Even so, we managed to purchase our three sons and their families gift cards for Christmas in the amount of $500.00 each.

Like others was not able to create a online account. Also I am very upset that Vanilla Prepaid Cards stole all my money in fees. My account was completely drained, I had no knowledge that there were fees. I put $100.00 on the card and put it aside for when it would be needed, now I need it and it was gone. Customer service did nothing to help and said I should have known about the fees. There should be a class-action lawsuit brought to this company to give back some or all the money that they stole from everyone. We pay a fee when we put money on the card, there should be no other fees.

My boyfriend and his electrical union Local 617 raised $3,000 in donations. Through a non-profit, they adopted 5 very unfortunate families for Christmas. We bought FIVE $500 Vanilla VISA gift cards, and five smaller gift cards to buy presents for the families. ALL OF THEM WERE STOLEN. They were purchased on 12/14 and by 12/18 someone used all of the money on the cards. Even though these cards were in a sealed package, so nobody could see the numbers. This company is not going to do anything for us, even though we have proof of purchase. They said they cannot do anything for at least 90 days, which I assume means nothing. This breaks my heart... All these families wanted for Christmas was food to feed their families. I really hope whoever stole this money needed it more than them.

I love Vanilla Visa gift cards. I like to shop online eBay. I had to pay my bill today. I barely had enough money to load on the card. I got home and it said to call customer service. Said 0 balance and the card was expired. I just put $30 on it and I have proof... Customer service said they will email me. I'm so disappointed.

I have received Vanilla Visa gift cards from my employer from time to time as bonuses or gifts. Unfortunately, I waited quite a while to spend one. When I went to register it online, I was unable to. Upon calling Vanilla, I was told that they had 'no record of the card being sold'. They told me I had to have the receipt for the card to prove it is legitimate, which of course I don't have. Someone is $200 richer from this, and I am disgusted. I was counting on the funds for a trip and have been left high and dry.

I have gotten these several times over the years. The last two I got I waited to spend to get something I really wanted. I never used the cards but the fees involved to have these cards ended up draining the balance on both cards. I guess that's what makes it a successful business. Steal from people. $100 down the drain. This company sucks. You are much safer just asking a few hundred random strangers to hold your money.

After purchasing this card which has a Visa logo on it so it should be good everywhere. I'm here to let you know it's only good in United States. You cannot purchase anything online overseas pay a bill overseas etc. supposedly because of the Department of Homeland Security. Which is a waste of space anyway. Customer service is all foreigners, I don't understand what employee ID number is and don't understand what a supervisor is. Over three to 4 weeks to return your money which joke with all the other nonsense of we need a copy of the card the receipt and a signed letter that you want to refund. They really need to list international cards in big bold letters on the packaging on the card itself and USA cards only.

They locked my card after I loaded it up... When asked why that's when the bull started. They claim my birthday didn't match so they asked for my driver license which I submitted. Then they wanted my social security card then they wanted my recent bill. Then they wanted my marriage license. Still haven't gotten my money back. This company are a bunch of crooks.

I am going through a terrible experience with this company. I purchased a prepaid card and loaded money onto it so I could pay a bill online. I've purchased several other prepaid cards in the past and have never had any issues. I went home to activate the card and got an error message so I called customer service. They informed me that the brand new card that I had just purchased had already been attempted to be activated. The only option they had for me was to email them my ID, social security card and a utility bill. Then they would review it in 24 hours and send me a new card in the mail. That could take up to 14 days and I wouldn't have access to my money until then. This is just ridiculous. I will never buy one of these cards again. Wal-Mart prepaid cards are so much cheaper and easy to use. They actually let you spend YOUR money!

Account was blocked because they needed information, like my driver's license and my social security number with a utility bill. Then they blocked my starter card without me getting the personalized card! What the hell! Now the card is blocked from making a purchase! You can't even deactivate the card without giving your information. Don't EVER BUY A MY VANILLA CARD!!!

Got a $25 gift card from my uncle as a gift. I didn't think much of it and told him thanks. Once I activated it and purchased something, the cashier told me the card only had 20 dollars. 5 dollars down the drain. I didn't think much of $5 so I let it slide. Second birthday comes by and he gets me another through the mail. My father told me to just thank him and not complain. So I do so. I activate it and this time it says it only has $5 on it instead of $25. This made me flip my **. I told my uncle and aunt to never buy these for anyone ever. They are frustrating, money eating, ** cards that I wouldn't give to my worst enemy, because then I would lose money from it. If you have a family member that buys this for anyone, tell them to stop.

