Vanilla giftReviews 438

These guys pretend like they're protecting your card but that's a BIG lie. More like extortion. Try to avoid buying their cards

Was contacted by phone about being a PCH winner. They needed us to buy a Vanilla Visa gift card for PCH to put the winnings on. Wanted us to get 2 for $500/each. Knowing in my heart that it was a scam, but giving into greed, I bought 2 cards for $20/each. Within an hour the money was gone as I knew it would be. Customer service from Visa passed me off to vanilla gift where I would have to give them my date of birth and ss number to file a claim. Total scam from start to finish.

Bought a card from CVS. Checked the balance and activated, everything was fine. Tried to use it for the purchase I was planning on getting and… declined. Customer Service is absolutely no help. Spun me around in circles with automated questions, it would quite literally ask me what my problem was and I'd input "Card Declining", and with no further explanation it would say; "thank you, goodbye." And hang up. The few times I have talked to someone on their poorly managed team they all told me to wait a few hours and try again? So disappointing never getting this again.

Lots of trouble and impossible to reach customer service -- need to boycott this business. No email address for customer support.

The first problem with this card was my daughter bought it to pay her utility bill and it didn't work so I paid the bill for her and she gave me the card. Then there was an unauthorized charge on this card before I could use it. When I called to dispute I am still waiting for the outcome. They said it would take 45 to 90 days that is 45 to 90 days that they have my money and I can't use it for what I need. It seems like they are giving me the runaround every time I call not a good company to do business with.

Better Business Bureau has given this business a Rating =1. Wish I could leave a rating of MINUS 1,000. I purchased a gift card and sent it for 2022 Xmas Gift. I reported the card as STOLEN Jan, 2023. 9 Months later and I am still calling and fighting for a refund of my money. I call every 2-3 weeks. Every call has a 1 - 2 HOUR wait time. Resolution is always tied to a Calendar with WEEKS of wait time (not the facts or legitimacy of the purchaser). Cust. Representative will do NOTHING to bypass the wait time or accelerate the resolution.

Card will not work for online purchase - an error message shows up "there is a problem with your card" BUT the amount is debited from the card. Calling the phone # on back of the card, you are told to wait 24 hours and recheck the balance to see if the balance is restored since it takes time for the system to reset when a transaction doesn't go through. Call back in 48 hours because balance is not retired and am then told it won't be retired for 7 BUSINESS DAYS and to wait to check balance then. If balance is not restored then I will need to file a dispute which will take 45-90 days. Save the $6.99 fee and give giftee something else unless you hate the giftee AND like wasting money.

I'm a grandfather trying to make a purchase on E-Bay for one of my grandchildren and bought a vanilla gift visa debit card to make this purchase. Oh you can purchase the card alright but you cannot use it. Check your balance and sure its there on screen, except YOU CAN"T USE IT. Try making a transaction only to find out for 'security reasons' your card is declined. What? Then when you call them they'll tell you to use the card in person or at another vendor online. Why? The security measures will still be in place and prevent you from using the card and its all just an excuse to make you either give up trying or accept that you've been ripped off and there's nothing you can do about it. You'll get NOWHERE with customer 'service'. The 'service' is located in India and they're simply reading from a script. Its a merry go round of excuses that won't ever resolve the issue. I'm calling the better business bureau and also complaining to Walgreens where the scam card was purchased to complain. I should have known when Walgreens specifically said you cannot get a refund if you can't use the card.? What? That should have been all I needed to hear but I wanted to make this purchase and I went against my own instincts.
I want Walgreens to remove these scam gift / debit cards from their shelves before anyone else gets ripped off.

Vanilla Visa gift card are highly not recommended. They have changed dramatically from the past of easy purchases online to now nearly impossible to make purchases. Would suggest MasterCard gift card.

