We’re all trying to figure out how to go forward now that REDbird can’t be loaded with a credit card directly. Naturally, we’ll turn to buying Visa/Mastercard gift cards with a credit card and using those to load Bluebird/Serve/REDbird. Here’s a little tip that may help some.
A while back we reported that $400 Visa gift cards were being spotted at Target for a cost of $406. At the time, we wrote this wasn’t too interesting because:
- It’s only a $400 denomination. For the same $6 fee, you can buy a $500 Visa gift card at your local supermarket.
- The cards are issued by Bancorp. Vanilla Visa gift cards issued by Bancorp are known to have problems functioning as PIN-based debit cards in Walmart.
- Use REDbird. If you have a convenient Target nearby, chances are that you have a REDbird card or an Amex for Target card, and you’re able to run enough Target spend that way.
Under the new circumstances, the game has changed considerably. Now, buying Visa gift cards at Target sounds like an awesome way to meet minimum spend requirements. You can buy the Visa card in Target, pay with a credit card, and then use it to load your REDbird. While Bancorp/Vanilla cards don’t work well at Walmart, they’ve been working fine at Target.
It’s still cheaper to buy a $500 card in the supermarket, but the other two factors we mentioned don’t apply anymore. And since you’ll be doing the loading in Target, many may prefer to just pay a little more and buy the $400 card in Target so as to save themselves a trip to the supermarket. Target is often coded as a supermarket with Visa and Mastercard so you can use this option for maximizing a credit card which has grocery as a bonus category.
Another small benefit of buying gift cards from Target versus your local supermarket is that your credit card issuers are already used to Target charges so they won’t give you fraud alerts. 🙂
You may also be able to find other types of prepaid cards in Target, such as GreenDot or MyVanillaDebit, though I haven’t seen those in the Target stores I’ve been to.
Note that prepaid cards purchased at Target won’t earn 5% with the Target REDcard. They also can’t be purchased with a Target gift card; the system won’t allow it.
Also note that while Target is fully stocked with prepaid cards, these particular $400-denomination cards are less ubiquitous. It may not be worth making a trip to Target relying on finding these cards, but give a quick look when your shopping in Target anyway. The Visa gift cards are usually found near the checkout.
Do they still sell these?
I went to Target today to max out Discover Q4. Unfortunately, $406 VGCs are not available. Target’s $206 Visa beats Amazon’s by 95 cents, however, I’ll wait for Christmas to spend organically w/ 0 purchase fee. https://www.target.com/p/400gc-6-fee-400-visa-prepaid-card/-/A-17214227
Was going to do the same. I don’t recall seeing them at the store in a few years. I checked tonight just to make sure and they didn’t have any. I’m guessing they were discontinued sometime in 2016 because there has not been any data points since then.
Same. In the T&C comes with the card still lists $400.
I went to Target a DAY after buying a VVGC with 500 on it. But, when I went to load the card for $500, it asked for my pin, to which I just entered “0000” (since it says that you can create your own pin on first use) but I was declined 3 times in a row. To make matters worse, the CS asked to see my card, and I just left saying, “it’s ok, I gotta go to my bank and change my code, becuase I forgot it” SO angry. Why did it NOT work?
Did everything correct. Is it possible that the Pin must need different numbers or something of the sort. I pray they did not already recode their machines not to accept this. Anyone, please help if you know what the deal is.
I loaded 5+ VGCs yesterday and they all worked fine. What card was it, and where did you buy it?
Maybe it can’t start with “0”. Can’t think of anything else. Try resetting it and doing 1234.
How to unload these $400 GCs? I tried it once, but it didn’t work with Serve.
We wrote here that these should work with REDbird, not with Serve. You may have more success with Serve if you do $49.99 in each load, or possibly if you use the Walmart ATM.
Can I use ATM to withdraw funds from these cards?
What is the PIN number?
No, ATM won’t work. But it should work for certain purchases which only work with a PIN, such as loading REDbird.
PIN is probably any 4-digits.
Chuck, I am not exactly sure how you are suggesting loading the $49.99 to Serve… Do you mean adding the target bank $400 visa gift card to Serve online to use as a debit card?