I bought 3 MyVanilla cards so that my two nephews could go on a school trip to California and I could transfer money from the card I bought for myself to their cards while they are away. What I didn't know (but according to the customer service person is in the EULA) is that you can't transfer money from one "starter" card to the other. She said it was my fault for not reading the EULA. Oh wait, it is located INSIDE the package so no way of knowing that until after I had purchased the three cards and put $200 on their cards and $400 on mine. So, since I couldn't use my card to transfer money to theirs, I requested a refund. I was told that I would have to supply them with a copy of the receipt, my driver's license, social security card and proof of address AND pay a $10 fee. All to get MY money sent to me. I told them thanks but no thanks. I decided to go to an ATM and withdraw my money.

Despite saying it's a "debit" card, the OneVanilla Prepaid non-reloadable MasterCard cannot be used to pay bills - the whole purpose of my purchasing this card. It could only be used at a gas station as a "credit" card, another bill holder told me the same thing. Nowhere I tried could I use this to pay a bill. Be warned - it is NOT what it says it is!

I bought this card years before and never had a problem up until now. I was recently in Job Corps taking up a trade when I came back across this card. My mom had sent me $200 because I left the majority of my stuff at home and she was too lazy to send it back. I Spent half of it and decided to put that other $100 on the card I got at Walmart. Now I bought this card and the next time I went back to Walmart, I noticed they'd removed the whole batch of cards themselves. I thought something was fishy about that.

I was given a My Vanilla reload card as a gift. I never had experience with a reload card never needed to. The expiration date was 4/20. I went to use the $50 gift and was told I had to register. After going through the process, I couldn’t view the balance. I called customer service to be told that the 3.95 dormancy fees ate my balance to zero. There was nothing there. The supervisor said it’s on the packaging. I read her what was clearly visible 2.95 activation fee and card expires 4/20. She said to look on the other side. 4 boxes: monthly fee—none, atm withdrawal 1.95, transaction fee .50, reload fee 3.95. She said, "No it’s on the line below." The line below is black ink on blue background font size 3 unreadable. She said, "Well it’s there and we can’t help you can’t read it." This is legal robbery!!!

Vanilla Visa Card says there is a $150 balance. Card hasn't expired. Continuously declined. Cannot talk to anyone through customer service (shocker) recurring audio playback. Terrible company. Rip off!! They take your money!!

Worst card ever. I will never use or spend my money on. Because I was unable to register the card I was offered the option to use it unregistered but because there was no address the company I tried to send money through declined the transaction. MyVanilla was very unhelpful and told me they would not release the pre-authorization hold for 30 days because "they just can't". Will never recommend and I hope this company goes out of business.

I'm going to get right to the story... I needed to buy a Prepaid Visa Card to pay a bill. I have never bought one of these cards so I got the cashier to help me. We obviously picked the wrong one because the company I used it for denied it. I needed the reloadable, use at ATM, bank type of card. (Now I know). I had to get a refund. I called CS for OneVanilla and they are the worst. I had $500 dollars I needed RIGHT AWAY and they were NO help. They said I needed to send them a picture of the front and back of the card, the receipt, and a signed letter requesting my refund back. Then I needed to wait 7 to 10 business days to get my refund, MY MONEY.

Was given a $25 gift card for birthday gift. When I tried to use it 1 year later it took I could not. When I call the company, I was told I that after 90 days of NOT using the card I incurred a $3.95 charge/month "dormancy fee". In short, they took the balance of my card in fees without my ever using the card!

Received Gift card for birthdays checked balance and funds were there, went to use next morning and declined. Someone made a Purchase on Amazon same morning, sad and now frustrated after speaking with customer service! After over a hour trying to understand each other I'm informed someone has to call me back. 5 hours later I received call and informed I have to file a complaint mail in documents with receipt and take up to 90 DAYS. Amazon didn't care because they have their money but Vanilla Gift card company knows there's a security breach but keep allowing these compromised Gift cards to keep being sold! DON'T BUY VANILLA GIFT CARDS. They don't care about the consumers security and do not follow up fraudulent activity!!! The Gift card number had to be stolen before it was purchased and somehow known when activated!

I registered a Vanilla Gift Card, and an unauthorized user charged a dating site membership to the card. I disputed the charge, and got just the standard email back that read the dispute form was sent to the investigation unit. There was NOTHING in the email, NOTHING on the website that stated if a charge is disputed, your card becomes inactive, and the card number gets changed.

