Vanilla Mastercard gift card - advice please

ecm05138

Hi all,

I received a Vanilla Prepaid Mastercard worth £25 for Christmas. I've had my eye on something from eBay (around £100) for a while so thought I could use the Vanilla card to go towards the cost. I assumed I would be able to transfer the funds to my PayPal account but this isn't possible as funds have to come from a confirmed bank account. Then I though there might be a way to move the funds straight into my bank account but this doesn't seem possible either, which was to be expected really. It seems that because this is a prepaid card and not a gift voucher as such, I can't redeem it as part payment for a more expensive item! It seems the only way to spend the money on the card is to buy something worth exactly £25. Has anyone else had one of these cards? Is there a way around this?

Fingerbobs

ecm05138 wrote: »

Hi all,

I received a Vanilla Prepaid Mastercard worth £25 for Christmas. I've had my eye on something from eBay (around £100) for a while so thought I could use the Vanilla card to go towards the cost. I assumed I would be able to transfer the funds to my PayPal account but this isn't possible as funds have to come from a confirmed bank account. Then I though there might be a way to move the funds straight into my bank account but this doesn't seem possible either, which was to be expected really. It seems that because this is a prepaid card and not a gift voucher as such, I can't redeem it as part payment for a more expensive item! It seems the only way to spend the money on the card is to buy something worth exactly £25. Has anyone else had one of these cards? Is there a way around this?

Not the Vanilla card specifically, but I have been faced with a similar problem with another brand of prepaid card.


I ended up making a payment of £25 into my British Gas account on-line. That effectively converted it into money, as it just went towards my next gas bill.

bengalknights

You can use it in store to part pay or do what i do and add to a amazon balance

ecm05138

Thanks for the replies, using it on Amazon or towards bills would have been a good idea. I did find a (convoluted!) way of using it to pay for my eBay item, it was a faff but I will explain what I did in case it helps anyone in a similar position.
So I had a product in my basket that was, let's say, £100. I added £75 exactly to my PayPal balance from my own current account and then chose to pay with my Vanilla Mastercard (balance of £25) at the eBay checkout. Paypal will take money from your PayPal account balance before taking money off your card so by doing this there was only £25 to be taken off the prepaid card after the £75 account balance. Seems to have worked a treat.
If doing this then make sure you have the exact value of the item you are buying, minus the prepaid card balance, in your PayPal account.

janeH_2

Hi I got one of these bought at Clintons cards who weren't a bit helpful when i contacted them to say I was having difficulty using them.However I have found out that you are supposed to be able to use them if the store swipes the card and then you sign for the transaction(tried in WH Smith didnt work for me) So I found that if you find a website that accepts payments by NOCHEX or one where you enter the cvc number it works.Tried Amazon payment declined £1 deducted from card so I wouldn' try there.Ended up buying a gift card from highstreetvouchers.com

Nochex_company_representative

Apologies for coming late to this discussion, I only just saw it, but I can confirm that if you need to find websites to redeem a prepaid card issued by MasterCard, or Visa, Nochex merchants can do this for you.

Maybe a little late for the original poster, but hopefully helpful for anyone trawling the site at a later date!

[Deleted User]

Only 6 months later - I'm sure OP has done nothing and was waiting your reply...

[Deleted User]

I got a stack of these when they were ~£44 for a £50 value card at Wilkinsons last year.

Vanquis weren't best pleased that I paid my card bill using them (having used said card to purchase them). Blocked me from accessing the online payment page "for security reasons" after I'd done 8 or so.

Complaints department eventually unblocked me, but I put all 20+ through through the automated telephone system. Then got an angry message from them about how I shouldn't have done that :rotfl:

As above they are a massive faff to use though, particuarly for genuine customers! Paying Amazon/Gas/Tax etc above is a good workaround!

stevenhp1987

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

I got a stack of these when they were ~£44 for a £50 value card at Wilkinsons last year.

Vanquis weren't best pleased that I paid my card bill using them (having used said card to purchase them). Blocked me from accessing the online payment page "for security reasons" after I'd done 8 or so.

Complaints department eventually unblocked me, but I put all 20+ through through the automated telephone system. Then got an angry message from them about how I shouldn't have done that :rotfl:

As above they are a massive faff to use though, particuarly for genuine customers! Paying Amazon/Gas/Tax etc above is a good workaround!

The reason Vanquis wouldn't be pleased is not because you were paying with such cards, but because you were buying these cards using your Vanquis card.

It's classed as a cash advance, the fact Wilkinsons didn't categorise it as such doesn't mean the lender can't stop you from obtaining cash advances if they find out that's what you are doing! I'd imagine Vanquis will have a very low cash advance limit, with high charges and you essentially circumvented this breaching your agreement, leading to the block.

SnowTiger

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

The reason Vanquis wouldn't be pleased is not because you were paying with such cards, but because you were buying these cards using your Vanquis card.

It's classed as a cash advance, the fact Wilkinsons didn't categorise it as such doesn't mean the lender can't stop you from obtaining cash advances if they find out that's what you are doing! I'd imagine Vanquis will have a very low cash advance limit, with high charges and you essentially circumvented this breaching your agreement, leading to the block.

How would Vanquis have known what the OP purchased?

Card providers don't get a copy of the purchase receipt. They don't know specifically what we buy.

System

Pay something you'd pay normally e.g. broadband.

If you do it before the monthly bill is generated it will put the account in credit for that amount.