AT&T Promotion VISA - I am Ranting

[stpn2me]

Hello everyone,

I just bought two phones for me and DW. They (AT&T) said I would get a rebate on these phones. Well, lo and behold, I get some kind of VISA promotion card in the mail with $50 balances on them (two separate cards for two separate numbers). I WANTED MY $100 in a rebate check! What kind of crap is this? If I wanted a VISA card, I would have ASKED for one! I have been very scared about apping lately, and when I got these cards, I immediately called the sleigh center, thinking I had been a bad boy! This sucks. Not only can you NOT use this as a debit card, you cant get your money out of an ATM. You have to use it as a credit card, which virtualy assures you cant get the full amount of your rebate, which means they get to keep what you cant charge to the full $50. What a scam! It's all about the money!

[Anonymous]

Use the card as a credit card and pay a bill.  I used my AT&T rebate card to pay $50 on my car insurance.  While it didn't cover the entire bill, I was able to make another payment with another card.

You can put the $50 on your AT&T bill, cell phone bill, etc.... Do you have directv or cable?  There are many options.

[Anonymous]

I got the same this from Sprint, it's basically a pre-paid Visa card. I agree it's rather annoying. I had to register/activate the card before using. And using it is like dealing with a CC with a super low limit. The best ways I've found to deal with it:

1) purchase a gift card for the equal amount of the pre-paid Visa card, they're easier to manage
2) pay a utility bill online for the equal amount of the pre-paid Visa card
3) if it's small enough (ie $25), use it for gas...except I have to tell the gas station attendant "charge $25 on the card for pump #99"

Beware of retail clerks, they try to run these as gift cards. I was using a $25 ppd card in December for $40 of ink. I told the clerk I need to pay on 2 cc, she told me to just swipe my gift card. I said, "But it's not a gift card." She told me she knows what she's doing. Well, after several "denied" attempts, she tried running it as 2 separate payments and it worked. Go figure.

[MidnightVoice]

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stpn2me wrote:

Hello everyone,

I just bought two phones for me and DW. They (AT&T) said I would get a rebate on these phones. Well, lo and behold, I get some kind of VISA promotion card in the mail with $50 balances on them (two separate cards for two separate numbers). I WANTED MY $100 in a rebate check! What kind of crap is this? If I wanted a VISA card, I would have ASKED for one! I have been very scared about apping lately, and when I got these cards, I immediately called the sleigh center, thinking I had been a bad boy! This sucks. Not only can you NOT use this as a debit card, you cant get your money out of an ATM. You have to use it as a credit card, which virtualy assures you cant get the full amount of your rebate, which means they get to keep what you cant charge to the full $50. What a scam! It's all about the money!

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Use it for gas, food etc.  It is real money, and you can spend every penny with no charges!

[stpn2me]

While you are correct esshua,

nothing feels better than having CASH in your hand!

I keep most of my bills paid, and I just paid my phone bill and the cable bill. Good suggestions though...

[Dawn]

I can understand your frustation.  Yours may not be the same situation as mine ... but here's my story.

I had a Sprint referral fee placed on a pre-paid card instead of them just sending me a check.  I used it once and stuck it back in my purse.  The next time I pulled it out and tried to use it, there weren't enough funds on it for that particular purchase and the cashier had no way of knowing what the balance was ... so she was not able to do a split transaction to use up the balance.

I let it sit for awhile, and the next time I pulled it out, I called the 800 number to find out what my balance was and what the last so many transactions were.  My balance was being depleted because the card had become inactive and they were deducting a service charge each month.

They reversed the charges, gave me the exact balance ... and the next time I went out I was able to tell the cashier that I wanted to pay $XX.XX with the card and would pay the rest with cash.  If yours will work this way, you will have to be armed in advance with the exact balance and find a cashier that knows how to do this (and a store that allows it.)

Read the terms and conditions carefully ... and call them and find out exactly what you must do to use the entire amount on the card.  (It could be that you could make a partial payment on an account, using the full amount of the card, and you would be done with it.)

My T&C implied that they might honor a transaction that would actually overdraw your card and if you didn't add funds to the card to cover it, you could end up in collections.  Check it out carefully to know what you are dealing with.

This reminds me ... I need to call again and make sure I am still with a zero balance and actually close the silly thing now!

[stpn2me]

This reminds me ... I need to call again and make sure I am still with a zero balance and actually close the silly thing now!

Well, I might need to leave a little on there! Wouldnt want to go to collections for a prepaid card! Wouldnt that suck? You lose fico points for that! I think I will try to leave $1 or less. But isnt that what the rebate was put on this card for?

[Dawn]

I wouldn't leave anything on it ... I would zero it out.

Mine was in a state of "suspension" because of the expiration date.  It could have been reactivated if Sprint added any additional referral fees.  Since I'm not a Sprint customer anymore ... that isn't going to happen ... so no need for the card to be in limbo out there.  I called and had them totally close it out.

[bamagirl1]

it's like a prepaid visa, but on your att bill with it or any utility..it's the same just in a prepaid card instead but you can still pay bills w/it or put gas in your card or go to store and buy something, groceries etc

[Anonymous]

Hi, everybody!

My big dream is to know exactly WHO invented these stupid (sorry) promotion cards? They are so useless! This person already stole like 5-6 hours of my life. I spent this time calling to AT&T customer service 3 or more times,  trying to get that promised money. My three $150 cards are blocked (not my fault!) and this AT&T customer sevice absolutely no help.I hope not to have this AT&T company as my phone provider never again in my life (and my children and grandchidren lives too) only because of these cards.