
Vanilla Prepaid Cards Reviews
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About Vanilla Prepaid Cards
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Vanilla Prepaid Cards provides prepaid card options. Usable wherever major credit cards are accepted, these cards come in various denominations and can be purchased at numerous retail locations.
- Wide acceptance at various retailers
- Easy to use for online purchases
- Good option for gifting
- Low fees for transactions
- Customer service can be unhelpful
- Activation issues reported frequently
- Hidden fees reduce card value
Vanilla Prepaid Cards Reviews
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Reviewed March 5, 2022
I received a 100 Vanilla gift card from my parents. I checked the balance. Check out fine. The next day gone. Customer service was nuts. No live agent. Until the next day now I have to fill out a packet and wait 45 to 90 days. I feel like it's a scam. Do not buy this card.
Reviewed March 4, 2022
Received a gift card at work. Went onto the website to assure it was active. Immediately the card showed a PayPal purchase for the entire amount. They did nothing to help except gave me a phone number for PayPal then allowed the transaction to go through.
Reviewed Feb. 28, 2022
Don't ever buy one of these cards. We purchased a $50 card for our son as a Christmas gift. Before we could even use it someone had drained the card at "UNIV OF NORTHWESTERN PAYP." We notified this company within a couple hours of the unauthorized charge, but were told they couldn't do anything about the pending transaction until it went through. Then had to fill out the forms to dispute the charge. It is now 2/28 and my son has still not been able to redeem his Christmas gift card. This company should not be allowed to sell a product with the Visa logo, implying that our money is secure when it is anything but. I will never purchase another Vanilla Gift Card and would suggest you do not buy one either. Otherwise you could have your money stolen as well.
Reviewed Feb. 28, 2022
Do not buy one of these cards for any reason. I received a $250 gift card that was hacked before I even got to use it. 2 different charges for small amounts by 2 different people. This was a brand new card never activated by me. I contacted them and they shut off the card. Took 90 days to resolve and they said not their fault, contact the merchant. They were supposed to issue a new card and it never came. STAY AWAY FROM THESE CRIMINALS!! THEY ARE STEALING PEOPLE'S MONEY....
Reviewed Feb. 24, 2022
Purchased a $300 gift card for my inlaws for Christmas 2021. They went to use the card to find out there were no funds available on it!!! I filed with FTC and BBB and no luck with the Visa reps responding so all they can do is give them a bad rating! These should be banned from store shelves. DO NOT PURCHASE THESE!
Reviewed Feb. 23, 2022
So. My mother purchased a $100 gift card from this company for Christmas. She passed away 2 weeks ago. I had intended to keep it and probably not use it because it was the last gift she had given me. Somewhere in the process of dealing with hospice and trying my hardest to get her affairs in order I misplaced the card. I called right away to the company customer service number provided all the serial numbers on the original packaging and was told that she was able to locate the card and all needed info and should expect a replacement within 5-7 days. Waited 2 weeks and then asked to speak with a manager to figure out where the replacement for the GIFT card was. She insisted that I have a receipt from the original purchase of a GIFT card.
I explained the situation that my mother had passed so there was no way to find the original receipt. I provided the exact information to the “manager” and was told very a very uncompassionate person I have ever encountered in my 57 years on this earth. She insisted that she was unwilling to do what the first person was able to do in less than 3 minutes. How exactly am I supposed to get a receipt from my dearly and very recent mother. This company really profits on the loss of others, have the worst customer service on the planet. Especially the management whose job it to only increase the company’s profits on lost or stolen GIFT cards.
User beware that if you use this service to send a gift card to send the original receipt which seems ridiculous. It’s A GIFT CARD and I have all the original packaging with the serial number. Now I’ve not only lost my mother but the last gift she will ever give me. I have the serial number as I said and the first person was able to locate the account in less than 3 minutes and said that was all they needed. However the ”manager’s job" is to obviously keep from replacing these cards to keep their profits up by doing her very best to make as difficult as possible to replace a lost gift card. Now I am not only grieving my mom, but also the last gift she will ever give me.
Reviewed Feb. 19, 2022
I’m another victim. Gift card given for my birthday was already used before I opened it. I opened a claim as instructed. They said 90 days. It’s past 90 days, they will not answer my emails and when I can actually get through to a person they transfer my call and disconnect me. This card is a scam and something needs to be done. I can’t believe with all the complaints and stolen money the consumer has no recourse. DO NOT BUY!!!
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2022
February 17,2022. Be aware of the Vanilla Credit Card scam. This company deserves no stars. On June 28th, 2021 my husband purchased two $500 Vanilla gift cards from CVS for my birthday. I started using the first gift card in October of 2021. After making a few purchases during the month I knew I had around $300 left on it. I went to use it again on December 6, 2021 and it was declined. When I got home I called to check the balance and it was $15.00. I then said to myself I better check the other one which had not even been opened yet. Checked the balance, they said something is wrong with the card, to find out that that card only has a $35.00 balance. Both cards had multiple charges of google play and google donations.
Called Vanilla Gift Cards and told the representative that I never use Google play and I want to be reimbursed. Also I told her that this is fraud and I was reporting this to the police which I have done and the police are investigating it. They said something's going on here. I filed the dispute forms for both cards on 12/6/21 and 12/8/21. After several attempts to get an update by phone, I could not, I then set an email and on the fourth email demanding a response, I finally heard from them by a phone call, the best number to reach them at is 1-404-397-1461 (when you call it is Amanda’s direct line and also, I received a email.
I called Amanda from Vanilla Gift Cards twice and she stated what they get back from the chargebacks is what I will get back. I told her that I wanted my full refund. Amanda also said that we tried to resolve these quickly. I filed this dispute on 12/6/21 and 12/8/21 and Amanda stated that she submitted the chargebacks on January 10, 2022. What bothers me is they had the disputes 12/6/21.
I called Amanda twice to get a update and did not get anywhere. I called this week and Amanda said that on February it went into arbitration and then said to me, "I’m going to close this out and refund you $129.00." I told her that this is unacceptable and wanted my full refund. Amanda stated what we get back is what you get back and there is nothing she can do. I then told her I am not accepting this and that this company needs to be sued. I have called CVS corporate office and they are investigating this matter also.
I also, have put a complaint into the BBB which Vanilla Gift Cards have hundreds of complaints. They responded saying they received my complaint and will be resolved by March 6,2022. I then again declined the Vanilla Gift card response twice and BBB closed the case stating unresolved. I have been in touch with a Detective at the police department who has been investigating this matter and he had send Google portal of the charges and was hoping to to get a quick response but when he heard back from Google they unfortunately have no record of the disputed charges. This company is not professional and does not care.This company really needs to be investigated. I am wondering if someone has started a Class Action suit against the company.
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2022
Updated on 03/02/2022: After six weeks, and seven phone calls to their company the money was put back on our cards that were delivered with a zero balance. Three days later, all the money on both cards was gone again!!! One particular transaction was to a nut and bolt company in TAIWAN!!!! If you’re lucky enough to FINALLY get your money back on the cards, spend it immediately before they steal it again!! Now we’re back to square one. This is ridiculous, criminal, and unjust.
Original Review: Add us to the list of people being scammed by this company. As my husband was sitting on hold with them for the fifth time in the past month, I decided to see if anyone else had the same issue as us. I found all of these complaints and it made me sick because I realized this was indeed, never going to get resolved. We purchased (2) $200 vanilla gift cards online from Walmart. They were both delivered with a zero balance. We have contacted Vanilla customer service every four days because they keep telling us in three days we will be refunded and nothing happens.
We get hung up on, put on hold for 30 minutes, told we need to submit our driver's license, pictures of receipt, package, and the cards front and back which was weird but we did. They keep saying the same thing over and over as if it’s rehearsed and programmed. They’ve told us 5x we will be refunded within three days. Something isn’t right here. Once again, we got nowhere with our call tonight. I’m pretty sure we’re out our $400. I’m going to report this everywhere I think may help. I encourage other victims to do the same.
Reviewed Feb. 16, 2022
I was given a $300 Visa Vanilla gift card for my birthday on May 11th 2021 issued by Sutton Bank and is serviced by InComm Financial Services, Inc. It was in a sealed gift card package and purchased from a local CVS pharmacy. I first opened the packet on November 5th at a department store to try to use it to make a purchase. The transaction was denied due to insufficient funds. I later called the customer service number on the back of the card to learn that there was only a $3 balance remaining. I also learned that there were handfuls of small transactions made between 9-29 and 9-30 at Google play (online) which I did not make nor authorize. I followed the instructions on the card to submit a dispute and request a replacement card. I waited the full 90 days for the investigation to be completed. I was informed via an email that a discrepancy was found and that I would receive a replacement card.
I received a replacement card this week for only $10. I tried repeatedly to contact their customer service via phone and email and either was disconnected or was told that the decision was final and no further information would be available and to keep emailing them, which I have done several times without any response. I searched for similar issues online and found hundreds of similar complaints on the consumer affairs website and want to share this awful experience with others. I have filed complaints with the BBB, Attorney General's Office and Federal Trade Commission. I tried calling Visa direct - no help and I also tried Sutton Bank in Ohio only to be told to leave a voicemail and someone will call back (not holding my breath). I am sure there is not much more I can do.
Reviewed Feb. 15, 2022
After attempting to use the gift card we received, we found out that someone had hacked it for a purchase at Walmart. After getting hung up on 3 times, they told us we would get a new card in the mail. That never happened. Attempted to use another card we got for Christmas, only to find out THAT one had been hacked, too, and now "nothing can be done about it". This company has people on the inside who sell the gift card information to scammers on the dark web. If you bought a gift card for someone through this company, and this happened to them, contact the Better Business Bureau and file a report.
Reviewed Feb. 13, 2022
I purchased this card recently for my son's 8th birthday. My son love to buy Robux on Roblox so I decided to get him his own card, well I purchased the Vanilla Prepaid Card. A day before his birthday I decided to activate the card before I give it to him because he doesn't know how. Well long story short I activated it. Gave the card to him on his birthday. He was so happy to get a $60 gift card. Well he tired to buy Robux. It said declined. I called to checked the balance on the card. He only had 3 cents on it. Once I activated the card a company called Woodi Trading stole all the money off. I called Vanilla. They said there was nothing they could do to call the merchant but the number they gave me was disconnected. Come to find out vanilla has been having problems with this Woodi trading company taking their customers' money but yet they won't do anything about it and the customers keep taking the loss. Do not buy this card. Tou will regret it!!!!
Reviewed Feb. 9, 2022
My mother purchased a Vanilla Gift Card for me for Christmas. I attempted to use the card at a store and received a message that the card was "invalid". After receiving the message I attempted to contact Vanilla Gift Card's customer service multiple times, but was on hold so long (20 minutes) that I had to hang up. On 1/21/22 I was finally able to speak with someone (Paige) because she picked up after I was on hold for 17 minutes. I told her about my experience with the card and informed her at the time that my mother no longer had the receipt. She told me she understood and that she would submit an "activation request" on my behalf. She told me that all I would need to do was submit a copy of the front/back of the card, and a copy of my ID. I felt uncomfortable about the ID, but did it so that my mother's hard-earned money would not go to waste. Two hundred dollars may not be a lot of money to some, but for the elderly on fixed incomes, it is.
After sending in the info I was told would be needed, I got an automated message from Vanilla Gift Card stating that they would need a copy of the receipt. I then sent them another email explaining that I informed Paige from the beginning that my mother no longer had the receipt and that she said she already submitted the "activation request". I got another email today, 2/8/22, stating that they could not process my request without the receipt. Vanilla Gift Cards is a SCAM. The unreasonably long hold times, the insincere customer service reps who apparently will lie just to get you off the phone, and the automated email replies that lead to nothing, are all a ploy to steal money from hard-working people. Save yourself; buy Amex gift cards only!
Reviewed Feb. 7, 2022
I purchased a $500 gift card for my son for Christmas. Upon activation it was immediately compromised. I call immediately and filed a claim. They told me that they would investigate and that it would take 90 days to complete. This is a visa and it should not take 90 days! This has been a terrible experience and we still don't have our money back!
Reviewed Feb. 3, 2022
I purchased a gift card for someone who did not use or confirm receipt of the card. When I requested for a refund, Vanilla Gift Card sent an email confirming the refund would be processed within days. Almost a year later, they did not refund the money. When I contacted them again, they said they would refund the money within 14 days. A month later I called back because they still did not refund the money, this time around they said they were not going to issue a refund to my account because it was a digital transaction nor could they issue a gift card to me the purchaser as a refund. I will be following up with the Consumer Relations Department of my Attorney General's office.
Reviewed Feb. 1, 2022
I definitely would not recommend the Vanilla gift card. I have been trying to get it activated for over three days. It's insane! When I finally find a number to speak with someone, they act like they can't hear me and hang up. I was on hold for fifteen minutes. I'm beyond angry!! They just steal your money. I wish someone warned me about it.
Reviewed Jan. 28, 2022
I purchased a hundreds of dollars of Visa vanilla gift cards, which I have given over time, mainly to people I do not know well. I recently gave $200 to someone I do know, and when they went to use it, they were repeatedly denied as invalid. They contacted customer service and were told that they needed the original receipt for the gift card to work. This is a GIFT card. How can they require people to have a receipt? I dug up the receipt and submitted this to the customer service, and they told me they couldn't activate them without the card number on the actual gift card, which I don't have anymore. They also require the ID card of the person trying to use the gift card. Every time, more hoops. But now I am certain that all the gift cards I have given out over time did not work. The people I gave them to cannot come to me tell me to give customer service my receipt, and I cannot contact these people to ask for the card number. This is the biggest scam. Do not buy these cards. There must be a class action coming.
Reviewed Jan. 27, 2022
Disgusting that Mastercard would put their name on this thing. I’m not even going to bother beginning reviewing this crappy card….NEVER AGAIN AND IF YOU DO BUY THIS AFTER READING THIS YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!
