You can no longer buy Vanilla Reload cards with a credit card at CVS.
That was the simple way to load Bluebird.
Buy the Vanilla Reloads with a credit card, put the funds on Bluebird, transfer the funds back to your bank account. It was the lazy way to earn miles with a single trip to the store, with the rest of the work done at the computer, sitting on your couch.
Vanilla Reload cards cost $3.95 per $500.
But you can still accomplish the same thing, with the same $1000 per day load limit, with two store trips and a cost of $4.95 per $500.
- Buy a $500 OneVanilla Prepaid Visa for $4.95. CVS still lets you pay for these with a credit card (you can also substitute a $200 PIN-enabled card from an office supply store).
- OneVanilla is a Visa gift card. It’s simple to use. The PIN number is whatever 4-digit combination you use first (use it once, then that’s the PIN for future uses, of course there’s no need to use it more than once).
- Go to Walmart, find the Moneycenter.
- Load it onto Bluebird for free.
- You can do up to $1000 per day this way.
You can also buy money orders for 69 cents, although some cashiers at some stores do not like to do this with gift cards that do not show your name pre-embossed.
The economics of this doesn’t work well for me because I do not live near a Walmart. As a result the $1000 per day limit means I can’t spread the cost of time and gas across enough miles and spend to justify the trip.
Update: Apparently Travel With Grant manages to do this in less than 10 minutes.
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Thanks for the link-back Gary. Happy Easter everyone!
@Grant I wrote the post yesterday afternoon and then saw you wrote something similar — literally with photos of receipts! I never thought I’d say this but I’m jealous how convenient a Walmart is to you, I’d have to drive for more than half an hour each way.
This is great news. Do you need a valid ID to load these onto the Bluebird or can my wife load mine and vice versa?
I’d have to argue with your “two store trips” statement. Because you can only load $1000 per day, it takes 5 trips to Walmart to transfer $5000 of OneVanilla cards into Blubird.
Also, not every Walmart has a MoneyCenter kiosk. Many Walmarts have in-store banks, operating their own ATMs. I don’t think there’s a way to load Bluebird with these machines, so you’ll have to go to the customer service desk and ask a person their to help you.
I wonder how much Bluebird relied on VRs at CVS for “growth”. It would be nice if Bluebird allowing online debit loads up to $1,000 a day and they weren’t averse to gift cards. Evolve takes them without issue, why doesn’t Bluebird?
Yes, this can be done, but there comes a point where the whole scenario just doesn’t make sense. At appx $10 per 1000 miles, not including the gas, time, and aggravation, this scheme is ludicrous. Maybe to top off an account, for those last few miles needed? but as a way to start at zero and aim for a 1st class award on a TransPac R/T flight? I don’t think so. Insane, IMHO.
Made good with a cashier at wal, go in at 11:45pm & 12:15 am to load 2k.
Is there any reason why you can’t just purchase two gift cards at once on the same CVS trip?
@Gary, haha jealous of how close a Walmart is to me. Lots of CVS stores in Orange County, CA too.
Still need the Amex Gift card in there somewhere to offset the fees. It would take 50 * 4.95 to get the 25K miles or $247.50. I miss that 3% back on Amex to make the game a profit. What card are you using to make it worthwhile on cashback, Arrival?
The vanilla reloads are limited to $5000 per month on bluebird. Once I reach that limit can I still use the vanilla visa gift cards from CVS and then go to Walmart money.center and load into my Bluebird card?
@Gary – excellent concise post. Love these. @Judy Jones – very good point. Perhaps Gary can address this issue.
If you go around midnight EDT or 9pm Pacific time you can load twice. That’s when the daily limit resets.
@Robert You cannot use this with BB because AMEX is much more risk adverse about possible money laundering. For this same reason you cannot use the above OV WM system to pay off an AMEX card. VISA and MC are fine, but AMEX won’t allow it.
Not sure it’s 10 minutes from your front door to CVS to Walmart to your front door. And have you seen the lines at Walmart? And the competence of the cashiers, either at the money center or in the regular customer lines? And if you want to use the ATM, is is not working at least 50% of the time, and even when it does, it is s-l-o-w to load gift cards as debit cards to BB. Also, how do you load more than $1000/day (the limit) x 5 days to maximize the monthly limit? When does the clock reset? Is it based on GMT, or Walmart HQ time zone (CST or CDT), or your particular Walmart store’s time zone?
