Wal Mart Money Card Pre Paid VISA

[sailor_mercury]

My Grandmother (86 yo, advanced Parkinsons)  received a call yesterday from a young woman who used to be one of her careproviders.  She asked my Grandmother to send her a Walmart Money Card with $XXX on it because of an emergency. My Grandmother agreed because she wanted to help the young woman out.  This young woman now lives 2,000 miles away.

This girl did NOT need a the Money Card she needed some sort of Money Gram transfer because she's dozens of states away.  After much heartache, confusion and many hours of trying to figure things out with Walmart Customer service on Christmas Eve the girl got her money.  But now I am STUCK with this card and the money that I've paid on it.  To register it I have to give them my SSN and then after 10 days they start charging monthly fees.

So my questions for anyone who has any experince with this VISA DEBIT card (Sorry MODS if I'm in the wrong forum).

1) Does registering the card create a HP on my credit report?  I'm trying to buy a house this year and already have a ton of inquries that I'm trying to age off.  I've called customer service but can't get through to a live human being until I register the card.

2) How do I minimize the fees?  I was thinking activate the card, withdraw the cash from an approved (fee free) ATM and then close the card.

Any advice or sugguestions?  Good freaking grief I hate Walmart and now I'm stuck with money on this card and need to get rid of it ASAP. 

[Revelate]

No registering a pre-paid card will not create a HP on your report; there's other reasons for requiring the SSN (fraud issues) but it's not for a credit check.

Think you already have the right course of action: activate it, get money, get it closed out somehow.  I don't know the details, you may have to spend it at a Walmart or online or similar rather than a direct withdrawal, or there may be some other option for it.  Did note quickly looking at the fee sheet that you wouldn't start getting billed the fee until 90 days if you didn't activate the card, and that there's a $500/$1000 minimum somewhere in there where a fee isn't assessed but I would think that's likely solving the wrong problem.

[longtimelurker]

Yes, agree with Rev.  FAQ makes it clear in several places that no credit check is done with this card. If you have Plus or Preferred, you can use it for bill pay, otherwise using it at the fee-free ATMs is the way to go.   You may need to do it a few times, depending on how much is on the card and the daily withdrawal limit

[credit-hunter]

sailor mercury  u should monitor your Grandmothers Finance's to make sure this person is not trying to DEFRAUD her.

[longtimelurker]

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@credit-hunter wrote:

sailor mercury  u should monitor your Grandmothers Finance's to make sure this person is not trying to DEFRAUD her.

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Well, as a prepaid card, the amount of money involved is limited to the initial load, and in this case it sounds like a moneygram was used, so that's a one-time thing.   The grandmother has Parkinson's, not dementia, so presumably she decided that this is something she wants to do.

[sailor_mercury]

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@credit-hunter wrote:

sailor mercury  u should monitor your Grandmothers Finance's to make sure this person is not trying to DEFRAUD her.

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I agree 110%.  In this case we know the person, we know her family and it's a small amount of money, my Grandmother wanted to give it to her as a gift.  TRUST ME this will not be a reocurring event.

I did activate the card and received the following message:

• Your first Monthly Charge of $3.00 will be deducted on 01/04/14.
• You can use the Card you bought for purchases, but you cannot withdraw cash until you receive your Personalized Card.

BASTARDS...  I'm going to have to use it to make purchases to run the balance down before 1/4 and then cancel the account..

I HATE HATE HATE predatory financial instituations.  This is "Green Dot Bank" a company that once sent me a "pre-approved pay day loan" offer at over 700% APR. 

I can pay my rent by VISA.  I'm thinking I will try to do it tonight when I get home and just pay $100 in advance and then close the account.

[longtimelurker]

If rent works, that's fine.   Otherwise I would consider Amazon Payments, which can take care of a $1000.

[FinStar]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

If rent works, that's fine.   Otherwise I would consider Amazon Payments, which can take care of a $1000.

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+1

This would be an alternative OP.  So you've got roughly 9 days before the fee is imposed.

[irrational]

Sounds like the OP has a plan. If he can pay his rent with this, I'd do that ASAP!

I've considered using Square before to empty those pesky prepaid Visas. You end up losing ~3% in transaction fees, but at least you can drain the card into your checking account.

[longtimelurker]

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@irrational wrote:

Sounds like the OP has a plan. If he can pay his rent with this, I'd do that ASAP!

I've considered using Square before to empty those pesky prepaid Visas. You end up losing ~3% in transaction fees, but at least you can drain the card into your checking account.

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Depending on the amount, there can be several ways cheaper than ~3%

So Amazon Payments is free, providing you have people to send the payment to who can effectively give you the money back, but limited to $1000 per month send and receive per account.

If the prepaid card has a PIN, which Visa/MC cards should, you can buy money orders at walmart for example, costing just $0.80 for up to $1000 money order, which can be deposited.

You may be able to buy Vanilla Reloads, at $3.95 per $500, and transfer these to Bluebird and then back to your bank account.