Walmart ‘Kate’ definitely does not accept these cards, even at less than $49.99 at a time. The pin code is any 4 digit pin which you select on your first transaction
From what others have said, Bancorp cards work in 49.99 loads. I don’t have personal experience with this – you can read up on Flyertalk. There is a chance that these cards are different than other Bancorp cards, but I’d assume they are the same.
I think that the issue may be the trying to set the pin code at the same time you’re trying to drain the Card on Kate. I tried on both the $400 and $100 target cards, and for both the POS terminal flickered between screens asking for the pin code. Will try to set the pin code elsewhere and then go to Kate to train 49.99 at a time 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply Chuck!
The Targets near me will NOT let me load my redcard with visa gift cards due to checking ID. They will only accept methods of payment with a name printed on it that matches my ID. If anyone knows of a way to buy personalized Visa gift cards with credit card, it would be a huge help. Thanks!
I believe giftcardmall.com will let you buy personalized VGCs, but at a cost of $8 per $500, incl shipping.
Thanks David! That should work. I just need to meet my minimum spending reqs on new cards. Thanks again.
This seems a really dumb idea at several levels.
1). Purchasing and liquidating at the same place and in close succession seems ripe to get loss prevention folks worked up and kill either the purchasing and/or liquidation side of the equation.
2). You are paying more for gift cards for a marginal time savings.
3). Newbies are going to do stupid stuff like buy the VCG and then try to liquidate at the same cashier and get pissed when this is deemed suspicious. Or cashiers will noticed the obvious VCG use and then start checking all debit cards.
This whole idea just seems dumb when there are plenty of other locations to get slightly cheaper VCGs that work just fine.
I think it’s also a bad idea for the reason I mentioned above. Newly purchased cards may not really be ready for use for an hour or so. The cards that I had declined yesterday 10 minutes after purchase loaded just fine today. Lots of places sell Visa and MC gift cards. Buying and loading at the same place isn’t good policy for those who don’t want to get shut down.
That’s a point. I don’t know if they take time to activate.
Does it earn 5%? Obviously, no. So, other than convenience, why are people even purchasing these cards?
Newbs tend to be lazy, and if I see some clown ripping apart a GC in store to load a RB we’re going to have words.
Shouldn’t you warn people not to open the package and load VGC in front of the cashier in case some simple-minded ruin the game?
I guess I thought that was obvious, but maybe I should have mentioned it. Thanks for pointing out.
So redbird is still allowing to load with VISA gift cards? Can anyone please confirm that?
Yes. Take a look of tested gift cards, as reported on various blogs: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NoonRadar/posts/QZ1eCSFrdCG
I am not aware of any pin-based gift cards that were tested and didn’t load (save for cards that need 30 mins or so to activate, like some Vanillas)
Do any portals pay out on giftcards at Target?
I don’t think they pay out on Target gc. Third party gc’s seem to vary by the portal. I had success with ebates.
I bought some Bancorp Vanillas yesterday at Office Depot and then went to load them onto Redcard, and they wouldn’t load (ten minutes after purchase of the card). I’m going to try again today, because it’s possible that I tried too soon and the cards hadn’t actually activated yet, but I have read where others have also had similar issues using cards right after purchase.
Yeah, FreequentFlyer says you sometimes have to wait some time.
I bought six Bancorp Vanillas yesterday at office depot. Today I deposited them at Target.
Grand National?
As if MS wasn’t suspicious enough. I love Target’s simplicity esp. in contrast to it’s cousin Blue, which was how I felt after waiting forever in line. Target employees certainly talk especially when you purchase $1k+, which isn’t too much. You’re way better off taking some risk off the table by using another establishment for the purchase. Besides there are many options out there that are roughly a flat 1% load if not better that can be used.
But by all means pay for the “convenience” of added suspicion.
I’d think that it could be pretty easy to do the transactions separately and not raise suspicion. Definitely worth being careful.
Since it’s not the biggest hack (it costs more), I don’t think there’s anything to be too worried about masses of people doing it.