Reviewed Jan. 25, 2022
My Vanilla Visa gift card just expired with $74.00 left on it. I followed the directions on the back of the card to go online to the website. It said I would need to call their 800 number & speak to a customer service agent to order a replacement card. So I did. It took 38 MINUTES to even reach one (Candace) & then, Vanilla Visa has disenfranchised their CSR’s so much, they can’t even order a SIMPLE replacement card for you - but, instead, they CAN place you on hold AGAIN to “speak to their supervisor”. I asked for the supervisor’s name with whom I would be speaking, “I have no idea, they are random”…. Umm, okay?
NOW. HERE I AM 1 HOUR & 41 MINUTES LATER, STILL ON HOLD as I do my other work & NO SUPERVISOR. I believe they put you through this “hell” so that you get fed up, hang up, so you can’t access YOUR money & then, they continue to earn interest on it. NOT YOU. I will NEVER, NEVER purchase a Vanilla Visa gift card again. They deal in bad faith. They make it impossible to access YOUR money. I’m almost 2 HOURS & 15 MINUTES in on this & plan to continue because I’m too invested to stop now. Currently googling “Vanilla Visa class action lawsuits”.
Supervisor, Jim (employee # **) answered & is verifying & RE-verifying my account, as if it were $74 MILLION vs. $74.00. He has placed me on FOUR holds. And FINALLY stated he will send me a replacement card! 2 HOURS & 8 MINUTES LATER, my “new, replacement card is ‘in the mail’ & should receive it within 7-10 days. If you have any problems with the card or do not receive it, we are reachable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the number on the back of the card…”. Liked hell if they are! *Back to googling “Vanilla Visa class action lawsuit”.
Reviewed Jan. 25, 2022
My experience with this gift card is similar to all the other reviews I am reading. My card was a gift at Christmas and by the first week of January someone had used all the funds in an entirely different state. Customer Service was no help after they eventually answered the phone. They asked for a lot of personal information and provided a case #, but never emailed me the form to complete the claim. Someone has to shut them down. I filed with the Attorney General's Office in my state. I think everyone should do this in every state to get this company shut down! I wouldn't even give 1 star except you have to in order to submit the review.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2022
Do not use. They stole $3,200 from me. I check my balance on the cards and it says unavailable. Customer service won't answer my calls. Doing whatever I can to get my money back. Beware, beware, beware.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2022
I tried to contact Vanilla Gift card today regarding a problem with a prepaid gift card. I called several different customer service phone numbers & on the first two, the recording or automated assistant was so garbled that it was barely understandable. No option was given other than going online, which left a message to call customer service. It is an endless loop where no one provides service on a card never used that supposedly never expires. I tried 18005711376, 18333226760,18006529174. The recording on the 9174 line was clear, but no option to speak to a live rep. The site advertises that the cards never expire, but when checking the balance, it says expired.
Reviewed Jan. 23, 2022
Please do not purchase another Vanilla gift card. Unfortunately m, their company needs to be shut down as people are stealing hard working people money! Unethical! The card declined after I just bought it and I called. They said someone in Jersey from a casino made a charge. I was nowhere near Jersey. They have a serious fraud scam going on and I will never purchase another vanilla gift again. It takes 2 seconds to take the money from the card and 45-90 for just a dispute! DO NOT PURCHASE UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR MONEY STOLEN AND NO HELP RETURNING
Reviewed Jan. 21, 2022
My wife was given a Vanilla Visa prepaid Gift card. This was "virtual" sent to her email, not physical. As soon as she tried to use it, approximately 30 days later, Amazon rejected the purchase as no funds were available. Upon reaching "Vanilla" customer support she found out that someone used the Virtual number to purchase products on BestBuy.com in Las Vegas, NV. We live nowhere close to Nevada. We are trying to get the money back but based on many other posts, it won't be easy. This company should be put out of business for their lack of security.
Reviewed Jan. 21, 2022
I brought a gift card for a friend for Xmas but when I gave it to her someone have stole the money already and she couldn't used it. That was embarrassing situation. I know she didn't used it 'cause when I look into it it was used before she got it. So when I call the place they was going in circles with me about getting a replace for the card after I provided all the info they ask for. Now over a month later still no resolution.
Reviewed Jan. 21, 2022
My mom got me a $25 Visa Vanilla gift card. I tried to use it on Amazon, & to order pizza, and both times the card was declined. I did activate it by calling the number - I have not contacted their customer service team yet- but plan to after reading the Consumer Affairs article.
Reviewed Jan. 20, 2022
I bought a Vanilla Visa Gift Card from Walmart in Lawton Ok. I paid $200.00 for the gift card on December 13, 2021 at 10:56 a.m. I went 7 minutes down street to Ross Store. Spent about 30 minutes in the store and when I tried to use the gift card only .08 was on the gift card. I called 14 times the number on the back of card and was told it was used in London England at some store called Beverly Women's store although the gift card plainly states it can only be used in the United States.
After several attempts to call after 4 days I was sent a dispute package and was told it could take up to 90 days and I may or may not get back the funds STOLEN from this card. I faxed, emailed and mailed my dispute. To this day I have not heard from the company. The company on the Vanilla Gift Card was Income Resolution Department Phone 1 833 322 6760 Fax 1866 295 0646. MAILING ADDRESS INCOMM, INC. P.O. BOX 826 FORTSON, GA 31808. I have not heard from them at all.
Reviewed Jan. 20, 2022
Vanilla card had 250.00. She got up next morning card was empty, she was crying day after Xmas someone stole her monies and Vanilla card says takes three months to give her back monies and someone in Indiana used the card. We don't know anyone there.
Reviewed Jan. 20, 2022
My mother purchased these gift cards for Christmas and fraudulent charges popped up before I could ever use it. I called customer service and there is no security - they ask for birth date and physical address which hadn't been given to them previously and so can't be used to identify who the card actually belongs to. The only things they could have used to ensure that I was indeed the owner of the card was my name and my email - both of which they did not have without me providing it to them. Meaning that anyone could call and claim that the card is theirs and the company would accept that. It also seems that customer service is performed by Incomm, which has no access to any of the information provided to Vanilla Cards. They say that disputes take 45-90 days to process... Don't buy these cards, just don't.
Reviewed Jan. 17, 2022
Won't work with Google pay because they block all transactions from Vanilla prepaid cards. So I can't do online shopping or do anything online with it. And when you call customer service they don't help at all because they got their money already so why would they care.
Reviewed Jan. 17, 2022
My mother purchased 4 Visa Vanilla Gift cards for her grandchildren for Christmas - Not one worked. After multiple attempts to call and get instructions on how to activate and use them, we opted for a refund. My mother is on a limited income and was very upset that her Grandchildren did not receive gifts from her this year due to not one of the cards working in major department stores. They deactivated the cards and promised "A Refund in 7-10 business days". I have had to call and sit on hold for hours at a time to speak to someone who just continues to state the refund is processed - It certainly has not been processed - we would have had it already 2 times over. DON'T BUY THESE CARDS - They outsource customer service and they dont give a hoot. I suppose VISA needs 200.00 more than my mother does in these times!
Reviewed Jan. 16, 2022
I bought a $100 Visa Card gift card few weeks before Christmas, and I still can not use it. First of all, I was unable to access my card balance or register it. After trying repeatedly to access my card with no result, I called customer service on the back of the card and I was told that my card was deactivated for security reason. Seriously?!! They promised to send me a new card in a few days, but it never happened. I called them again and they said that I would need to wait another two weeks for a card replacement. Needless to say, nobody has sent me any card replacement. What a scam!! Please DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS GROUP OF SCAMMERS!
Reviewed Jan. 12, 2022
Got my son a $100 Visa Vanilla gift card today from 7-11. For things he has earned plus report card. He goes to use it and it doesn't work. Company says it was used right after purchasing at **. LeftStanding says it is a url domain currently available for purchasing via a URL purchasing company.. Highly suspicious, right.. Vanilla VISA company still refused to refund money because "it doesn't matter who uses it, it's as good as cash". I explain that either the 7-11 employee or an employee distribution employee must have used it. Most probably a 7-11 person if they had the info and used it right after purchase. The phone call was left at "file a report and we'll look into it within 90 days." All the while the attitude being we will never see that $100 again no matter the outcome. Also, customer service rep said she would email me a complaint form. Never received that email.
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2022
These people are literally stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from unknowing victims. I was hung up on numerous times. They couldn't even give me a USPS tracking number. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY!
Reviewed Jan. 8, 2022
Bought 2 of these "gamer" cards for my kid for Christmas, so he could buy VR games from Steam. Steam, being the largest video game store, does NOT ACCEPT THESE. They require a valid postal code linked to the card, which Vanilla no longer does. Don't waste 2-1/2 hours on waiting for customer service on the phone either. BUYER BEWARE!!!
Reviewed Jan. 6, 2022
No help whatsoever! Their help line says because of covid they can't take your call. They say go online if you need help and there is absolutely no help there. There is no other way to communicate with them, no email, nothing!!!! Garbage!! Will never buy another one of their cards again!! Just lost 200 dollars!!!
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2022
I was given a Vanilla Prepaid Card for $75. It was in its original packaging. No tampering was evident. When I opened it, I saw there were only 12 digits. Any attempt to check it was quickly terminated, because it accepted nothing without 16 digits. I went online and found a customer service number. After 27 minutes wait, the man told me that I must procure a receipt. I had no receipt. "You must ask the person who gave it to you. You must find which store they bought it from." I couldn't. I had received a few from different people, during the last months and did not know who gave it to me. I am also now living in a different province. THERE IS NO HELP. $75 down the drain.
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2022
Total garbage card, unable to make purchases from the Steam store. They do not support this card so we wasted 100 bucks getting this as a gift for someone. This is silly as Steam is the largest PC gaming store on the web... DO NOT BUY these cards!
Reviewed Jan. 2, 2022
Whoever reading this message please don't buy gift cards ever. These days they all are so bad. It says on the card check 24/7 balance but nothing is working. The only message I see is "A system error has occurred please try later". That's all. Moreover, they don't have any customer service active line. It's all fake. There will be one message that fits all. "We are busy dealing with other customers" and will put you on hold. Now you hold it for hours no one will attend your phone call. This and all other companies selling gift cards are all crooks. None of these cards work properly because some thieves either already take care of money or tempered. I'm still struggling to get someone over the phone.
Reviewed Dec. 31, 2021
Do not buy gift cards from this CVS. They are crooks and thieves. I Received the cards as a gift. Thankfully the receipt was with them. I called the CVS store and was told they would not do anything and I had to go into the store. I live 5 hours away, so I went into my local CVS. They tried to scan and figure out what was wrong with the cards. They told me to dispute the charges because it looks like the cards were tampered with prior to the purchase. Hopefully other people will come forward and people will be fired and the stealing will stop. The cards were Vanilla gift cards. The phone # on the back is only automated and does not have an option to talk to a person. Vanilla has no customer service representative available to help when there is a problem with there product.
Reviewed Dec. 29, 2021
I got three Vanilla gift cards for Christmas that said Visa on them. I went to swipe them at a gas pump and vanilla decides to lock my card until January 3rd. What kind of card says Visa on it and can't be swiped at a gas pump? That's ridiculous. We should be ashamed to put their name on this card. This was my Christmas present and now I have to wait. Whoever created these cards do not think about real people and how they spend their money and where they spend their money. They refuse to lift the hold on the cards. Very poor customer service. Totally horrible experience with a vanilla gift cards. I hope none of my family ever buys me vanilla gift cards again. It was kind of them to get them but those cards are not very versatile to the consumer. The fault lies with the creators of the cards and management.
Reviewed Dec. 29, 2021
I don't understand why this company isn't addressing their issues with all of this fraud going on and why it is made difficult for the consumer to deal with. On top of that most of these gift cards are exactly that a gift!!
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2021
I gifted my colleagues at work with $100 and $50 Vanilla Master Cards. Nine in all totalling over $650. This included $4.95 and $5.95 activation fee for each card. They were bought from Walmart in Burlington, Ontario. All my colleagues who received the cards have complained and I am shocked that the cards got declined. When I asked Walmart to confirm if it had activated it, it said yes and showed me the activation proof on the receipt. They told me to connect with Master Card.
I connected with Vanilla Master Card after long waits and holding periods on the phone - during which they simply cut off the phone when I was put on hold and did not care to call back even though I had given them my phone#. Finally after numerous long attempts, when I connected with an agent, she seemed to be very kind and considerate. She took all the card #s from me and details of the purchase. She again activated the cards and assured me that there would not be any issue anymore with these cards. Well, I told my friends about it and apologised to them about this issue again and told them with confidence to go and use the cards.
However, today I get to know from my friends that the cards yet do not work - the payments got declined as before. Walmart tells me that they can do nothing about it and these are final sale cards and they cannot accept them as returns. Today at 6:21pm est., I called Vanilla Master Card and spoke to an agent by the name of Joel. He told me that I made a mistake in buying the cards from Walmart stores. I should have gone to their Vanilla website and bought it directly from them online. Wow!!! Joel after looking into the records at his end, told me that the one card which I had given as gift was going through an investigation and cannot be activated until the investigation is completed. The other cards he cannot do anything about until the investigation is complete. The investigation about what? He had no answer for it.
The irony of the situation is that I bought the Vanilla Master Cards using my own Bank's Master Card and now they are investigating how it was bought? This is a very shameful and frustrating experience during holiday times when I spent $650+ trusting Walmart as the vendor and Master Card as a reputed name. If someone can advise me how I should come out of this situation, it will be very helpful. Thanks and my appreciation in advance.
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2021
Let me start by stating the only reason I gave this a single, is due to the requirement of selecting a star prior to proceeding. This should actually receive a zero star rating. My wife received a Vanilla Gift Card as a Christmas bonus from her work. Since this is considered a bonus, taxes are required to be paid on the gift. We understand this fact and have no problem paying the taxes. However, once the card was activated, two weeks after it was purchased, she went to use it an found all but $9.78, of the initial $500, had already been consumed through fraudulent activity.
When reaching out to Vanilla Customer Support, they proceeded to tell us there was nothing they could do to assist and that we needed to wait until December 25th to call back to dispute the charges. When requesting to talk to a supervisor, we were placed on extremely long wait times and ended up getting transferred back to the original Customer Service Representative we had already spoke to. This went on for well over 2 hours and the same results.