I received a vanilla card as a gift. Unable to activate as #'s on front & back are worn away. NO HUMAN TO SPEAK TO@ CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I got two $200 cards, and both immediately got blocked - right after I accessed them. The customer service said the cards have been compromised, and their team will investigate the case... They said they will need 30 business days (thirty. 30) to either unblock the cards or send me a check as a refund. Check. Paper check.

I am almost sure the check will get then lost in mail..

So I buy a 20$ gift card for my son because he was going to a Rangers game and he tried to use it at a concession stand to buy something they said the card wasn't activated when I had activated it but I didn't put a pin on fast forward a week and I try to set up a pin for it so he can use it and some son of a $#*! wiped his card out these Mother$#*!ers are scammers and I would never recommend them never the less purchases anything from them again $#*! holes!

I have never had so much trouble trying to use a gift card. I finally got it to go thru at Walmart using 18.01. When I check my balance, it says zero balance. It shows I used 81.99 and I never did. I have another gift card for $100.00 which I've tried to use on line and once again not going through. I told my husband to never buy these cards again. I've had issue's before with these.

Vanilla Gift Card uses a variety of techniques to rob users of the money they have on the gift cards, which include:

- refusing transactions if the amount is not less than the amount on the gift card THIS IS A PROBLEM when you want to use the exact amount on the gift card

- arbitrarily declining transaction attempts without first notifying or checking with the user THIS IS A PROBLEM when you have money on the gift card and simply can't access it without explanation and then only get an auto message that they decided you can't use the funds THIS IS ANOTHER PROBLEM if you can't get to a place to use the card in person as the auto message says it suddenly required OR what you need isn't available through an in person effort

- not allowing users with multiple cards a way to consolidate their amounts THIS IS A PROBLEM because a user may have one card with $2 or so and another with another amount that when combined will increase their buying power even if modestly so but instead folks are left with amounts they can't use THAT WHILE MODEST FOR THEM INDIVIDUALLY AMOUNT TO LIKELY MILLIONS AND BILLIONS FOR THIS ORCHESTRATED EFFORT BY VANILLA GIFT CARD TO SEPARATE USERS FROM THESE FUNDS

Essentially, Vanilla Gift Card should be the subject of a class action lawsuit and have to pay everyone every cent owed. It is absolutely ridiculous what we go through trying to use these cards. And this review doesn't include scam folks have had to endure. As a side note, these card providers should also be required to provide an ATM option for direct withdrawal of the amount. WHY? BECAUSE it is our money and we should have absolute access to it.

These gift cards are a ripoff. If you activate and use part of the card balance, that is all you will get. The balance then becomes unavailable. And to make matters worse, their website and phone service line are dead ends. You cannot talk to a real person to get help. TOTAL RIPOFF.

I'm writing to express my extreme disappointment with Vanilla gift cards. The last four digits were intentionally obscured, rendering the card unreadable upon activation. Attempts to resolve this issue required sharing sensitive personal information, including my billing address and ID, which is deeply concerning. Furthermore, I was informed it would take an unreasonable 30 days to issue a replacement card. It's baffling that major retailers like Walmart and Ralph continue to endorse these problematic gift cards despite numerous negative customer reviews in the past six months. This experience has been incredibly frustrating and leaves me questioning the integrity of Vanilla gift cards.

It's months since I purchased a vanilla gift card. Recently I i bought one expecting it to work like it has in the past come to find out the card doesn't work for online purchases

I bought online 2 cards of $ 100,- each with service costs here in Europe and to be redeemed by a friend in LA. He could not do that as the codes seemed invalid. The Customer Dept cannot refund me as my friend could 'view' the codes. But not use them! This is called fFRAUD' and have informed my bank so that it cannot hopefully be deducted from my credit card. I am very disappointed!

Never use something so bad and pure irresponsible. Do buy Vanilla gift card, look else where. Give as a gift if you cara for that person.

Can't use it anywhere: amazon, apple wallet. And customer service is super unhelpful and disrespectful