Activating My Vanilla Prepaid Visa Card
In this article we will be going through the steps to get your My Vanilla Prepaid card activated.
Vanilla is known for their gift cards, but they now offer a prepaid card banking alternative which has become pretty popular. You simply purchase one of the cards at a retailer such as Walmart or CVS, load cash onto it, and then you can actually use it wherever Visa Debit is accepted. Now actually getting the card activated, did prove to be a bit difficult, but I will go over the steps that should get your card activated, along with some of the issues that I had throughout the process.
1) On the back of the package, it shows two different ways to activate your My Vanilla Prepaid Visa Card. You can activate the card on the website or by calling the phone number listed on the package. First, I tried using the website
Vanilla is known for their gift cards, but they now offer a prepaid card banking alternative which has become pretty popular. You simply purchase one of the cards at a retailer such as Walmart or CVS, load cash onto it, and then you can actually use it wherever Visa Debit is accepted. Now actually getting the card activated, did prove to be a bit difficult, but I will go over the steps that should get your card activated, along with some of the issues that I had throughout the process.
1) On the back of the package, it shows two different ways to activate your My Vanilla Prepaid Visa Card. You can activate the card on the website or by calling the phone number listed on the package. First, I tried using the website
2) Click Set Up Card
3) Enter the card information. Click Submit, and then enter your personal information.
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4) This step is where I began to run into some issues. Before you can complete the activation process, you have to read and agree to the fees associated with the card. When I clicked on the link to see the fees, it opened a pop up such as the one on the photo below, but then there is no button to click to get out of it and go back to the activation screen. I did attempt to activate the card on a desktop where I did see a continue button at this part of the process, but it gave me an error.
- This left me with the final option of calling the customer service number, and speaking to an actual representative. When I spoke with them, they needed to verify my information, which kept coming back to them as invalid. After two attempts over the phone, I was told that they I would not be able to activate this card as a prepaid debit card, but I could use it as a gift card. In order to use a My Vanilla Prepaid card as intended, I would need to purchase a new card and try the activation process again.
As you can see, unfortunately the process for getting this card activated is not very simple or straightforward, or at least it may not be for everyone. What should be a pretty simple process, turned into a frustrating and complicated one due to the website seemingly not being well formatted for mobile devices, and the inability to verify my identity for whatever reason. Keep posted up for more articles and be sure to watch the video if you want more information or to have a clearer vision of the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iR9fbkOE6o&feature=youtu.be