Based upon our lack of support from Customer Service, we went into investigation mode on our own. Utilizing the Vanilla website, we were able to find the businesses who the pending transactions had been placed with. We proceeded to contact their Fraud Department and report the activity. Working with the department stores Fraud Department we were able to stop shipping of one of the orders, while the other orders were already out for delivery. Even through our efforts, countless hours of investigating, the department store was able to identify the shipments, but only could tell us the city it was shipping to. They refused to provided us with the actual shipping address, even though they had it in front of them, due to their company security policies. Even though we conducted all the leg work, the department store could only send out a stop delivery for the packages out for delivery, but didn't guarantee any success.
We did receive a case number from the Fraud Department and were told to reach out to Vanilla and give them the case number. Once again we are on hold waiting for Vanilla's Customer Service Department to answer the phone, as I am typing this complaint. The morale of the story is do not trust prepaid gift card or accept them as a form of payment, as they are the least protected form of currency exchange and you have no personal rights when it comes to fighting for the money you are receiving. The department stores do not have the funds to track shipments that are proven fraud and will dispute the charges with Vanilla once proven fraudulent and you will never receive any compensation for helping the department store identify transactions as such.
Upon waiting the period of time we were told by Vanilla, we followed up to dispute the fraudulent charges. It took another 2 1/2 hours on hold to finally receive a case number and an email with the dispute paperwork to be filled out and emailed back in. This process can take up to 90 days once the paperwork is received, once the paperwork has been reviewed and the investigator contacts us, which could be an additional 10 days. This entire process could be more than 100 days from receipt of the case number. Is this all worth the effort? Yes it is, this money was fraudulently stolen and needs to be recovered. I challenge anyone who has this happen to them to follow through and fight this as well.
This is a true act of theft and a violation of our laws. It feels the same as someone breaking into your vehicle or home stealing. What we have learned from this experience is there are no laws to protect you as a consumer! Stiffer laws need to developed to shut this racket down and higher agencies need to get involved, especially when people do all the work for the card company and the department store to prove the violation and save them money. The only losers are us as the consumer. Until such time this becomes laws, I would recommend boycotting prepaid card companies and let them hear us through their lack of support. Maybe this will hurt their bottom line and bring this up to hire management to fix the problem. I am going to start a NFP Business to assist victims of such organized crime as such. People need assistance to fight back. Especially if our legal system can't provide such services for its citizens. I look forward to any and all feedback.
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2021
Purchased this card in North Carolina at a Dollar General. Put $100 on each of their cards for online Christmas spending. My daughter's card is not working. Can’t use it to buy anything and can’t get through to customer service representative. This is the last gift card I will ever purchase. Visa is a big let down. How are they able to get away with this? I now just want my money back but don’t see that happening. They are just taking people's money. What a rip off!
Reviewed Dec. 25, 2021
I only gave 1 star because 0 stars is not an option. It is not worth more of my time to go into all of the horrible details of my experience. Suffice to say I went through all of this round and round only to find out that my Visa Gift Card (that was immediately hacked and I lost $500) will take up to 90 days to find out if they will even give me back my money. I bought the card at Pavilions. It was sealed and no one had gotten to the physical card. Within hours the card was unusable with no funds and was used at a Ralph's over 100 miles away! Clearly a hacked card! If this can happen so easily to VISA, my advice, read all these horrible reviews and STAY AWAY!!
Reviewed Dec. 25, 2021
My name is Pastor David **. I at 11:52 this morning purchased 3,500.00 gift cards from speedy on 7500 Lyndale Ave so in Richfield Mn. I gave them 1517.85 CASH for 3 Vanilla gift cards and when I tried to use them 1 had ZERO on it..The second it was activated someone purchased 500.00 on Amazon and the balance is 0...The 2nd one had also 500.00 and when it got activated someone stole 490.00 from coach purse company. The 3rd one is not yet active however I feel once it is someone will steal that as well...Vanilla visa customer care puts you on hold FOREVER..Speedy says piss off, it's my problem and I even called Richfield police and they also said it's my problem..Now how do I give 1500.00 for 3 gift cards, get NOTHING in return and it's MY PROBLEM..
The same thing with 700.00 happened to me at CVS back in June and CVS said it's my problem ...Now how do these companies continue to sell bad credit cards and when they are confronted they say GO AWAY? WTH..Is this news that they are doing this daily..It's all over the internet ..I am out 1518.00 and speedy and vanilla won't do a thing..Thanks for your time..Sincerely Pastor David **. Merry Christmas and God bless. Fyi.. I called them two times tonight and waited one time for 2 hours and 1 time for 1 hour and both times Vanilla gift card customer service hung up on me said that there was nothing they could do and they hung up as well...Is this not theft?
Reviewed Dec. 25, 2021
Until this one I bought at a grocery store for a $100. It didn't work, didn't register on their website. Called them and their agent based in "South East Asia" wanted my I.D and a copy of my receipt. Receipt was fine but my ID in S.E Asia. Nope. Aldi's better take their non working S. East asia card back.. This isn't okay.
Reviewed Dec. 21, 2021
I received a Vanilla Gift Card that was worth of $250.00. When I went to their website to check the card balance, it was down to $44 and a number of Google Play store purchases (like multiple $5 ones) on the card. I immediately called the Vanilla customer service. I reported that the card was compromised and the representative canceled the card. And he said he could send me a new card with the remaining balance but they have to wait until Google to pay them back for the fraudulently purchased amounts. I wanted to get the new card with full amount, so he said it would take about 7 to 10 business days to complete the refund transactions from Google.
So I called them a week later. Obviously no refund was made from Google to Vanilla. And the "new" representative was saying the same thing. She could send me a new card with $44 and call them back later to get update on the refund from Google. I was getting fed up by their process (and you have WAIT like 30 to 1 hour for a representative to answer you back and even during the call they will put you on hold for multiple times), so I just requested for the $44 card return first. I got the new card like 2 days later, which was good.
So, I waited another week and called them. The representative was saying the same thing again. No refund from Google and they have to wait 10 business days to process the refund. I was so angry and requested to speak with his manager. I have been put on hold for 1+ hour and I am still waiting as I am writing this review. Their business is so insecure. Once the gift cards are purchased by a person, there is no way to get proper customer services from their team. They are all reading pre-made scripts every time people call. Just don't buy this Gift Card. Just buy Amazon gift card or something if you need to give someone a gift.
Reviewed Dec. 20, 2021
My company bought a few of these for us to use for testing purchases. I noticed that 2 fraudulent purchases were made at Nordstrom last week. Here are my experiences/observations:
- The only way to contact them is by phone or physical mailing address.
- I called the number listed in the help section 3 different times:
---- You will have to wait in queue for 20+ minutes.
---- Once you get a customer service rep on the phone and explain that there are fraudulent charges on your account, they will disconnect the call (this occurred 3 times).
This is a complete fraud/scam. It seems like they sell the card data off and then provide no help in getting the funds back.
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2021
I received $100 gift card from a client two weeks ago. After checking the balance on the card I noticed that there was a $20 pending charge. I immediately contacted Vanilla to let them know that someone was using the card fraudulently. I was told by a customer service person that I would have to wait seven days for them to contact the merchant to have the funds put back on the card. I was told they have a fraud alert being put on the card so that no one could use the card. I waited a couple of days and checked the card again and noticed that the card it was now at $60. I contacted them again and by the time someone got on the phone the card and have been Drain down to $27.15. I then called vanilla to report that someone was continuing using the card. When I try to explain this to the customer service provider I was told that there was no hold put on the card and that the charges have been made in the last few days.
Fast forward to today which is two weeks later. I called and I was told that there is $67 on the card and then I would have to wait seven days for the rest of the funds to be put on the card. Mind you it has been 10 days and after telling the customer service provider he responded, "I know but you have to wait 3 to 7 days for a response". After me reminding him it has been 10 days he hung up the phone on me. I will never do service with this company. I am starting to think that this scam is being done by inside person. I think vanilla is expecting for customers to just let it go. That way they won’t have to refund the money that the customer has been scammed out of. I really believe this company needs to be put out of business immediately.
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2021
There is 1 star marked only because I had no choice. My actual review is 0 stars. I purchased the Visa Vanilla Gift Card on 12/16/2021 because I had a $50.00 bill that was due and my husband had my prepaid Brinks card with him. I was at Family Dollar when I saw Visa on the card and it was easily activated. I put $65.00 on it but the total was $69.95 as there was a $4.95 fee. I get home and try to pay my bill online for $50.00 and it was declined. I tried to make to more purchases one for $4.99 and one for $2.99. Both were for Google games. They were both declined except for .57 cents went thru on the $4.99 purchase which makes no sense because if .57 cents went thru then the whole amount of $4.99 should have went thru. Anyway so there was a balance of $64.43 left on the card. I did not try to use it anymore.
On 12/17/2021 I called the number on the back of the card and naturally couldn't get a human but I did find a number where I got a customer service rep. The number is 1-844-433-7898 for those of you this has happened to and can't reach a customer service rep. I was on hold for 21 mins when a woman that could barely speak English told me my transaction with Fingerhut did go thru because of the exp. date, then she said it was the type of institution Fingerhut is. I said, "Y'all advertise paying bills and shopping online and Fingerhut is the bill I was trying to pay. All of the sudden she told me I had a 0 balance because $64.43 was pending to a PayPal account.
I went to the vanilla site to check it for myself and a transaction on 12/17/2021 at 2:00pm is pending. The transaction had PAINTERESTI ** pending to PayPal. The vanilla customer service rep told me to call PayPal, so I did and PayPal told me to call vanilla back, so I did and I was told that I had to wait 7 days to file a dispute. Any other credit card company lets you file a dispute immediately. I realized that Visa Vanilla stole my money because I didn't even use the card on 12/17 at all but the transaction was on 12/17 at 2:00pm. The last time I tried to use the card was on 12/16 at approximately midnight. I decided I would call that morning and get this straightened out. Boy was I wrong. It's very curious that the pending transaction is for the exact balance on the card and it's very curious the transaction was done at 2:00 pm and I had not even touched the card yet to even find out why my transactions were being declined.
It's blatantly obvious that Visa Vanilla Gift Card stole my money and I'm not the only person this has happened to, there are many more. I cannot believe VISA is allowing this to go on. If you take the PA off of the beginning of the transaction name which is PAINTERESTI and you take the I off of the end you are left with INTEREST. These people are obviously not worried about being caught. They take the whole balance of the card, they don't even try to make it not look like theft and they just put any time down. I can see why the thieves account has the word INTEREST in it because it's drawing interest on every person's money they have stolen. I don't know how I'm going to pay my Fingerhut bill now because I scrapped that money together.
Anyway stay away from those crooks. They want you to wait 7 days before filing a dispute but I'm calling them everyday and I'm contacting VISA because their name is on it and that's the reason I chose that card was because VISA I thought was a company that could be trusted. I'm going to figure out how to either get my money back or file charges. Anyone that wants to join me my Name is Kathy. You can find me on Facebook under ClayandKathy **. Just pm me and you can join me on my mission to get my money back and stop these people from robbing anyone else.
Reviewed Dec. 15, 2021
I went and bought a $50 Vanilla gift card. Went back and activated a account with this card. By the time I went and checked the balance it said 0.00. It was sent to someone's PayPal account. Which I don't have. I called customer service and they said it was hacked. They'll send me paperwork to dispute the case. Well never received the paperwork. So yes use caution when buying this card, I'm thankful it was only $50 & it was impossible to reach a person to talk to about this matter.
Reviewed Dec. 15, 2021
I went to use the balance on my card. It was declined. So I went to see my balance and the remainder of my card was charged on PayPal by a company that looks like it Chinese. I called Vanilla and they told me I needed to call PayPal. I called PayPal and they said I needed to talk to Vanilla. I’ve tried to call vanilla back but it’s impossible to connect. I’ve instructed my kids who always give me a card never to buy Vanilla again. I’m very disappointed for the run around.
Reviewed Dec. 6, 2021
Was given a $100 gift card. Tried to use unsuccessfully. Called, and a CS agent walked me through a twisted process of "registering" the card, and then verified the balance. Then in following days tried twice to use it, declined. When I went online to check balance, turns out a fraudulent charge was made on the card for the full amount, just hours after I called their CS department to register. No way to dispute-- the CS department says it's "like cash." Fraudulent.
Reviewed Dec. 6, 2021
I received this card from my parents to use online. On the day I used the card it was rejected because it had a zero balance, this was brand new unopened 100.00 gift cars. I didn't understand so we contacted customer service to find out what happened. Customer service advise that the card had been used at a Reuben. Used at a Ralph's grocery store in Los Angeles on the same day that my parents were flying in from Ohio. There is no way the card could have been used in Los Angeles because at the time they were in the air with the card the whole time.
When I advised customer service about this They told me to fill out a dispute packet. I completed the packet and was advised that it would take up to 90 days to resolve this issue. This is horrible customer service and I cannot understand why Visa would put their name on this company's car. There is no way they should take that long. What are they going to investigate. They're not gonna send anyone to the store to verify who used it so I don't understand who they're going to investigate or how they're going to investigate. Make Brown investigate makes no sense. I urge you never ever buy this card.
Reviewed Dec. 3, 2021
A VANILLA GIFT CARD with a $100 balance was given to us as a gift from dear friends. It was declined immediately when I tried to use it. After multiple phone calls to "Customer Service," replete with poor connections, extensive wait times on hold and non-English speaking agents, we eventually discovered that the card had a forty-cent balance. We would need to dispute all the charges, even though we did NOT make any. THEN, it could take 90 days, yes, 90 days to possibly get a refund. The dispute claim should be a great way to get my identity stolen as well. AVOID THIS CARD.
Reviewed Nov. 30, 2021
Checked the balance and before I could leave the store money was gone. Tried to report it but no actual person or way to do it.... Do not ever buy this card. Visa should be ashamed. They have to know it's happening.
