Amazon.com GC purchases $50 or more w/pre-paid CC's or virtual CC #'s - read this.

shrike4242

shrike4242

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I recently received a $55 pre-paid MasterCard as payment for a rebate, and I tried to use it to turn it into $55 worth of Amazon.com gift cards. I had placed an order last week for a $55 gift card, and the transaction didn't go through. Amazon.com did an authorization for $1 to check funds. When they went to put through the $55 charge for the gift card, it wouldn't go through because there was only $54 on the card, due to the $1 auth.

They canceled the order and the authorizations eventually fell off this morning. I tried the same thing again, thinking that they already checked the card for the funds and it would go through without issue. Same problem happened again, unfortunately.

My guess is that Amazon does a fund verification check on anything $50 or more from a new payment method, since that's the fraud limit for most credit card companies. They're probably doing this as a CYA move to make sure the money is there when they try to make the purchase.

As the $1 auth is stuck in limbo until it's released, I placed two separate orders for a $20 GC and a $30 GC, and both went through without any issue. When the $1 drops off the card, I'll place a new order for a $5 GC and then the issue should be dealt with.

I had an issue with this same problem when I tried to make a $50 gift card purchase with a different pre-paid MasterCard I received back from a rebate, and had the same issues. At the time, I thought it was the bank causing the problem, as when they removed the authorization, the charge went through without issue. At the same time, other cards for lesser amounts for gift cards went without issue. It was $50 or more that seemed to cause the issue.

Since companies are turning to more and more pre-paid Visa/MasterCard cards for rebate fulfillment, I thought to let people know about this issue, if they plan on turning one of those that is $50 or more into an Amazon gift card.

I'd also assume the same behavior with a virtual credit card numbers you'd use with Paypal, or one you'd generate from your credit card for fraud protection if you didn't want to give out your credit card. In those cases, make the credit card amount for $1 more than you'd want to spend at Amazon, and you shouldn't have any issue.

Not sure if this is something other vendors do besides Amazon, though I wanted to let people know about this if they end up in same position as I did.
 
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Thanks for the heads up! Not so much for the $1 authorization fee, but for giving me the perfect idea on how to use up my two $30 Visa gift cards coming from FYE.
 
If they're $30 cards from FYE, you won't have any issues with them being turned into Amazon GC's. One purchase per card, and I'd do one at a time, to see how the process works. If your cards are issued by MetaBank, they're giant PITAs to deal with, BTW.
 
The phone companies do this and it really pisses my dad off. Sometimes the card would not work at restaurants, usually because the waiter presses "credit" when it should be "debit" or vice versa. He and I both agree it would be better to just take the money off our phone bill.
 
So far, I've received pre-paid debit cards as rebates/rewards from the following companies:

Symantec (for 3+ years)
Sprint PCS
Hotels.com
Netgear

I'm sure I'm missing some, though I'd rather get a check for the money, or as Porksta suggested, money off the bill/purchase.

With rebate companies dropping left and right, I'd rather just have the money saved on the purchase than have them take the chance that I'd "forget" to send it in or not follow up on it.

More and more rebate companies are doing it with pre-paid credit cards. Shame, really.
 
Just curious, but why the hate for these prepaid debit cards? I've never had an issue using them before from rebates. I actually have a $45 card from Corsair from a RAM upgrade rebate, and haven't had issues with it.

Maybe I'm missing/overlooking something. Yes, a check is easier (I suppose...even though most of those expire much sooner than these prepaid cards do), but I can't see much of an issue with them. Well, outside what the above user mentioned on the credit/debit button, but I'd think you'd simply need to tell the person to press debit.
 
If you're trying to use them for purchase of an item that is more than the amount on the debit card, then you have to have someone do split payment across two payment methods. Only B&M retailer I go to with any regularity that does split payments is Best Buy, and the only online retailer that does split payment is Dell.

If Amazon did split payment, then I'd never need to turn the debit cards into gift cards at Amazon.

Checks are easier because I can use the money for whatever I want to, or just sit on it in my bank account. Pre-paid cards force you to buy something with it or use it in some way, rather than just pocket the money.

I can't imagine that the cost of cutting a check and mailing it is more than making one of these debit cards and mailing it.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']If you're trying to use them for purchase of an item that is more than the amount on the debit card, then you have to have someone do split payment across two payment methods. Only B&M retailer I go to with any regularity that does split payments is Best Buy, and the only online retailer that does split payment is Dell.

If Amazon did split payment, then I'd never need to turn the debit cards into gift cards at Amazon.

Checks are easier because I can use the money for whatever I want to, or just sit on it in my bank account. Pre-paid cards force you to buy something with it or use it in some way, rather than just pocket the money.

I can't imagine that the cost of cutting a check and mailing it is more than making one of these debit cards and mailing it.[/QUOTE]

Ah, I didn't think of retailers *not* allowing split-payment types. I've done that at Wal-Mart before, and thought nothing of it.
 
[quote name='Rig']Ah, I didn't think of retailers *not* allowing split-payment types. I've done that at Wal-Mart before, and thought nothing of it.[/QUOTE]Well, if Walmart is offering split payment, then that's one more place at retail for me to use one of these cards.

News to me, so thank you for the info, Rig.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']If you're trying to use them for purchase of an item that is more than the amount on the debit card, then you have to have someone do split payment across two payment methods. Only B&M retailer I go to with any regularity that does split payments is Best Buy, and the only online retailer that does split payment is Dell.

If Amazon did split payment, then I'd never need to turn the debit cards into gift cards at Amazon.

Checks are easier because I can use the money for whatever I want to, or just sit on it in my bank account. Pre-paid cards force you to buy something with it or use it in some way, rather than just pocket the money.

I can't imagine that the cost of cutting a check and mailing it is more than making one of these debit cards and mailing it.[/QUOTE]


One other suggestion... most bigger banks can do cash advances on these prepaid card and either give back cash or deposit it into your account... not to mention that most banks that do this are required to do the visa/mc branded cards even for non customers.
 
AT staples when people bring in rebate cards with like 50 bucks on them you can split the payment but you have to run it as credit and enter 50.00. I know not many stores like you split payments anymore.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Well, if Walmart is offering split payment, then that's one more place at retail for me to use one of these cards.

News to me, so thank you for the info, Rig.[/QUOTE]

Just to verify what Rig said, Walmart definitely does split payment, as I've used it several times when I wanted to pay cash but forgot to go to the bank to take out enough.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']If you're trying to use them for purchase of an item that is more than the amount on the debit card, then you have to have someone do split payment across two payment methods. Only B&M retailer I go to with any regularity that does split payments is Best Buy, and the only online retailer that does split payment is Dell.

If Amazon did split payment, then I'd never need to turn the debit cards into gift cards at Amazon.

Checks are easier because I can use the money for whatever I want to, or just sit on it in my bank account. Pre-paid cards force you to buy something with it or use it in some way, rather than just pocket the money.

I can't imagine that the cost of cutting a check and mailing it is more than making one of these debit cards and mailing it.[/QUOTE]

I've never had a retailer refuse to do a split payment for me. I just pay with the exact amount of cash that I want to pay with first, or make it clear that I only want to pay X dollars in cash and have them put that through so it brings the total down and give change as appropriate and then use the leftover on the card,
 
Thanks for the tip. I should be receiving my gift CC from a rebate in a week and I was planning on swapping it for Amazon gift cards as well and had no idea about this.
 
Back when we used to get Visa Vanillas from Blockbuster, I did this for Amazon. You have to purchase the amazon GC's in increments - I believe it was $50 or less per, otherwise you get that authorization charge. I had to do that like 7 times.
 
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