Vanilla Reload Vs. MoneyPak?

[Fico2Go]

To the veterans that have been using Blue Bird, Greendot, PayPal and other prepaid cards to buy money orders and make credit card payments.  Is there advantage to using Vanilla Reload or Moneypak or another product?  

Seems like an excellent tool for manufactured spending if done right.  

[ibmrad7]

I am seeing couple of new AMEX's in your signature.... Just want to give an honest suggestion. DON'T DO IT!!!!

[darkfrosty]

vanilla reload seems the easiest .. the hardest thing is finding a store that will let you purchase them with a CC

edit 

i will say i wouldnt do it with amex. 

[longtimelurker]

For manufactued spending, some key criteria:

1) Availability: Can you get one with a credit card

2) Fees

3) Limits

4) Safety (do people get shut down on the reload side, not by cc issuer)

5) Easy of liquidation

I use exclusively VR to Bluebird, and gift cards, which score fairly highly on these things for me.   Several local CVS sell them with credit cards.  The limits are not huge, $1000 a day, $5000 a month, and this is lower than several other solutions, but having several bluebirds helps.   Lots of people report shutdowns from GoBank and especially PayPal, less so from bluebird.

They are also cheap, $3.95 for $500, and are easy to cash out by paying a credit card.   You can also withdraw to your bank, but this is considered to be a potentially bad thing to do.

But really the first criteria for choosing  is #1, you have to be able to buy them at a place that gives a good bonus on your credit card of choice.

[longtimelurker]

And for those who say don't do it with Amex, well, maybe, but many do do it with the Amex Blue Cash.

[darkfrosty]

i wanted to get into doing this. I have a bb account and found a 7/11 that has vanilla reloads. I originally wanted to do it with my amex plat but i think it would be fishy using a amex bb to pay an amex card.

[longtimelurker]

---

@darkfrosty wrote:

i wanted to get into doing this. I have a bb account and found a 7/11 that has vanilla reloads. I originally wanted to do it with my amex plat but i think it would be fishy using a amex bb to pay an amex card.

---

What value do you give an MR?   The Plat at 7/11 is 1MR per $ so the gain isn't huge unless you value MR at well above 1c.

[Fico2Go]

LTlurker, when you say many people do it with Amex Blue Cash, are you referring to the BCP and BCE? 

It would seem moderation is the key.  If one has an account where 90% consists of manufactured spending it's easy to trigger red flags.  But if you have dozens of  transactions a month adding one MS wouldn't look too bad. 

I would think the only way for issuers to identify MS is through manual review of accounts.  

[juggalo9er]

i espicially like doing this on occasion to my barclay rewards card when they have the bonus points at wal-mart or cvs!

[longtimelurker]

---

@Fico2Go wrote:

LTlurker, when you say many people do it with Amex Blue Cash, are you referring to the BCP and BCE? 

It would seem moderation is the key.  If one has an account where 90% consists of manufactured spending it's easy to trigger red flags.  But if you have dozens of  transactions a month adding one MS wouldn't look too bad. 

I would think the only way for issuers to identify MS is through manual review of accounts.  

---

No, Blue Cash is an older card (still available though).  BCP/BCE have a very small cap on their highest rates, making them unattractive for MS.

Moderation means different things to different people, some people max out at $5K MS per month, others do $150K.  

Although it would seem to make sense, there is no evidence at all that mixing the spending with "good" spend makes any difference.   The issue is that your assumption "I would think the only way for issuers to identify MS is through manual review of accounts. " is wrong.   I just program for something like:  "Show me all customers with two or more purchases at CVS for more than $503.94  in a month for two months". or some similar parameters.   I don't even look at other spend.  Yes, I might catch a few innocents, but with proper tuning, almost everyone flagged is doing MS.