Reviewed Nov. 29, 2021
Glue was stuck to magnetic strip so it won’t work in a store. No CVC code on card so it can’t be used online. Fee to buy. Vanilla won’t replace card without a receipt even though it shows a balance.
Reviewed Nov. 26, 2021
I purchased Vanilla Gift Card from 7-11 and load them up with $200. When I got home I check the balance online and it appears the card is active with $200 available balance. I went ahead and shop online, first purchase is $44 from Macy's then $5 from Bed Bath. Both transaction was declined. When I check the balance the amount was deducted but transaction was pending. Called customer service, even contacting them was not easy. I was told there is nothing they can do about it, I just have to wait 10 days for the refund to go through. Waste of time, defeat the purpose. I also again tried to buy something online but same thing happen, it was declined. Waste of time, waste of $6 from buying this useless card. I wish I had check the reviews before purchasing it, my bad.
Reviewed Nov. 24, 2021
Purchased card and pre-paid the $5.95 to activate... The recipient had to wait 3 days to activate, he had to call to provide his personal information to spend another 30 mins on the phone activating a $50 card. RIDICULOUS! Don't buy them. Give Cash or purchase AMEX Cards.
Reviewed Nov. 23, 2021
I purchased a $25 prepaid Vanilla Gift Card at Wal Mart to pay an online subscription fee. The funds were not available right away so I waited until the following day. At the exact time I logged into their web site to verify my card was active and funds available, a pending transaction for my full $25 appeared for JS Digital Life. I have no idea what that is and it had nothing to do with me. After searching the site for 10 minutes I finally found the contact number for lost/stolen cards. I spoke to someone and explained that the pending transaction was not made by me and needed to be stopped and my funds restored.
After the usual robotic rehearsed lines of how sorry they are, I was informed I had to allow the transaction to complete, then they would send me a dispute packet, then I have to fill out this packet and return it so they can then do an investigation to determine if I can have my funds restored. I got no satisfaction from them and will never use this company's products again. I must recommend that no one ever purchase one of these cards from anywhere as they are obviously not secure and their customer service could care less.
Reviewed Nov. 19, 2021
I got married in July. Well decided to use it today. It was 50.00 and there is 10.00 balance that I can't use because it was hacked and someone has it set up already. I see recent dates of google games. I am like wow. Google reviews says never trust a company like this and I guess my friend did not know this before the card was purchased. They are still using it today. It's not about the money. It's the principle.
Reviewed Nov. 7, 2021
I have called several times almost 8 times and they said we will send the new card and each time they ask me the address. I gave them my company address this time that is famous and I did not receive anything. They are in South Asia and just stole your money. Never ever trust them.
Reviewed Nov. 5, 2021
Used my card twice on DoorDash for delivery and when I went to check how much I had left on my card it showed I was charged about $3.50 dollars extra for each delivery. Wtf. No where on the packaging does it mention extra fees for using it online. I hope it’s not the same thing for clothes shopping.
Reviewed Oct. 31, 2021
This company will decline a purchase and still hold onto your funds for a whole week before releasing the funds back to you even though the transaction was declined and customer service is of no help at all. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!
Reviewed Oct. 28, 2021
I bought a Vanilla Visa Gift Card & I put $500.00 cash on it, later on the same day I tried to use it to order a pizza online and it declined it. I called the number on the back and it said I had 45 cents on it so I went to the website online to try to see what happened and it had two unauthorized purchases on there from a store called Alfyhome. I immediately called the Vanilla Gift Card company to report it. Also tried to find alfyhome customer complaint but had no luck. I have no idea what alfyhome is or where it is. Long story short I had to fill out a dispute package and fax it to the Vanilla Visa Gift Card company and now they tell me it's going to take up to 90 days to hear their decision!!!! I am not ever ever going to buy another vanilla visa gift card ever again!!!
Reviewed Oct. 25, 2021
Bought Visa Vanilla Debit Card for Granddaughter's birthday. When she tried to use it the first time, all the money was gone after her one purchase of $1.89 from a $200.00 dollar account. Someone had previously hacked the card and spend over $190.00 on Google games the moment she made her purchase. Visa response to this was for her to go back to Walgreens to get help, and Walgreens said it was a Visa Vanilla Card problem. Moral to the story, do not buy Visa Vanilla Debit Cards...
Reviewed Oct. 19, 2021
The cards for the most part - don't work! so you end up throwing them away and the company benefits. DO NOT BUY VANILLA GIFT CARDS!! They are nothing but you know what! SAVE YOURSELF. What an awful experience.
Reviewed Oct. 19, 2021
Was given 2 $100 cards as gifts. Total $200 in Vanilla gift Visa card, made purchase at Walmart. Returned merchandise. Walmart credited a nonloadable gift card therefore I am out of the money and merchandise. Vanilla gift card no help in getting my money. Will not purchase another card nor accept another one as a gift. Horrible experience. Customer service keep putting me off with no help. Asking me for a purchase receipt when someone else bought the card. They are really bad business. Experience too long to go into details!
Reviewed Oct. 18, 2021
My 13 year old son received a $40 gift card from his Grandpa in May 2021. He tried to use it in July and it was already used on parking and other adult items. I put in a claim in July with screen shots of all the charges and Just today after I follow-up with them they said my claim was denied. I will never use or recommend this company to anyone. It’s a scam. My Son never received this gift. They lack integrity and make you go through great lengths to prove your case and still denied. They’re a SCAM FOR SURE!
Reviewed Oct. 8, 2021
My wife gave me a hundred dollar gift card for my birthday. I wanted to use it online and had to activate it to do that. So I activated it. As soon as I did the money was taken out of the account by a online company. I filled out their paperwork that they sent me and sent it. The date was October 2, time stamped on my email and when I called to check up the lady whos from India sounds like the same lady every time. She said that I didn't send it until the seventh and that they just got it. I said okay thinking I was mistaken but thought about it and confirmed it. I feel this company is fraudulent.
Reviewed Oct. 7, 2021
I was gifted $400 Vanilla Gift Card on January 7, 2021 from the company I was retiring from. I did not try to use until May and was declined. I contacted and found had been used Costco online Feb 4, 2021 for the full amount. I sent the dispute claim forms and received email stating would take 90 days. I requested update in July and was informed could not locate. Sent claim again, received confirmation. Today contacted Vanilla and was told case is closed and according to terms and conditions this is my problem. This is obviously a scam company.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2021
I received a Vanilla gift card $100, for my birthday. On September 19th I tried to use it at a nail salon, it was declined. I checked the balance before I went in, it had $96.48 available. When I tried to pay at the salon and it was declined (this was less than an hour later) I checked again, the balance was .78 cents. A charge to Alfyhome supplies had been made for $95. I immediately called vanilla customer service. I was told it would take 7 business days, I called back on the 24th and was told I needed to file forms for a dispute. What??? Now it is September 29th and still no satisfaction. I did fill out the forms and faxed them back. This company is awful!!! DO NOT buy Vanilla gift cards EVER!!!!
Reviewed Sept. 25, 2021
Please do not buy a Vanilla Gift Card... I bought a gift card ($200) a birthday gift for a little girl. She tried to use it the following day only to find out that it has only a $55 balance. By the time I checked it. It showed zero balance, purchases Walmart, AliExpresss. Vanilla gift card has people in their company that is selling activated cards info to scammers before the purchasers get a chance to use it. No help from them when I called. DO NOT BUY VANILLA GIFT CARDS.
Reviewed Aug. 25, 2021
Have contacted CS for 8 months now. They have all pertinent info and they refuse to issue me a new card. If you lose the card and don't have the actual receipt they will not assist you. You are out those funds! What a rip off!
Reviewed Aug. 23, 2021
I was given a Vanilla gift card .. When it was given to me it was in a enclosed package where no one else was able to see the information ... It was in my control at all times ... It was use without my authorization twice ... 1st to make a purchase on PayPal ... Vanilla would not help me so I turned to PayPal who took care of it in a matter of days ... 2nd time the day after PayPal returned the funds to the gift card someone used it to make purchases on google draining the card to 37 cents ... Again vanilla said it would take 90 days and that it still couldn't assure I would get my money back ...
This time sadly Google would not help ... Which was disappointing because I've been a loyal Google customer for over 10 years ... The only way that the money could have been removed is if someone within vanilla gift cards was involved ... There is no way any other person would have know just how much was returned to the card and make purchases draining it to 37 cents ... It had to be from inside vanilla gift cards ... There is no other way ... I am moving to file a class action suit against Vanilla gifts cards and if any one would care to be a plaintiff please contact me ...
Reviewed Aug. 20, 2021
Horrible experience with Vanilla Prepaid Gift Card! I received three gift cards for my birthday with 100$ on each of them. The first one I gave my son that was going away to college. He tried paying a bill online for school and it got declined and a hold was put on the card as fraudulent use. We called and tried explaining to them it was us using the card and they kept saying we have to fill out a claim that could take up to 90 days! Second card tried using it at the store and cashier made a mistake and they put a lock on the card, so the card was declined! I had to call customer service and argue with them just so they would take the hold off. Third card same thing!!!! They made me feel like a criminal each time I called! Too much of a headache!!! They should take this gift card off the market. People put money on these cards for a special day and it immediately gets ruined! Do not waste your money on this card!!!!
Reviewed Aug. 17, 2021
I got a gift card as a gift, it had twenty five dollars on it. I was stranded today with no cash or credit cards on me. I went to purchase gas to get home and the guy at gas station did something wrong and said my balance was low and couldn't give me the twenty five in gas! I called Visa prepaid gift card and they informed me that I could not get the gas and that the twenty five dollars was put on hold because the gentleman made some mistake at the store but my twenty five could be given back by visa in seven days! Seven frigging days?! They would not help me any further with this issue and refused to give me the money back on card then. I walked thirteen miles home tonight. I am beyond angry.. I will not purchase another prepaid visa card from them/ you guys whoever again. Worst customer service I've ever experienced. I'm mortified that this was even acceptable or allowed. My money was stolen and was told o well basically by both the store and the visa company!! How is this even allowed??
Reviewed Aug. 10, 2021
Few days after I purchased the $300 card, I came to use it and had on it only 26 cents. I was very furious. I contacted Vanilla company and was asked to file a dispute form and I did. 3 months later I was informed that the dispute conclusion was not to my favor. I am very furious and I will never buy a Vanilla gift card or any gift card.
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2021
I have been trying to use, activate, search account online, and call customer service for this company... NOTHING is working. Terrible experience when ALL possible avenues are blocked to get assistance. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2021
I had a $50 Vanilla Gift card. I tried to use it at Walmart on July 30th. They told me I had to activate it. I had it activated and tried to use it at Walmart again on August 3rd. The card did not go thru. I called the Customer service department and they said it had already been used and there was only .18 cents on the card. They gave me another number to call to dispute the charge. I called 407-360-6634 twice and left 2 voice messages. No return calls. I believe this card was hacked because the charge of 49.82 was made on July 31 and I had the card in my possession all day and I did not go anywhere and did not make any online charges.
Reviewed July 31, 2021
I was gifted a Vanilla gift card. Was unable to activate it--said it was an invalid card even though I had all the proper receipts. The person who gave it to me contacted the company and sent the card back. They sent a new one. Said it was ready to go and I activated it online. Took friends out to lunch today and card is on hold and pending. Spoke to customer service and also the supervisor who said the gifter has to call them to verify the card. When I got home went online to check of the card. Tells me I have a $300 balance and card is on hold. When I printed that page the on hold part doesn't show so I took a screen shot so they can't lie to me about what it says online. Stay away from this company. They take your money and don't let you spend it. There are plenty of honest companies out there. Stay away from this one. The customer service dept just parrots what they are told and can't solve problems, nor do they want to.
Reviewed July 19, 2021
Card was a rip off. Website states "Funds do not expire. Use Vanilla Gift Account on your own timeline" - that statement is false. Vanilla Gift Visa card was declined by multiple vendors. Attempts to login on the website using card information was repeatedly rejected with a "system error" message. When I finally tried Visa's own website I discovered the card balance was charged a $3.95 per month service charge eventually depleting the balance almost completely. Advise against purchasing a Vanilla gift card.
Reviewed July 14, 2021
It was the worst. My money basically was stolen. I had a charger from Walmart when I went straight home with the card and then they said (Vanilla) that my card is invalid. Horrible runaround. Never again Visa.
Reviewed July 11, 2021
I purchased the Vanilla gift card to buy b-day gifts on Amazon. Nowhere does it say that the vanilla card needs to be pre-authorized before using on Amazon. If one card doesn't go through, then Amazon will use another card which is what they did in my case because vanilla would not authorize the purchase. So now, my vanilla card funds of $300 are in limbo until their "system" releases the funds in 7 to 10 business days! This is unacceptable. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, the horrible customer service rep said "he's just going to tell you the same thing I just did". After paying $6.00 to activate the card, I at least expect to have good CS and to be able to use my money when and where I want. Fool me once, shame on you...
Reviewed July 11, 2021
I was given a card as a gift and unaware there was an expiration date because it's covered by a sticker that looks like it's part of the card. I didn't notice until I was going to use the card. (Thinking I had plenty of time). Another company trying to make money with no regard for customers made further obvious by the level of difficulty to contact customer service.
Reviewed July 1, 2021
27th June 21, Husband purchased a 200$ gift card. Was super excited to make purchases. 29th I took the card logged onto their website to have card activated. To my disbelief card was already activated the 27th and a 60$ purchase was already made from Amazon. Within 5 min the whole 200 was gone in front of my eyes. 50$ purchases at Bestbuy and Target and a 40 at PayPal. I called Vanilla, got so frustrated they don't seem to care at all to help you, all they tell you they can't do nothing. They have to file a dispute and it will take 90 days..90 days! After 90 days they will investigate however they will only be able to refund what these merchants return back to them. No responsibility taken.
This must be an inside job. How can a hacker access card number, expiry date and cvv code? This is what bothers me. It really seems before cards are sealed and send off somebody have all information written down and receive some notification when card was bought and when money put on card. I can't think of a better explanation. Vanilla didn't care at all, I was answered in a non character attitude, nobody cared about the money I just lost. I had to put card on hold, call the merchants, everybody else but Target helped me.