Great discussion…..will CVS allow AMEX gift card to be used for OV Visa? Seems my CVS has stated before they don’t allow “any” gift/prepaid cards to buy another gift/prepaid cards which makes a lot of sense from a fraud prevention standpoint…….
Are there any ways to enable this with Serve as opposed to Bluebird as Walmart is a pretty far drive for me
@rick – No, the $5k is a combined limit
@Judy Jones – I think this is best done when there’s leverage like a signup bonus or spend threshold. But there’s still a card that earns a leveraged cashback at drugstores, post coming up on that…
@Maury no problem $500 x 2 on one trip
@Michelle S – nice! #winning
I’m in NJ and have tried 6 different walmarts to load a VISA gift card onto my bluebird, not one has worked, I tried going to the post office this am and buying a money order with the card, declined. I used to do this all the time in California and Arizona. I’m not sure why I can’t find a Walmart that I can load a blue bird with a gift card and pin. Anyone have any ideas? The gift card is a MetaBank card. I need to figure out something cause I have the 10,000 spend to accomplish for the Citi Executive card.
With the OneVanilla card, do you actually have to use it once in order to establish the pin? Can I just establish a pin while loading it to Bluebird? Thanks!
You can buy OneVanilla at a Speedway gas station. If you use Ink or Amex PRG you will get 2 pts per $. This way economics works much better. Better yet, use Freedom when gas is a 5% category spend.
@Chris Was the problem with the card itself, or just loading to BB? If the latter, you can use OV to pay your Citi cc bill directly. There is an added fee of $1.88 per bill pay, but since you can pay $1998.12 per payment, that’s not a concern for me. Just tell the clerk “CheckFree pay to Visa”. You can use 4 $500 VGCs per individual cc bill.
Just to clarify…you dont need a WM with MoneyCenter or special ATM. Any WM cashier can load BB.
Gary, if business brings you to around the union station area you can load quite easily there… 😀
And Chris, many known issues w Metabank cards. Stick to OV.
Life w/o VRs is more challenging, but I guess I have adapted. I spend an hour once a week puttering around on my bike, visiting WM to load BBs or buy MOs, visiting other stores to buy MOs, making deposits at banks, and hitting up a few stores to restock my GCs. I had to do a lot of this before anyways because I was doing MOs in conjunction with VRs.
@CW I have been to the union station area before. 😉
Can you pay your credit card bills with prepaid gift cards like One Vanilla Visa Gift card?
@Robert all those fees add up to make you buying an AA mile for 0.88 cents and you know before the ink is even dry that they will devalue……….when you can buy a USAir mile for 1.1 cent why go to all the extra elbow grease……….while it was all fine and good to get a 100k a couple of times after that minimum spend is done one would be better off focusing on Starwood or Alaska IMHO………….
Not all Walmarts will let you load bluebirds with a gift card. At my local walmart they require the debit card to have your name on it. And the kiosks are almost always broken.
Please elaborate (or expand) on the Union Station hint.
Now I buy 500 VGC with 5.99 fee at local Hy-vee(Midwest chain in MO,IA,IL etc) and most Hy-vee have in store money centers that you can buy Money order at 70 cents like WM. The best side of VGC is no max limit and the cashier only look at your DL and CC. Just brought 20k VGC and then cash out with money order.
@Jeff Hope you using something other than an AA card……..at that rate you are “buying” miles at 0.1268 cents per mile which is more than US Scareways will sell them cleanly to you……..if you were using a Starwood card you would still be at 0.1 cents per mile which still seems a colossal waste of time……..what secret handshake do you have at the store?
Correction to 1.268 cents per mile
Bought $500 one vanilla today @ CVS in Central NJ. Went directly to Walmart and was declined. Requested the manager and she said they are cracking down. Can only load BB w/ a Bank debit card.
Walmart is insane! There should be a new website: Manufactured Spending People of Walmart.
What is the max value of money orders that you can buy at WM and do they allow multiple debit cards to buy 1 single money order?
Gary, could I buy money orders at Walmart using Amex gift cards?
