Prepaid USD VisaDebit Card

Simon888

Hi All,

I have received a USD visa debit prepaid gift card. Apparently they are accepted anywhere that accepts Visa Debit but are clearly not working with GBP payments - I've tried topping up my UK amazon account with one but it gets declined.

Does anyone have any creative ideas of how to spend/convert this in the UK. I've tried the below to no avail.

- Adding the card to my UK paypal account - not allowed to enter the US billing address
- Adding the card to my Curve card - they don't seem to support this card type
- Using my UK Coinbase account to purchase crypto - my account won't allow me to purchase in USD


Any ideas appreciated!

eDicky

Open a Revolut account on your phone, try to top-up the USD balance with the card. If successful you can convert to pounds at the perfect interbank rate (weekdays) and send it to your bank, or use the Revolut account and card.

Simon888

Thanks for this suggestion I have tried these steps on Revoult and the card got declined

Chino

Simon888 wrote: »

Any ideas appreciated!

Have you tried using the card to purchase items ... from a shop?

Simon888

This may have something to do with it (from giftcards.com)

This card may be used in the U.S. and District of Columbia everywhere (Visa debit cards, Debit Mastercard, Discover® cards) is/are accepted. The card may not be used at any merchant, including Internet and mail or telephone order merchants, outside of the U.S. or the District of Columbia.

I'm guessing Revoult is not a US company so because I am paying a company outside the states it is getting blocked. Any idea of a similar banking app I can use that is a US company?

COIAHLGW

There are prepaid cards that allow you to "register" the card via the website listed on the back of the card, for the purposes of viewing transactions for example. Have you registered the card via the website yet? What is the value of the card?

Simon888

Yes it is activated/registered. $300

Simon888

Sorry, yes it is activated/registered

eDicky

Simon888 wrote: »

This card may be used in the U.S. and District of Columbia everywhere (Visa debit cards, Debit Mastercard, Discover® cards) is/are accepted. The card may not be used at any merchant, including Internet and mail or telephone order merchants, outside of the U.S. or the District of Columbia.

So this card is useless for anyone outside US, Americans tend to be unaware of such considerations.

Can you send it back, quoting the reason, and ask for a simple domestic US transfer to your Revolut US account details..?

Edit - sorry, I was thinking of TransferWise. They would have to send by SWIFT to your Revolut GB IBAN for USD. If you open a TransferWise Borderless account you would have a USD account for receiving a domestic transfer.

Edi81

I got one a few years ago from an airline.
Went to a USD cash machine at Heathrow and withdrew the cash.

Kept some of it and exchanged the rest to GBP.

Could be an option.

Simon888

Edi81 wrote: »

I got one a few years ago from an airline.
Went to a USD cash machine at Heathrow and withdrew the cash.

Kept some of it and exchanged the rest to GBP.

Could be an option.

Great outside the box idea but unfortunately these cards aren't valid to use at ATMs even within the US - giftcards . com / faq (you'll need to VPN from a US IP to even see their website)

So this card is useless for anyone outside US, Americans tend to be unaware of such considerations.

Can you send it back, quoting the reason, and ask for a simple domestic US transfer to your Revolut US account details..?

Edit - sorry, I was thinking of TransferWise. They would have to send by SWIFT to your Revolut GB IBAN for USD. If you open a TransferWise Borderless account you would have a USD account for receiving a domestic transfer.

Yep! How considerate of them
I contacted them about this and they said the only option is have the purchaser receive the refund and then they'd need to look for an alternative method of gifting me the money. This may still be an option.

I think as long as the payee is a US company or account there wouldn't be an issue. I will look into the TransferWise Borderless account - presumably as far as they are concerned they would be paying the money to an account in the US right? Once it is in my US transferwise account, how would I get the money into GBP / my UK account?

My only other idea was a US crypto company that lets me open an account from the UK and pay in using the card. They would also have to allow withdrawal into my Revoult account or similar..