Another rip off, why could other merchants cancel transaction and request for refund but they couldn't. Another company that also just think about keeping that money, cause we know refund is to give back what the shop made. They told me they cannot do any refund that Vanilla had to call them, and send a dispute form before they can process the claim. Even though I tried to explain we racing against time if the order was not canceled same day, in would be the next day. Vanilla should follow more security measures and once card is purchased put stronger restrictions on cards. Do not ever purchase any gift card from Vanilla ever. They will give you cold shoulder and with no sympathy tell you there is nothing we can do, dispute will take 90 days. They quick to take but not quick to give back. Worse gift card company ever. I hope all shops ban selling of their cards.
Reviewed June 21, 2021
I purchased a $100 card with some cash I had laying around so I could use it online. I tried to use the card three times:
- Attempted to use at convenience store where my purchase was declined. Again no record of attempted purchase with One Vanilla.
- Made a $83 purchase at Target which was not delivered and should be refunded. No record of refund with Vanilla. To protest the charge takes 60-90 days.
Customer service was the opposite of helpful. I was told:
- "The merchant did not actually run the card." The card was run, and it was declined.- "The card is fine. It's all merchant issues." Oh really, merchant issues at ALL THREE stores?
- "Try using it at 3 online retailers or 3 brick or mortar stores..." No idea where she was going with that. I had to interrupt and and ask speak to a supervisor.
- Supervisor said they could mail a check for $16 which would arrive in 30 days. I assume I'd have to wait another 30 days to receive a second if check if my $83 refund from Target ever processes.
- I said to the supervisor that after reading other reviews, this feels like a scam. I mentioned the call was being recorded on my end, at which point she hung up.
I have no hope of ever seeing my $100 again, and maybe that is their goal. If I do, I am sure it will be in months and months from now after I make dozens more calls, and hear dozens more excuses.
Reviewed May 26, 2021
I received a Vanilla Visa gift card last year. I put it in my wallet and forgot about it until now. When I tried to check my balance both online and through their automated number, I get a response that the card is invalid. There is NO way to talk to anyone at the company. There is only an automated phone number when you call, the only choices being to check balance or report the card stolen. I didn't choose the option to report it stolen (since it Wasn't, and since I was afraid it would definitely render the card invalid). The bar code on the back of the card isn't complete, there is a large blank space for the first half of it. The only other way to contact the company is via mail to a PO box in Georgia. I would Never purchase a card from this company.
Reviewed May 1, 2021
I purchased a $400 Visa gift card on Vanillagift.com. I had it sent to a friend as an e-card. When she attempted to access the e-card, she received an error message. When I attempted to request my money back from the "Customer Care" department, I was cut off in mid-sentence and told they do not give refunds. This is a scam. This will no doubt be another complaint in a long list of similar complaints about this company I have found online. If you want a gift card, purchase it from a Target or Walmart.
Reviewed April 26, 2021
I purchased a gift card on 4/8/21 in New Orleans for $20.00 and I never used it. My balance said 0 so I call customer service and I was told that my card was used in Alabama and I couldn't get my money back or a phone number to the business that took the money when in the beginning the rep told me that there was a number I could call. I asked for a manager and a rep from Vanilla Gift put me on hold after a long wait they just hung up on me. Do Not use Vanilla Gift Cards. Your money is not safe and you will not get it back.
Reviewed April 22, 2021
I purchased two Prepaid Mastercards in March. I went online to register, one is not a valid number and the other shows $0 balance. When I called customer service I was told two separate claims need to be filled out. I emailed all required paperwork and pictures and called back in 10 business days as instructed. When I called back I was told that it's only been 9 business days... So we count on a calendar together and the lady says so April 22 is 10 days, I say, "Yes that is today, that is why I am calling." I am then told, no I need to call back AFTER 10 business days. So I clarify that when I call tomorrow I will receive a confirmation for my refund and she said no, call Monday maybe Tuesday for an UPDATE. Refunds take up to 90 days.
During the call I was also questioned about the paperwork that I sent, the person informs me that they don't show anything on their end and that nothing was received from me... even though I received a confirmation email that all paperwork was received and being reviewed as well as two other emails requesting additional information. Yet according to them, nothing was received from me.
I have also been told that because the card, that has a $0 balance, shows on their end purchased in 2020 and spent in January 2021 at an LCBO. The only refund I will receive is the amount that they can get back from LCBO. So if LCBO refuses to pay, I get $0. I purchased my card March 16th 2021- have the receipt to prove it yet might be out the full $100 because their system shows different from my receipt. It is absolutely ridiculous. I've never felt more ripped off by a company who is clearly frauding customers.
Reviewed April 20, 2021
I ordered 26 Visa gift cards from Vanilla so that every staff member of a local school could receive a letter of appreciation and a gift card for what they’ve gone through during the COVID-19 pandemic. I received the gift cards two weeks ago, wrote my letters, enclosed a gift card with each in envelopes addressed to the staff. NOW Vanilla sends me replacement gift cards, saying they mistakenly made the first set for “online purchases only” whereas the replacement cards can be used online or in person at retail stores. But to match up the replacement cards with the correct recipients of the first cards (which they may have already partially used for online purchases), I will have to ask each staff member to send me the number of their initial gift card. I spent more than $800 on these gift cards, trying to do a nice thing. What a hassle! I will never use Vanilla gift again.
Reviewed April 9, 2021
I purchased a $100 pre-paid card last Christmas as a gift for someone, got home from CVS and discovered the card was not in my shopping bag. Contacted Vanilla immediately and filed a lost card claim, emailed all the necessary paperwork to Vanilla sales receipt, proof of identity. Several months later and countless phone calls I finally receive an email response, they now need proof of my mailing address. I emailed again 2 documents validating I live at the address provided. Every time I call I am told they never received the email even though I C/C myself and never got back a undeliverable notice from Verizon.
I requested to speak with Supervisor who told me the same thing, I asked, "Can I send you the email directly while we are on the phone." Her response was the same as everyone else at Vanilla. NO I must send it again to the email address they are providing. This has been going on for 4 months and no resolution. I believe when you call you're getting someone located outside the United States based on the broken English every time I call. Called again today and told the same thing from the Supervisor, she is emailing the fraud dept and call back after 48 hrs. I am getting ripped off by this company and no recourse, googled Vanilla Corporate office location with no luck.
Reviewed April 7, 2021
I am not the first person that has been ripped off with this company. They say you have nothing on your card when you check and then have no transactions!!! After going further into the layers of phone calls, I was told that some person I never heard of had used my card on Paypal. I was told to call Paypal. This company is overseas in Asia. The site I put my card on was Amazon. Since so many people have had the same problem, I think they have an inside job giving out card info or selling it. HOW CAN YOU GIVE ZERO STAR????
Reviewed March 31, 2021
I will NEVER again buy a Vanilla Visa gift card! I bought one in February, registered it, and by the next day someone had used it on Google to make purchases cleaning the card out of all but 50 cents. The only place I used the numbers was on the Vanilla Visa website to register! I have called 4 times and get excuses every time as to why this is not being looked into. :( They say they can't investigate until I return a dispute form that they never sent. I have even gone so far as to print out the phonetic alphabet so that I could use it to make sure they have my email address correct. Still no dispute form and every time I call they don't seem to know what I'm talking about. Thank God it wasn't a lot of money, but the ironic thing is that I bought the card so I wouldn't get ripped off online! I'll call again on Thursday, but I expect I still won't get any satisfaction.???
Reviewed March 20, 2021
We put $500 on a Vanilla GC as a gift for my daughter. Got home and it was gone. Zero balance.. all taken from some hacker and used for Google Play.. After calling EVERYONE, Vanilla, Visa, emailed Google (no phone calls due to Covid, they say), spoke with supervisors, state police, etc.. I learned that Vanilla pays Visa to use to the logo on the front, and you have zero security or help from Visa. They just tell you to call Vanilla. Now we are in the process of filing a claim, but I'm not hopeful that we'll see any of our money. Do not purchase Vanilla prepaid cards.
Reviewed March 3, 2021
These cards are the worst, you put money on them, and any vendor can take it all without you authorizing the transaction. You call the "Vanilla Company" for fraudulent charges (felony theft) and they say "sorry, there is nothing we can do for you" and "The card is like cash, and you just lost that money". The quote "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." NEVER use these cards, they are NOT secure, do not let them FOOL you.
Reviewed March 1, 2021
I received a Vanilla Gift card for my birthday in December 2020. It has an expiration date 05/2028. I attempted to use it 2/28/21 at Target; received an error message--number invalid. I called customer service and was told the card had not been activated but the instructions that came with the card said it was activated on your first use. However, the customer service rep said in order to be activated I needed to send them a copy of the receipt, photocopy of front & back of the card, plus my ID. All red flags! They are charging 3.95-5.95 per card and this is the best solution they can come up with. Do they think people are crazy and would send them their personal ID? I will advise my friend to never purchase another Vanilla card and to advise the store to pull them off the racks!
Reviewed Feb. 27, 2021
I received a Vanilla Pre-Paid 25 dollar Visa card as a late birthday gift. I was saving the card to use in the future. One day I checked the balance ALL THE MONEY WAS GONE. Well there was 50 cents left... It was transferred to someone’s PayPal account. I filed a claim but once they got back to me months later they said that they cannot do anything about it as the card is almost like cash. Once it’s stolen you can’t retrieve it back. It seems other people have had the same experience. If you receive one, use it quickly. But to avoid this you should warn others and never buy one.
Reviewed Feb. 26, 2021
Through no fault of my own when my card was registered online their system unbeknownst to me locked me out of both being able to use an ATM for cash as well as recharging card. Use alternatives. Use at your own peril.
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2021
I purchased a card for a gift. It was stolen, reported it immediately. Confirmed no use. Had all paper documents supporting purchase. Company came up with excuses not to replace card for 3 months to date. Still no card.
Reviewed Feb. 13, 2021
I purchased a 25.00 Vanilla gift card with fees as a Christmas gift. I was informed that it didn't work in February. I no longer have the receipt. VanillaGift.com told me to call customer service. 4 calls later after being disconnected, all customer service did was say, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Please verify the amount on the card," over and over after everything I said. Nothing resolved so I'm out 28.95!??? Will never buy Visa vanilla cards again.
Reviewed Feb. 13, 2021
I got a gift card with a value of $200 in January 2020. The gift card is valid until the year of 2028 and there is no requirement to use it within a specified time. I kept this card sealed in the original package up until November 2020 when I tried to use it and it was declined. When I called customer service, on November 29, 2020 to ask why the card was declined when I tried to use it for purchases, I was told there was a full withdrawal and the merchant was a bank. Since I had no benefit from this gift card, I filled a dispute form and I have been told it will take 90 days for the investigation.
On the second call I made to customer service, I have been told that the $200 went back to my card and I could use it. That was not the case, the card was declined again. Once again I asked this company to refund my $200 and their official response was that the payments network allows recovery efforts to be submitted within 60 days of the date the transaction cleared the account. How was I supposed to know that the account was cleared 6 days after the purchase of this card? In my opinion Vanilla Prepaid Card is a scam and the company is taking advantage of consumers who do not bother to sue them for loosing $50, $100, $200...

Reviewed Feb. 7, 2021
Purchased a $100 dollar gift card, tried to use it one week later only to learn there is "NO" credit, useless..Filed a dispute with Vanilla gift cards..and was told it will take 90 days to investigate..No guarantee I'll receive my refund..
Reviewed Feb. 7, 2021
Received a Visa for a gift, then activated card, went to use and it had been hacked and all funds spent. Contacted Vanilla Visa and went through their process of reimbursement which has now ran on for a year. Every time you contact them they review for 90 days and no results every time. Last notification from them said can’t help after 6 months.... So these cards are easy to compromise and you will get a royal run around from Vanilla Visa with no reimbursement. Do not buy these cards waste of money.
Reviewed Feb. 4, 2021
I've been trying to get my replacement card since 1/12/2021. I've emailed at least 5 times yet every time I call they say they did not get the email. I've emailed proof of payment. When I first called they deactivated the card and saw that it wasn't used. They keep saying, "Call back." So tonight I called back again and they claimed they didn't get the email and they would have to email the people that didn't get my email. I've heard this twice. So tonight when I asked for a fraud department; I cant give it to you and the phone went silent. These are tough times so right now I'm out $200.00.
Reviewed Jan. 29, 2021
My son sent me a $50 gift card for Christmas and when I went to click on the link in the email it sent me to a page that doesn't have the card number. Needless to say the call to their customer service said call your son and have him call in. When he call they had no record of the gift card purchase. Great way to steal money.
Reviewed Jan. 19, 2021
Given a VISA gift card and used it 1 time with no problems. Remaining balance was not available when I tried to use this card a second time. Balance was frozen and Customer Service could not tell me why. Have now made 3 calls since early December and my promised refund has still not arrived. Each time I call they tell me a different story about why it hasn't been sent. Many hours wasted and I can only advise that you STAY AWAY from Vanilla. Poor customer service and performance.
Reviewed Jan. 18, 2021
My employer gave all our staff $150 prepaid gift cards and we can't activate or register the cursed gift. Every time we try they say it is declined or invalid. Don't buy them. It's too much baggage with red flags and even Walmart, Rona, superstore Loblaw or restaurants can't figure it out. It's basically a dud and many can't activate it either. First time I got a gift card like Visa and am not happy being frustrated with their call center and nobody returns inquiries.
Reviewed Jan. 16, 2021
I purchased this card and put $25 on it. I tried to make an online purchase (since they say you can use it to make those purchases) and the card was declined. I contacted customer service, and the guy told me he would deactivate the card and send me a check for the $25 since the card was not working. Fast forward to two months later. I called again, and spoke with another rep. She told me that the other rep did not request a check to be sent, and that she would do it and cancel the card. Me being dumb and naive, took her word for it and cut up the card and threw it away. Now, let’s fast forward another two months. I still have not received the “check” they were supposed to send me with the funds. I get that it’s only $25, but we’re in a pandemic and $25 can make a huge difference when you’re scrounging to pay the last of your bills.
