A week ago, I wrote “Has Bluebird killed Vanilla Prepaid Reloads?”
And as of a couple days ago, you can’t buy Vanillas prepaid reloads at Office Depot. However, you can still buy Vanilla prepaid cards at CVS, Walgreens, some gas stations, and some grocery stores. The trick is finding the right store to allow you to buy Vanilla with a rewards credit card.
I guess my title for my previous post should’ve been, “Has Bluebird killed Vanilla Prepaid Reloads at Office Depot?” It looks like that’s the case. However, during my last Vanilla scoop at Office Depot, I was told that there had been many attempts (some successful) of people using stolen credit cards to buy Vanilla Reloads. From there, they would reload their prepaid card, and the money couldn’t be traced. I don’t think the manager was supposed to tell me this, but it seems like there was more to Vanilla than just earning points, and this activity had something to do with Vanillas being killed at Office Depot.
What am I going to do?
I had a feeling that earning points with Vanilla and Office Depot was too good to last forever. However- don’t get me wrong, I still cried a little when I heard the news- it’s not all doom & gloom.
I’m going to go back to what I was doing before Vanilla & Bluebird….buying Amex or Visa gift cards in $500 increments, and using those gift cards for my daily spending. Boom.
I’ve talked numerous times about this perk in the last year, and it’s a huge reason why I applied for the some cards in the first place. And if I can honest with you, it’s a helleva a lot easier to manage.
I just go to Office Depot and buy a basic Visa gift card with my business card and then use it. Yeah, it’s a bummer that I can’t load into my Bluebird and pay my mortgage, cc bills, or go to the ATM.
But I still love earning 5x points!
Endings
If you’ve recently applied for rewards cards with hopes of earning miles you’ve still got it! It just looks a little bit different now.
p.s. Bluebird isn’t dead yet.
p.p.s. Bluebird will fly again.
— Geoff Whitmore