My son bought the card for me while I was out of state. I activated card at the online web page while at the airport, anticipating a need to use it at my destination. The card was hacked & within 3 hours the balance was wiped out. I called to stop the transactions, which were pending, but the company would not put a hold on them. I had to wait for the transactions to clear, then file a dispute, then wait for an investigation. Each time I called I continually was put on hold while the customer service representative asked someone else questions. Even then I got conflicting answers. Finally got my money back, but I feel that all would have been taken care of if they had just stopped the pending transactions to begin with, then allowed the investigations to start. Representatives were rude and ignorant of the status of my claims whenever I called. Will NEVER use this company again and would caution anyone against purchasing their product.

I cannot believe what I had to deal with tonight. We decided a Vanilla visa card would be best for my uncle who has some troubles with dealing with money. We figured this would let him have a little bit of his own money at a time. When trying to activate his card they said his identity was wrong and would not let him activate it. Upon discussing this with customer care they said if he has trouble and has impairments he should not have this card and that this is NOT the service for him. With only $20 on the card we just ask for a refund and they said that to cancel the card it would cost us $9.95. They would not even let the card be switched into his poa's name saying that would be fraud. They treated us like complete criminals and acted like there was nothing they could do about it. I know $20 isn't a lot of money but when you are on a fixed income and trying to help family something like this can really make you upset.

The Vanilla Gift debit card was a $50.00 gift, used it for a purchase at Nordstrom Honolulu. Item was $134.03 - $50.00 was paid using the Vanilla card and $84.03 was paid using my MasterCard. Item was returned to Nordstrom due to a fabric imperfection which was discovered upon arriving home. Nordstrom "refunded" the entire $134.03 to the Vanilla Card. When I asked for an explanation as to why the entire amount was refunded to the Vanilla Card, Nordstrom's sales clerk said that the system shows that the entire amount was paid with the Vanilla Card. Assuming that I now had $134.03 on the Vanilla card, I ordered an item online. The Vanilla Card was rejected. Called Vanilla Card, long story short, whenever an additional amount is added to the Vanilla Card, Vanilla's system automatically shuts down the Vanilla account. Vanilla's conveyed that this is their policy.

I purchased two of these cards as gifts for friends. Neither of them were ever used. They were both stolen by LX processing. I contacted them and their answer was that their website takes the money when you check the balance. This is complete fraud. There should be a class action lawsuit to resolve this and all customers should get their money back. This is horribly dishonest.

Never buy a Visa gift card. We received one as a gift. Visa BankCorp, they started taking out $4.95 a month. We received no fine print about this, just a tiny little note on the back of the card. A lot of good gift card companies that do not Gift/Scam. Go with one of those. Do not, do NOT buy a VISA gift card and not a BankCorp gift card. Stay away.

I got this card to give to my mom for her birthday - she tried to use it and it did not work. After several hours of trying to reach them and a lot of back and forth they finally determined that the card is defective. They said they will send me a replacement and I must wait 2-3 weeks to receive it. After 6 weeks and still no card, I called them again, after another wasted hour on the phone they said they will resend again. Again 3 weeks later my mom finally received the card but this time they put my name on it so she can not use it. I would suggest NEVER, Ever buy this unless you like chasing your own money from this sorry excuse of a company!

My daughter received a OneVanilla card for $200 as a graduation gift. The card was used twice to make authorized purchases. She had $37.43 remaining on the card after about two months, $37.00 was withdrawn off the card by LX Processing, who is this? After reading several other reviews by unhappy customers, it seems this LX Processing is stealing money off customers cards. Tried to call OneVanilla, but each time I followed the automated prompts to enter my card number, expiration date and security code, it wouldn't process. It kept telling me to re-enter my card number… So needless to say I'm pissed off, but glad it was only $37 stolen and not a larger amount like some of the other customers.

I received this $100 preloaded VISA gift card, which has no expiration. As soon as I tried to use, it was denied, and when you call the number on the back (right next to where it says there is no expiration) it says the card has expired. There are some real bad people in this world...

I urge you to not use this prepaid card. Use Western Union Net Spend. They are reputable and I use them and they have never screwed me over. OK, I'm going to try and give the abridged version of my ongoing nightmare. We have been hacked, in my bank account, home computers, email addresses, (all of them) yeah. (FBI if you by any chance see this I beg I to help me!) phones, etc. So, we closed accounts. Started small tshirt and blanket business with my son. I have to buy supplies online so I load $1500.00 on 3 Vanilla Cards. $500 each card. For expenses. For kids selling and expenses for business. I hang on to them for a week and then give one to my brother to pay a bill with and he had a hard time getting them to release funds. Then I waited a week more and called to register the last two. I opened them in my bedroom alone. Had to open with scissors to open package so no one saw cards.