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2021
I was given a $100.00 Vanilla gift card for Christmas. I made one purchase for $18.00 and bought $65.00 worth of items on Amazon. My Amazon transaction declined, which prompted me to check the transaction history. I noticed purchases that were not made by me and decided to call the customer service line. From the very beginning, I've had nothing but problem with this company. I'm in Colorado, these purchase were made in Florida. I got more help from the companies the purchase were made at than this company.
Every time I call them to check status of this dispute, there is always some new problem or reason why they cannot give me any information. I just called they could not find my dispute, placed me on hold, and after sitting there for 30 minutes, hung up on me. I've provided them with all the information they requested from me by both fax and email, I sent copies of the receipt. It is ridiculous the amount of frustration I've had to go through just to get a status check. Needless to say, I spent $18.00 total on a $100.00 card over a month ago and I still haven't been able to resolve this issue. I will never buy one of these gift cards again, not because my card was compromised, but because of the issues I have had with their customer service department. I have filed disputed in the past and it was NEVER this difficult.
Reviewed Jan. 14, 2021
I would not recommend these cards, service is horrible. A restaurant overcharged the card I had which then put it over the available balance. The restaurant credited the overage but this company deducted the $5.14 that was overcharged, NOT of my fault at all. After taking over 2 weeks to credit the amount back to the card. It's only $5.14 but they can clearly see what happened and should have never charged ME for the overage. Unacceptable. Not worth ANOTHER call and 30 minutes of holding for $5.14. I would NOT recommend them at all!
Reviewed Jan. 12, 2021
I have bad credit so I used this card for Hotel 5 times, Hotel usually require $200-250 deposit. PREPAID CARD COMPANY takes that deposit for themselves and marking it as GRATITUDE. They scammed me over $1200.
Reviewed Jan. 9, 2021
Bought 3 vanilla prepaid Mastercards. When my children opened them for Xmas, the cards were missing 8 digits of card number and missing half of the expiry date. Upon returning to store we were told that they've been used by the company doing inquiry. It was obvious the card numbers had been scratched off and tampered with. Was it an inside job??? The package was intact. So now 2 out of the 3 cards were used and my daughter having to send in a dispute claim for the 2 cards that my children have never used. Will we get the money back. It costs 5.95 on every card to have them activated for each $100.00.
So now we have to wait and see if we will get our money back. I do not wish to purchase these again after all the efforts to get our money returned. I will never purchase again. Great idea but thievery wins the game. So now we wait. We have to wait a minimum of 45 days to hear back from company after they do their inquiry of where purchases have been made. Sad my children have to wait for their christmas gift money.
Reviewed Jan. 7, 2021
By mistake this was my second time buying this type of card. The first one I couldnt get it activated. It that all keeps saying invalid card. After months I purchased this card again as a gift for my Pastor and now I am dealing with the same situation. If you call customer service they hung up on you. Not worthy the stress. Better not to buy it.
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2021
I purchased 3 cards for my grandchildren for a Christmas present with plenty of time for an on time delivery. It is now the first week of January and they still haven't been delivered despite repeated phone calls.
Reviewed Dec. 31, 2020
Gift card purchased with £50 on states expiry April 2021. Forgot I had it. Came to use it find it invalid. Called the help line to find that they charge you £2:00 for every month after 6 months from purchase. This means I have lost £50:00 and they have gained by doing nothing and also charge an activation cost.
Reviewed Dec. 23, 2020
Got ripped off for $400 dollars. Nobody at customer service and nobody gave a damn, you buy these dumbass cards you may as well give your money to a drug addict, this is pathetic and all the charges were to Nordstrom so someone’s living it up on our dime. MERRY CHRISTMAS THIEF.
Reviewed Dec. 22, 2020
I received this as a gift card. I feel like it was money wasted. No matter how many times I registered the card as they said you're supposed to, it won't register the cvc#. Most difficult card ever, reading other people's reviews I'm beginning to think it's one big scam.
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2020
Ordered for this Christmas 2020, 11 prepaid card. The website offered to have the name of the recipient and a personal message for each. Being unable to see my children and their spouses on this awkward Holiday Season, I generated a specific message to each, based on their careers or their family situations, etc. Generic cards arrived with no names, no message printed or any form of personalization on Friday December 18. A call to Customer Service wasn't useful at all. "Someone will call you back in a couple of business days", meaning Monday December 21st or Tuesday 22nd when nothing can be done about it. Had I known, I wouldn't have bought their cards.
Reviewed Dec. 17, 2020
I am very disappointed with the prepaid card my brother gave me for Christmas a few years ago. WIll not even register. I am so sad and disappointed. I will never buy one of these cards. I thought it was wrong to do this or have them expire. What a disappointing Christmas I will have since I will not see anyone and this was to be used as my gift.
Reviewed Dec. 14, 2020
Don’t waste your money online buying a Vanilla Visa gift card. They’re suppose to be activated as soon as purchased, mine was not. Tried calling the useless number on the back and got a nonexistent email to send all my information to even though this should have already been done. Talked to 6 different people who don’t listen to a thing you’re saying. On top of that you’re being asked to wait another 5-10 days for them to decide if you deserve the money on the gift card you already paid for. Not even sure if I’ll be able to get a refund at this point. Basically just gave their company $100.
Reviewed Dec. 14, 2020
They stole my $23.75 balance and billed it to PayPal. Operators are in Malaysia or Africa and give a hard time. They sent me a dispute form but I have a feeling it's a lost cause. Card does not work on Amazon or other sites. They are running a scam.
Reviewed Dec. 14, 2020
Unfortunately, this is the second Vanilla prepaid card where I have had unauthorized charges on my card. Crazy to me that prepaid card numbers can be stolen and used. They told me to wait 7 days, and then I can file a dispute. I shouldn't have to wait 7 days. My money is missing. They don't care.
Reviewed Dec. 11, 2020
Do not buy these gift cards! I got a virtual Visa gift card through an email notice in September, clicked the link and got the card number and code. No expiration date or cvv number were given then. I tried to use the card today and couldn't because I didn't have them. Now that email link has been deactivated. Took 10+ minutes just to figure out a way to talk to a real person on their customer service line, and then they told me I would have to make the gift sender call them to get the expiration date and cvv! Really, I should tell someone who gave me a gift that it didn't work, and now they have to fight to give me the gift they already paid for??!!
Reviewed Dec. 10, 2020
I purchased a Vanilla Visa Gift card this last year. I put $200.00 on this card. When I tried using it online it would not work on eBay and Amazon. With $55.62 left on the card, it quit working even locally. I contacted the company and they said that they would send me a new card for the amount left on the card. That has been over a month ago. They still have not sent a new card. Do NOT buy this card.
Reviewed Dec. 8, 2020
My son got a $100 Vanilla Gift Card. He used $40 of it for a game. When he came to purchase another item, he noticed there was only 62 cents left. There was a charge of $59 on the card from a company that we didn't recognize or Google. When we called to complain, they gave us a bogus number for the company and said we can dispute the charge with them. Then the phone went silent and I haven't been able to connect with anyone again, after numerous attempts. There's no getting a hold of anyone once this card number is entered into their system.
Reviewed Dec. 8, 2020
I put money on a card to buy a water pump for my car. Just to find out that I can't buy international. Can't send money. Can't take money off the card. Can't put more on there. Can't cancel the card until 4 years from now yet they want to charge me $3.50 a month after 90 days of inactivity until the expiration date. This HAS to be illegal. NEVER GOING WITH VISA AGAIN. Scamming people and stealing their money.
Reviewed Dec. 2, 2020
This is probably the worst customer service experience I have ever been through. I have NEVER written a poor review but for this I 100% will. I was sent a $50 GC from a coworker at the end of August. I went to redeem it on December 2nd and the "link is disabled". After spending 25+ minutes on hold, I was told to delete the email and have the sender reach out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. So delete any evidence of having this gift card? So I reach out to my coworker to see if she can send me her order confirmation. Alright, I guess I'll get resourceful since you seem to need the order details but I am NOT deleting my only email showing I received a gift card.
Once I have the order number and confirmation email from my coworker, I call back. I was told, "sorry, you may have the order number and confirmation email but we cannot confirm the order. You will need to have your coworker call back in as well." So $50 just LOST and went directly to this company. There will be a credit card dispute coming their way and I would HIGHLY suggest to NEVER EVER use them EVER.
Reviewed Nov. 29, 2020
Never buy any Vanila product especially pre paid Debit Card. Totally unreliable and cannot be trusted. I had $50 balance on the card but unable to charge at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Meijer, Kohl’s and other stores or online. Unable to see balance online. Customer service is horrible and unable to give straight answer after 1.5 hours wait and transfer from one department to other.
Reviewed Nov. 20, 2020
I purchased one of these cards and sincerely regret it. It's caused me nothing but problems. I made an Amazon.com purchase and never received the product I paid for. Amazon said that the card was refused but when I checked the balance of the card the amount I'd paid had been subtracted. I disputed the whole thing with Vanilla Card. It took months to get a replacement card. To add insult to injury, when Vanilla Card sent me a replacement Visa Debit card I could not activate it. I tried calling 1-800 number over and over and tried the website too. There is a serious scam going on with these cards. DO NOT buy one of these cards.
Reviewed Nov. 17, 2020
I got this sorry excuse of a card six months ago. Bought it for the purpose to use on a gaming site. Pretty much all I've used it for. The last few times I made a purchase it was difficult to do. Today I could not make purchase. I called customer service and the bottom line is they want to dictate how you spend your money. Of course they tried to dress it up and want you to think it's for your own good...
I am 49 years old. If I wanna throw my money that I earned away on something no matter what who are they to tell me I can't because they don't approve? It is a dictatorship. I will have no part of it. Do not use this company. They will Rob you, tell you what you can and cannot spend your money on then act like you're an idiot. Do yourself a favor. Get any card but a My Vanilla. If you buy this card I promise you will regret it. It will cost more than it's worth and you'll be lucky to even get your money. That is my experience with them. I wish I never done business with these parasites whatsoever.
Reviewed Nov. 4, 2020
I bought a $500 Visa Vanilla card and before I could use it someone transferred all the money off the card. 6 months to get money back. Then it happened again before I could spend the last $65 on it..
Reviewed Nov. 3, 2020
The day I activated the MyVanilla Mastercard with 20$...my vanilla keeps locking up the card/blocking it from me using the additional 500.00 I reloaded the card with after registration. I've had to call this company's customer service four times telling them, To unlock the damn card! After two transactions, if I tried to use a third...It would cancel the transaction. Then again have to call the company. They think it's a game. I promise everyone if I try to use it again and it's unsuccessful? Well, all I can day is, "Bless their hearts! I'm sure someone will be learning some new english slang! I would not get involved with this company... if I had it all to do over, again!!
Updated review: Jan. 25, 2021
It turns out my mom was able to use this card no problem, I was nervous that it would not have worked, I'm glad that it turned out ok???? I would still use a different company. Usually your bank if you have one will have this service.
Original Review: Oct. 29, 2020
So I purchased this for my mom who lives in California, little did I know until I had already made the purchase of this card the TONS of negative reviews, after doing some research I immediately started to worry and called to cancel my order. Surprisingly somebody answered quickly and told me that my order was currently under review and that I could not cancel it. So it turns out that when you buy this online and have it sent to someone, that person receiving the gift card doesn't need to register/activate it they can start using it right away. My review as of right now is to NOT USE THIS company's products at all, I should have gone with an American Express gift card. I will definitely be providing an update once this is over.
Reviewed Oct. 27, 2020
Why is it that the computer ask for information and the operator asked me more questions than the computer. Yet the computer gave me more answers send. The operator seems very backwards to me. I don't understand how a computer can give me more access to my account than a customer service representative. Unbelievable. Very disappointed. Will no longer use this card again, will no longer use your brand again, will no longer use your service again. And if anyone ask me I'll tell them don't don't trouble yourself. It's not worth it.
Reviewed Oct. 20, 2020
I am in possession of 3 Vanilla eReward gift debit cards that are virtually useless due to low balances on each one. Why can't the balances be easily transferred to one usable card? Is this how they make their money? I highly recommend that you think twice about purchasing these "gift debit cards" for friends.
Reviewed Oct. 12, 2020
Received Vanilla gift card for Christmas and was saving until I found something I wanted, never got a chance. I spent under 10.00 of my card, somebody else used the remainder. When I called about the charge was expected to jump thru hoops to get it back. Will advise my friends and family to never purchase these cards. Company does not care about their customers.
Reviewed Oct. 1, 2020
I bought the Vanilla Card when my son was 16 for gas purchase. The charges to reload the card was like prepaying interest. Then...you have to go to Walmart to reload the Vanilla Card. You cannot preform this online. Then if you forget the password or pin, you cannot do this online either. Sometimes when we would call the customer service number, we would be answered by a hot girls on the phone or a make your selection that you cannot reach a live person. When you are lucky enough to reach a person, they were unable to preform what you ask without asking a coworker or consulting on how to do what you asked. I would not recommend this card to anyone.
Reviewed Sept. 30, 2020
There is no way to reload these. You have to activate them online to use and you can't add a new one to your account. So you end up with multiple accounts and a pocket full of plastic with a couple bucks on each. Unless they changed it in the last few years since I gave up on them.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2020
The cards are useful as gifts or for small purchases, but keep in mind that some of the cards don't offer reloading and can't be used in combination with other prepaid cards to pay off a balance that exceeds the limit of one card.
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2020
The Vanilla Prepaid Visa card is very reliable. You're able pay a bill that you wouldn't usually pay with your bank card instead of using your own bank card plus sometimes a Company Will still use your card at the you have contacted them and let them know that you don't want the product and to not use your card again, In other words you may try a product out and you don't like it and you want to cancel it you can't called the company to cancel it but they continue to take their mouth of your call.
