I stopped by a Sacramento-area Walmart today to try and load my Bluebird card. I’ve never had a problem loading it with a mile-earning debit card. When I asked the cashier at the Money Center to load the card, she consulted with a manager, who gave her the ok. At the same time she warned, “we’ve had trouble loading these lately. They just don’t work.” Sure enough, she wasn’t able to load it. The manger apologized and suggested I withdraw some cash at a nearby ATM and use that to load the card.
Has anyone else experienced this issue? I hope this doesn’t spell out the death of Bluebird. Without the debit card funding option, many of us have no other way of earning miles on these loads.
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I had this issue many times before realizing that the limit of $5K for debit card swipe reloads INCLUDES Vanilla Reload cards. Did you already load $5K VR this month?
http://travel-summary.com/more-adventures-with-prepaid-cards/
I’ve only done $500 in Vanilla Reloads and another $2k in debit swipes this month. What got me was that the manager said the store hadn’t been able to reload them with debit cards recently. Every mile-earning gig ends eventually, and I assume they’ll catch onto this one as well.
I personally don’t think there’s anything to “catch on to” with debit card swipes. It’s only a $5K limit and many people don’t have mile-earning debit cards, plus it’s our cash anyway. We’ll see.
I hope not, but lately it seems every good point-earning deal has come to an end. Let’s hope this one actually lasts.
It’s 1 Walmart. You’ll need a bigger sample size.
That’s what I’m doing here.
I had similar problem yesterday after the first 500, the second was stopped. dont know why but I suspect i m over 5k. I ll try again on new year day and see if it reset.
I think so too. For me, though, the manager said she hadn’t been able to reload any cards all week. I’ll try again at my local store this week.
Hi PointChaser, May I ask if you can buy any Vanilla Reload card in the Sacramento area with a credit card? I have not been able to find any store… Thanks.
hey you need to do some local sleuthing and find smaller cvs that takes it, especially in SAC area where most people dont play this game.
No such luck so far. I went to a CVS and Walgreens in Roseville and couldn’t buy any with a credit card. I also tried buying MoneyPaks at their Walgreens and RiteAid store, and their registers demanded cash. I’m seriously considering a trip to Southern California to stock up on reloads.
I do not have any luck so far. I had tried two CVSs and two Walgreens. Thanks.