I have a few thousand in gift cards from some poor thinking a few years ago, and do not live in the us, so my best options to get rid of them seem to be kiva, which I do not like or find some other way. Thank you
@AndrewJ, you can’t use AMEX gift cards to buy money orders or load your Bluebird Card because they don’t have a PIN. If you are strapped for cash, you could always do Square, PayPal, or Google Wallet and pay the 2.75% fee. That equals $27.50 per $1,000, but might be worth it to you if you need the money soon.
thought on “union station” please.
@Chris “I’m in NJ and have tried 6 different walmarts to load a VISA gift card onto my bluebird, not one has worked, I tried going to the post office this am and buying a money order with the card, declined. I used to do this all the time in California and Arizona.”
What problems are you having with the VGC? Also I’m going to call you on being able to purchase MO’s from the post office in Calif and AZ. I live in AZ, and haven’t been able to do it here for at least 3 yrs, also I travel to Calif and same thing.
I love hearing people moan and complain about this game…
@justsaying how do you get 1.268?
I have been able to load VGC to my BB at Wally World without problems.. Just like the CVS issues with certain stores not allowing 5K/day we are going to get Wally World doing the same thing with loading VGCs. Also when people walk into Wally World and want to purchase 1K MO put split the payments, you are sending a flag..
@Tony Jeff says he pays $5.99 per VR card so for $1000 in VR he has paid $11.98……..if he is using a one mile earning card he is at 1.198 cents per mile and if you add the money order fee of $0.70 then you go to $12.68 which is 1.268 cents per mile………if he used a Starwood card it would only be slightly better at 0.1 cent per mile which is an very inefficient way to get to Europe and beyond………manufactured miles needs to account for manufactured fees in addition to the “very short” shelf life of an American Scareways mile……….It doesn’t matter if Citibank allows you to pay with your JH Preferred card if the fees are more than the resulting mile……..it is the ultimate con game and Mr Parker is about to pull your pants down to your ankles and then give you a little Dallas push………..and anybody that suggests one should focus their manufactured miles strategy around Walmart is truly outside of their mind…………..
@justSaying, I am using AmEx PRG today to hit the 30k bar for the 15k points. Next time will be using AA world executive to hit the 40k to get 10k EQM
My local WM won’t accept gift cards for loading BB; only registered debit cards with my name on it. Bummer. Any suggested workarounds?
@George, go at a different time, go to a cashier instead of the money center department, or go to a different Walmart. One of those 3 suggestions should help.
@Tony, I lived in AZ 3 years ago and didn’t have issues, guess things have changed. The issue with the Gift Cards is they don’t go through, I’ve had a Walmart cashier try and load them for me here in NJ, they get declined everytime, I tried the money Machine and samething, declined, even trying to buy money order via the cashier and Machine in NJ. In CA, I used to have no issues at Walmart in Temecula and near North of Sherman Oaks. The money orders I bought at the Post Office in Murrieta, this was a year ago, so again, things change all the time. Regardless..
I’m wondering if anyone in NJ has been successful at a Walmart, that’s what I need to find out now.
@Jeff so you spend 30k on your AMEX PRG to get 45k in miles……..the 30k in VR costs you $380.40 assuming you are using a $0.70 fee for every 1k money order. So you are buying the miles for $0.0845 cents……….not a real bargain and not if you are holding them for a while………but the AA deal is really brutal……..you are spending $507.20 versus buying them from US Scareways for $440 during their numerous sales……….10k EQM worth an extra $67.20 in a swirl of devaluation……that math isn’t attractive to me but it does show how AA is akin to a drug dealer getting you slowly hooked and then juicing you on payday……………..
@Justsaying “that math isn’t attractive to me but it does show how AA is akin to a drug dealer getting you slowly hooked and then juicing you on payday”
How else are we suppose to get 100K AA miles cheaper? I still would rather pay $300 for 100K. Then travel RT in J not too sure why people think that is a horrible thing.
I went to CVS, Walgreens and 7-11 in Honolulu and none sell the one vanilla cards in $500 denominations. Actually only 7-11 sells these but they only come in $50 and $100. I checked the one vanilla website for other locations but didn’t recognize the other businesses that sell these cards. Any other suggestions? Thank you!