I can speak of this because it has happened to me several times so now when I wanna try a product that I see on TV or the Internet I'll use a prepaid card that I put money on it and let the company get the purchase. If the product is not what they say these or I don't like it I'll call the company and ask them to stop it but sometimes they might stop it so I don't put money back on the card and I don't disused it with to the Vanilla card. It's using any prepaid card that you have to put the money on but you can't do that with your bank without people Having to have to calling them to stop payment and that could cost you. There are so many good reasons why a prepaid card comes in handy and is good to have. You could always purchase another one And this use it to your advantage.
Reviewed Sept. 27, 2020
An average gift card with average resources. I don't expect too much when utilizing. It is what it is. Just a gift card. Non-reloadable, no fees for the user and minimal fees for the purchaser. It is nice to have a card accepted everywhere.
Reviewed Sept. 26, 2020
It’s a great gift but the fee to purchase is too high. Visa makes enough money. They should be the leader like they feel they are and put the customer first for a change instead of business and screw the customer.
Reviewed Sept. 25, 2020
I have used my Vanilla card for all of my online shopping for a few years, & have never had a problem with transactions. Also their low fees!! I would recommend the Vanilla card to anyone!!! My Vanilla.
Reviewed Sept. 24, 2020
I received the Vanilla Prepaid Visa card as a birthday gift. My clients at my job took up a money pool and then loaded up the card. I was able to use the card at various locations. You can shop online and shop in person. It was a wonderful card accepted everywhere.

Reviewed Sept. 23, 2020
Great idea but too expensive. I would like more options on each card, ie. no limit per card so that I can load as much money as I need to to pay all my monthly bills instead of continuously going back and reloading it time after time. Such a waste of my time.
Reviewed Sept. 22, 2020
Love the Vanilla Prepaid. Can shop anywhere, and easy to reload. All locations accept, great as a gift. People can buy what they want. Fees to reload are cheap. May use in grocery store, clothing, out for dinner, Dr. pmts, phn pmts.
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2020
I used the Vanilla prepaid card with no issues. It was an easy setup and as for purchasing item it always seems went smooth. I did not have any fees. All of my transaction were made in stores without any problems.
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2020
I live in a small town so this card does come in handy, but the problem is the outrageous price of the fees associated with putting money into it and sometimes you are charged for online purchases. Then there are the ATM fees which are ridiculously expensive, too.
Reviewed Sept. 19, 2020
The biggest thing is that if the card has an expiry date then if the owner of the card still has money in it after the card has been expired. They should move forward that amount to a new card and send it to the customer with the left amount that wasn't used. Or card shouldn't have a expiry date and customer should have access at any time of their money.
Reviewed Sept. 18, 2020
I was introduced to the Vanilla card so I could pay my medical bills. I like the convenience of the card but think the cost could be a little bit cheaper. I have spoken to customer service and very helpful and friendly.
Reviewed Sept. 17, 2020
Great presentation card for gift giving! Always a hit! I love giving this card as a gift. It’s always very well received! It looks great and smells wonderful! You won’t go wrong picking this card up for someone else or as a treat for yourself!
Reviewed Sept. 16, 2020
This card can be used as a debit, and a credit card. I used them every time I travel. Also for my family birthdays, I send the Vanilla card and my children activate the account card.. No problems using. The card. Easy breezy.
Reviewed Sept. 14, 2020
I purchased a Vanilla card and was able to use it once without a problem in Florida. I am currently traveling in Mexico, but have a brick and mortar address in San Francisco, California. However, I was told that I can't order anything from Amazon to my homestay here in Cozumel. I had to wait online for 40 minutes, got attitude from the representative and also from her supervisor. So now I have to have whatever I need shipped to my friend in Florida, who then has to ship it to me. I read all of the previous reviews and totally get why Vanilla only gets one star. I would give it none if at all possible. I just hope that it doesn't expire before I return to San Francisco in January.
Reviewed Sept. 14, 2020
I had a $50 Vanilla gift card, I tried to use it the first time, it wouldn't work. Called and verified the balance, went into the store and and made a $5 purchase. It worked. Next time I went to use it, it didn't work, so I tried again in trying to buy my groceries, again it didn't work. Both times I had to use my debit card instead of the gift card. Two days later, I decided to try and use it at Walmart since it was a Walmart Vanilla gift card, but the card only applied $6 to my purchase and I paid the remainder in cash. When I got home, there was 0 amount on the card left. Apparently, the 2 purchases that came back not being valid, the money was debited off the card. I literally paid $78 for $39 worth of merchandise. I'll never purchase another Vanilla Gift Card again.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2020
I bought the card and opened it, it was missing 4 digits in the front of the card and the 3 digit security in the back. So now I have to wait 3 more business days to make my purchase. Why do they take these defective cards off the shelves of stores. They also wanted to put my card on hold so that when I do receive my new card. I have to wait 25 more minutes on live to speak to somebody in the Philippines to take my card off of hold.
Reviewed Sept. 6, 2020
The card is difficult to use for online purchases. I ended up not using the gift card for my purchase. The vendor immediately canceled the order with gift card information. I was unable to set up a pin online after entering my zip code as required. I now have to wait 10 days for funds to return to my card by Vanilla Gift processing service.
Reviewed Sept. 6, 2020
Received 50$ Vanilla gift card at xmas and Immediately had trouble redeeming. A Store applied a return to the card (big mistake) And after 5 phone calls I was assured the money was available. I Tried to redeem it a month later and funds are not available again. Two phone calls to cs who advised the card was deactivated (no reason why) and another investigation Was required. For the SECOND time I am required to send in original receipts and correspondence. Why doesn’t the Federal Trade Commission shut these guys down? Don’t buy these scam cards.
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2020
Bought the card at CVS as a gift for my son. It didn't take long for the cash balance on the card to disappear -- without even trying to use the card. It took few months for them to confirm they would issue and mail new new. Needless to say, they never did. To me, it feels like a scam. Stay away from Vanilla gift cards.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2020
I purchase gift cards all the time as gifts. This particular time I purchased and the store clerk obviously had trouble or didn't know how to activate. They have done nothing but give me a run around. I sent them everything I have to no avail. Their last claim was they didn't have my driver license and after sending that still haven't heard anything. Every time I call customer service I get a run around. I talk to a supervisor and they said they will look into and I never hear anything. When I call they say they need receipt. I have sent everything I have. Totally frustrated. My advise to the world - never buy Vanilla Visa cards, they are thieves.
Reviewed Aug. 25, 2020
I was extremely worried after I purchased this card at Walmart, and it didn’t work right away. I looked at the reviews, and my fears grew. After looking at the website, I saw that the phone number was 3 digits too long. As it turns out, they have the correct number listed, it just has a 218 in front of the actual number that shouldn’t be there. I talked to customer service, and they said I had to wait a half hour to use the card after purchasing. I wasn’t very hopeful, but half an hour later, I was able to make my purchase with no issues. I’m very pleased that this wasn’t a scam.
Reviewed Aug. 19, 2020
Do not use this gift card company, there is no security whatsoever!!! As soon as I purchased a prepaid Vanilla gift card and put $251 on it, the money was immediately stolen off of the card with my first attempt to use it. Looking at the timing of the transactions, the money was taken off the card at the exact moment the card was activated. Almost like it’s an inside job with vanilla gift card or the scammers had the money set up to be taken off at the time of card activation.
When went to use the card it was declined for our transaction. When we look back there was s $248 charged to Nordstrom rack that transacted at the same exact time the card was activated. Jeeez, that’s not suspicious...Even the remaining three dollars on the card was immediately swiped off to PayPal. These transactions were clearly set up ahead of time. I am still waiting to hear back from vanilla gift card and it is looking very unlikely like I’ll get my money back. My money was stolen off the card May 17... It is now August 19 and I have not heard anything back from Vanilla gift cards... They are giving me till August 22 to get a final decision, but I can tell you already that I bet I will not get a refund. DO NOT USE THIS Card company.
Reviewed Aug. 18, 2020
I purchased a $100 prepaid Vanilla card from Walmart around the end of 2019 as emergency fund for later use, I opened it and placed it inside the drawer of the desk the day I purchased it. In August 18, 2020 I pulled the card and checked the balance and it was around $25, this is what I found in a $100 Vanilla card...! This is very frustrating. I called the 800 number of Vanilla and am waiting on their response, they said it will take few weeks to investigate after I fill a form they emailed to me. Never place your CC in places that others may see it for they may steal the credentials of the card and steal your money.
Reviewed Aug. 10, 2020
I did not have a problem with the Vanilla Cards in the past. However, this year a gift card I was given had an unauthorized charge on it. Three phone calls - each time they were to email me forms - I still have not received any. However, they were quick to place the card on hold. So we are out the amount of the gift card. Very sad customer service.
Reviewed Aug. 9, 2020
My elderly mother bought a Vanilla $25 gift me (also not that young) on the 18/12/18. The front of the card said it expires 05/23 which gives you the assumption that you have up to then to spend it, so I thought I would save it for a rainy day, which is today 09/08/20. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work so I started reading the tiny writing on the back which advised that after 7 months a service of $2.50 will be charged p/m. This means that if you don't spend anything, the life of the card can only go to the 23/4/20 because after that it will have been eaten up by the service fee and have a zero balance.
As you can't put money on it, the front of the card should state that the expiry date is the 23/4/20 because after that it is impossible to use, it has expired. The fact that they state it expires 05/23 in my eyes is extremely deceitful and dishonest. They are obviously counting on people like me who have never had a gift card before and don't know how they work, to misinterpret and believe the expiry date they put on the front of the card.

Reviewed July 24, 2020
Terrible experience that went on for 2 months. After mailing Visa Vanilla Gift Card to my Grandson, the card was lost. Since it comes in a package we did not have the card number. Asked for a replacement card after also sending in verification of address & proof of purchase 3 times. Every time you call no one knows your case as they don't record anything in the computer. They wanted to talk to my Grandson who is a child & verify his address, who lives in a different state & a small child. This was a nightmare that I finally went to the Better Business Bureau. If your card is lost in the mail & you don't have the card number you are in big trouble! Do not buy Visa Gift cards!!
Reviewed July 24, 2020
I bought one of these online to send to someone else. I was embarrassed when they called to say it didn't work. The only way to talk to a customer rep is to select the "lost or stolen" option. Then they tell you it's not on their end - it's the merchant. Not true. Tried at multiple merchants online and off. Asked for refund and was told I have to write a letter (write a letter!) and send it, then wait 7-8 weeks. I'm not expecting to get my money back, I just hope they didn't sell off my CC info when I bought it.
Reviewed July 20, 2020
I purchased one of their cards to pay a bill. I called to activate the card and was told that I needed to go online to do so. I wasn't told that there is a maximum amount of attempts nor that the website isn't set up for Mobile Web...When I finally called to get some help again...was told that the card couldn't be registered. I asked for a new card to try again...Was told that it wasn't a possibility and that I would be offered a refund in 7 to 10 Business days.
Reviewed July 17, 2020
So my aunt bought me a card with 50.00 on it. A day later some company took all the money. When I called about it they took a report. Said I would get an email which I never did. When I tried to call back couldn’t get a live person and this has been a couple of months ago. I wouldn’t recommend this card nor will I buy another one.
Reviewed July 17, 2020
Never give away these prepaid credit cards to anyone. They work really hard to annoy you and for you not to be able to use them. This way they get away with your money. They must steal millions of dollars from us with this scam.
Reviewed July 17, 2020
My daughter received a Visa Vanilla Gift Card for her birthday of $100. Before each online purchase she ask for my permission and more times than not it was a Walmart Roblox email delivery purchase. She ordered 3 Roblox cards and cancelled each of them shortly after she placed the orders, simply because the merchant was taking too long to send the pin numbers. That was almost 2 weeks ago. On the merchant's end we have from them confirmation that all 3 orders were cancelled, and normally it may take up to 7 business days to release the hold on funds but I feel as though this is ridiculous, we are still in limbo, just waiting.
I have called every number associated with Vanilla Gift Card service but I have gotten nowhere. They are holding over half of her money in pending status and I am desperately trying to resolve this for her because she's only 11 and all she wants to do is play Roblox on her laptop. If there is anyone out there who can tell me how can I get my child's money released? Not just that but she's charged around 81 cent to spend her own money... What? I for one will never buy this particular card again. There is no real customer service and its too much of a headache for me.
Reviewed July 15, 2020
Purchased a card and loaded it with $260. Tried using it and card was declined. I contacted Vanilla cards who told me that my card had been used already, this was odd because I was never able to even activate the card to use it. I was told that I need to fill out a dispute form and wait 90 days. I filled out form, sent proof of purchase and haven’t heard back and have tried contacting customer service. Getting the runaround. NEVER EVER BUY this card. I was scammed out of $260.
Reviewed July 11, 2020
The Vanilla Pre-paid Card -They don't tell you that if you use the card to purchase sometime BEFORE registering it WE WON'T BE ABLE TO RELOAD THE CARD! Even after I called to get help activating it I thought everything was fine but NO. WASTE OF $4.00. These ** people are SCAM ARTIST. WHY would they want us to buy ANOTHER card to reload when we just bought one! Once used without registering it the card is GARBAGE! UNREFILLABLE. They will NOT allow money to go in if the card has been used ONCE! If it was not registered first! Which should have been CAREFULLY EXPLAINED..
Reviewed July 10, 2020
My wife bought a gift card from Vanilla and gave it to me on my birthday. As soon as I activated it, someone made the transaction on SWAROVSKI and used all my gift card money. I called Vanilla Gift Card customer service and opened a ticket numbered **. The day until now, every time I call their customer service employees either play dumb or ask me give them more 90 days to look into the issue. Never buy from Vanilla Gift Card.
Reviewed July 8, 2020
My 18 year old son is going to basic training in two weeks and needed this card to start his online banking account. I purchased the card, came home and tried to activate it online and it gave me an error that said to call customer service. After being on hold for over thirty minutes, he was told that he tried too many times to activate the online account and the only way to correct this was to deactivate the card which would cause him to lose the money on the card and purchase another one. I chimed in and asked for a supervisor and the lady was rude and placed on hold for another twenty minutes until we finally hung up. This card is a total scam and I will NEVER recommend or purchase another one for any reason EVER!!
Reviewed July 6, 2020
Months ago, I asked them to replace my e-gift card with a physical card, because it's nearly impossible to use online. Answer: no. So I asked for a refund. This should have been a simple transaction, but I kid you not, they said I have to prepare a physical, signed letter with the case number, card number, etc. and fax it to them. Yes. Fax. Oddly, they also asked for my date of birth, and when I asked why they needed that information, they stumbled through a response that made no sense. Given they also wanted a letter with a signature on it, it came off as identity-theft-level suspicious.
I asked for an email address instead of a fax and went through an unreasonable amount of hassle just to prepare and send the information they asked for. No response. Weeks later, I followed up, and they responded that they were never able to open the email. Instead of telling me that to begin with, they literally said nothing until I had to follow up. To make matters worse, they've now said I have to mail a physical letter to them with all of the same information. I haven't seen customer service like this since the 90s. I somewhat doubt I will ever see my money again.
Reviewed July 4, 2020
This is the worst credit card company I've ever had the displeasure of purchasing. I bought the card for paying bills online, I added 50$ and they never loaded the funds, after months of trying to contact them I finally got ahold of a representative, and they were rude and didn't offer any apology or reason for my trouble, I felt as if I was inconveniencing her as a matter of fact, but I finally got the funds loaded, then had an issue with a transaction and asked for help to cancel payment, but they didn't help, I had to dispute the charges and still no help.
Finally, I wrote the BBB and they took months but I was finally awarded my refund, and the company gave me credit back to my card, but suddenly my card is invalid and I can't get any information from the company, since my card number isn't working I can't speak to a representative, I can't get online access to my account, they blatantly took my money and closed my account and I'm screwed out of 30$. These people are horrible and they're crooked, this company should be shut down.
Reviewed July 1, 2020
I called Visa and they said card was already used. I don’t eat sushi and never heard of restaurant it was used at. Vanilla gave me a big sorry it shows used. Card apparently not secure. Feel bad. A friend paid for it and it is useless.
Reviewed June 29, 2020
I bought a card and loaded 20 dollars and I don't remember the cents. Well with Covid 19 they were not answering phones so today I called after the country is back to work and the lady said I could not activate my card unless I knew the exact amount I added. I said, "That is crazy. It's been two months. You haven't answered your phones and it is my job to know the exact amount..." Then she said I could activate it online....Well the website doesn't work and I told her that. If you use this company only use the silver one time cards. Anything else you will lose your money. They have one star for a very good reason....Trash company from the top down.
Reviewed June 25, 2020
I bought this "gift card" for Father's Day. I wanted to have it set up so I personally called to active it. The automated system kept telling me I was providing incorrect information. It took at least 5 attempt until it finally gave me the option to speak with a representative. I provided all my info and was told I had to file a claim and that it would take (3) days to process. I then had to email my receipt to show proof of purchase. I DID NOT receive any confirmation of received info, or call. I then had to call - From Work - reattempt providing card info another 5 times, placed on hold and finally spoke with someone.
Their resolution was for me to go back to the store where I purchased it from. When I filled the claim I was told NOT to go back to the store as they did not have access to their system. At this point I am LIVID. The store I got it from was a random out of my way store, I asked to have a new card issued to me or have my money back, she denied and kept saying I have to go back to the store. I feel like a monkey in the middle. This has now become an unpleasant, annoying experience. I got it so I wouldn't have to stress about getting a gift, I am not left without the gift, without my money and having to waste gas and time to resolve their problem. NEVER AGAIN.
Reviewed June 23, 2020
Hi all, first card I got was 200$ gift card, within hours of purchasing card, it was 65$ lighter from being used in another part of the country, rang Vanilla. They said it took 90 days for them to check and sort out who/what happened then I might get the 65$ back. Once 90 days passed I rang vanilla back, was told they sent me an email that I had to fill and return within 90 days, err what? I never received the so called email, lady on phone kept saying, "Sir you didnt fill out email," asked for the vanilla employee's name, so I could talk to a supervisor, she kept giving me her first name only, then came, "Sir?.. Sir? Can't hear you sir.." And she hung up on me.
After calling them up 4-5 times they locked me out of my vanilla account, vanilla employees can see your social number (was asked by employee), each time I called vanilla they asked the same questions but always ending with new personal questions that the previous employee didnt ask me, I HAD to reply, "I really dont think I gave em all that info," another employee even told me once: "I see you're on USA login page. Click upper right," spin chilling, sketchy, having to reply to 8-10 personal questions just to get security checked, personal data collectors is what they are.
Half a brain, bit of dexterity, patience and couple other things I won't mention is all you need to hack/steal any unbought card, went and bought 25$ gift card. Opened it w/o breaking the package (easy peasy), and guess what. All needed numbers are right there on the card no scratch to see number on back of card, a vanilla card is worthless unless bought/activated so being physically protected from shoplifters doesnt apply.
I'm a regular hard working person and stealing, opening, collecting cards numbers, finally returning the now repackaged cards where they got stolen from (store), and we all know vanilla won't do anything, all that's left to do is wait and check if card is bought and good to be used (hardwork), another way would be somewhere you go every day, beiing able to physically check if cards are gone putting them front backways, "security check important sir. If you dont reply we can't find card account", I kinda figured hmm physically protecting the cards before purchase is out of the question huh!? That way customers call vanilla and vanilla collects more personal data, money spent is money spent. Vanilla does not care who spent/stole your money, vanilla gets paid, vanilla takes fraudulent transactions fee, need I say more "security check very important sir, me cannot," now what is it exactly they got me to tell them, spin chilling.
Reviewed June 17, 2020
* Vanilla Prepaid Card is a SCAM!!! * Do NOT purchase/use!!! 14 yr old daughter was given a Vanilla Prepaid Card w/ $250. When she went to make a purchase the card was declined. We called to check the balance and the Vanilla Prepaid Card said it had $0!!! Checked transaction record online and it showed multiple charges by PayPal user: **
Vanilla Prepaid immediately shutdown the card so we can no longer log in to view the transactions! They continue to request Dispute Documents and information only available via the transaction records. Numerous calls, emails and transaction disputes later... PayPal says there is nothing they can do because the user, **, does not exist! Many hours on hold and multiple dispute documents later... Vanilla Prepaid Card says they can not/will not do anything about it!
The Vanilla Prepaid Card website is not secure and I believe your personal information, card# and pin# gets stolen as soon as you register the card! The Vanilla Prepaid Card customer service reps I was able to speak with were in Malaysia. They continued to repeat that Vanilla Prepaid was not receiving my Dispute Documents so they continue to close my dispute. (I have fax and email delivery verifications and read receipts.) If you are [un]lucky enough to receive a Vanilla Prepaid Card, I would suggest you immediately withdraw all the money!!! DO NOT BUY! DO NOT GIFT! DO NOT RECHARGE! Vanilla Prepaid Card is not worth the headache/heartache of losing your money!
Reviewed June 17, 2020
My 12-year-old son and his grandma bought a prepaid card from 7-11 Kaneohe or gas station. It is reloadable... My vanilla prepaid debit card. We were having trouble activating it by the number they provided and was directed by an actual person to go online and activate as they have been having problems. We make an account and they are asking personal information. We decided to follow through as it seems legit as we bought it from an actual store. Once we made an account and tried to activate the card it wouldn't activate.
We went online and found horrible reviews about this company and their fraudulent and scamming ways. We are at a loss for words. Why is this company still allowed to sell this if it has this many negative complaints of people not being able to use money and the money they have on it being is stolen. At this point, we don't care about the money but the fact we inputted our personal information. BEWARE! Whatever store sells these cards I will hold liable if anything happens to our identity!!!!
Reviewed June 15, 2020
I received the $750 gift card one 500 and one was for 250 and when I went to use it the money was gone. They did nothing to help me. They just said "sorry we can’t help you. Sorry we don’t have a dispute department. Sorry."
Reviewed June 9, 2020
I've used the Vanilla Prepaid Visa card for approximately 8 years. I use it for all of my direct deposits, and I've never had a bit of trouble with the card, company, or online system. The only drawback to this card has been the $0.90 charge each time you swipe your card. I usually take what I need in cash out with an ATM that's in the my vanilla network (it's only like a $1-something), to avoid those charges everytime I buy something.
Reviewed June 5, 2020
I had put $40 dollars on a my Vanilla Card and I went home to set it up and I realized it was gone. I'm a disabled young woman, I wanted to buy a game and they stole $40 from my account. I wished I could have known about this sooner than never... they told me that I had multiple accounts open and I only just had opened a new one because my others were locked out.
Reviewed June 3, 2020
My friends gave us a gift card at our engagement party. When I went to go activate it I could never speak to a representative and was constantly steered in the wrong direction. When I looked it up online there were similar complaints about the card information being invalid and simply not being able to obtain the credit. They are absolutely scamming people! Do not trust unless it’s an actual VISA card associated with a reputable bank!
Reviewed May 28, 2020
I received a card as a gift and within days fraudulent purchases appeared. I contacted Vanilla and was told I must contact the vendors to dispute the charges, which I did. The fraudulent purchases have not yet been removed from the card. I'm not hopeful that this will be resolved soon, if at all.
Reviewed May 22, 2020
I put 200 in the gift card for a deposit on a hotel. 2 days later some unknown charge appeared on balance. Then a couple hours later after I complained they lock me out of my account. Now I can't get the deposit back and they just took my 200. Sick.
Reviewed May 20, 2020
My son and his wife who are both deaf received a Visa "Vanilla" card with a value of £25 as a wedding present. It states in large letters on the front that the expiry date is 04/21. However when he tried to use the card he was told the balance was Nil. I have ended up contacting Visa trying to resolve this, but it seems they take a fee of £2.00 per month, and all of the balance has been used up by this fee. Despite numerous calls they refuse to reimburse this fee, even though the card is still well within the expiry date of April 2021.
Reviewed May 20, 2020
Today May 19, 2020 I was ready to buy the things I need it and wanted. I check my card balance to see what much money I have, the gift card had $150.00 so I bought something on Amazon and I already paid it, later on as I waited by seeing what type of stuff to buy. I went and checkout, and out of nowhere the checkout said "Please verify the credit card and billing information, or use another credit card or payment method." I went to check my card balance, it said $0.00, I checked again who use my gift card and someone did a Pay-pal and took the money. I called the company but they have me waiting, so I hanged up and called again. And still tell me wait about three time. So that means I only spend little bit of money but someone spend a lot. I'm kinda of sad but I will never buy ** from this company ever again. Good thing I pay my things little early than these people.
Reviewed May 19, 2020
Had put a dispute on a charge and hold on my balance due to Card # was stolen. Got my dispute claim back but they released my hold balance to another unauthorized charge after I just told them that the card was stolen. And they were the one to suggest to put the hold on the balance for I wouldn’t loss anymore money. At the same time they said there was nothing pending. A month later after receiving the replacement with the dispute charge amount they tell me the hold balance was collected by a store that I didn’t purchase from. So the hold didn’t save my money like the suggested! Don’t buy. Card # gets stolen easy and you will lose your money.
Reviewed May 18, 2020
Bought a Visa gift card for $100 dollars. Used $49.97. In about 2 hours tried to used the remaining balance and it was stolen off the card. Called the 800 number. When I finally got a person there was so much noise that you could not hear them and when you did hear them you couldn't understand a word she said so she hung up on me.
Reviewed May 17, 2020
Put $250 on a Vanilla Visa Gift Card I bought from Walgreens Pharmacy. This was money my daughter earned cutting grass and wanted a card she could use online. It had a balance $0 when she tried to use it hours later. We called the company and they said it was used to buy things from Home Depot and PayPal and to call those companies to get the money back. PayPal said no way to track it. Home Depot said no way to track it without an order number. Called the Vanilla people back and they said nothing they can do. Try calling Walgreens and corporate. They said nothing they can do. Teach your kids to be a hacker. They will not have to work and get away with everything.
Reviewed May 16, 2020
Won't be purchasing gift cards through Vanilla Gift again. I bought a $200 Visa gift card for a family in need who cannot afford food. After her first purchase, the card number was stolen and unauthorized purchases were made. Company says, "Too bad. Try getting the merchants where the unauthorized purchases were made to refund the card". Um, thanks a lot.
Reviewed May 11, 2020
I have been using my reloadable card for almost 2 years with no problem. And then suddenly I keep getting unauthorized purchases from a google games site, based in California. I have tried to go on the website to dispute the charges but whoever stole my card has also managed to change my pin number. I have so far lost over $150. I can't get through to anyone on the phone because you need the pin number to even get to that point on the phone. This card is useless and I will not be using it anymore. I bought a different brand today and this one will be shredded and tossed out. PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS CARD!!!
Reviewed May 10, 2020
Not liking that I need to give a star. Grrr. Picked out the E virtual gift card for my mother. She's very old she doesn't get around anymore. After 1st attempt ALL my info said error. Maybe I made a mistake, I redo ALL my info again. It says first [error: please refresh page.] I refresh the page and again; All my info, credit cards, address, submit, and [error]. I call customer service. they said I used 2 different emails in the same place and I could not purchase anything for 24 hrs.
How do you do that? Impossible, the only thing to tap is the button on the bottom to go to next page. They proceeded to inform me the only one above him was the CEO and they were all in South East Asia. So Asia,(not that im prejudice) has all my info, my time, my patience, I'm aggravated and I'm told we can do nothing for you, because you already tried "twice." Really¡¿ You must wait 24 hrs. We can do nothing for you. (Powerless. All of the information pertaining to this company make it sound like they maybe at least reside in the states. My 16 digit number is safe, entrusted into the hands of asia who politely let me know again and again we cannot help you. No satisfaction, or compensation, or card but I am allowed to complain. This really sucks. They should at p least put a warning sign,《1 time only! no do-over! penalized 24 hrs.》Thank you for choosing Vanilla in Asia. Happy mother's day.
Vanilla Prepaid Cards Company Information
- Company Name:
- Vanilla Prepaid Cards
- Website:
- www.vanillaprepaid.com