Goddamn Visa Gift Card Ate My Money!


SuperShanko's avatar
So goddamn pissed. So I got a VGC to which I needed to send funds to a user through Paypal. I link it without issue, go to send the cash and it says the bank to which the card is tied to was flat out blocked. Fair enough. I go to check my card balance and the funds are shown to be REMOVED anyway. DX 

I call the VGC people and they're giving me the run around acting like they don't know what the hell to say and that it's PP's fault after I told them I'm not sure how seeing as the transaction was denied. I call PP, and they were much nicer saying that because the amount was in parentheses that it /could/ be in the transition of returning come the next billing cycle, but I honestly don't know seeing as this was a gift card. T_T
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HeiYuBai's avatar
You used it with PayPal that was the problem, only use a pre paid on Ebay etc. PayPal will only successfully transfer funds via bank accounts, other PayPal accounts or PayPal Visa debit cards. Consider buying a PayPal debit card if you want to do what you're doing, its loadable in stores like the rush card was.
cactuscowboy's avatar
Another of life's lessons. It is what it is.
bryosgirl's avatar
Were you sending funds for a purchase, or as a "gift"?
SuperShanko's avatar
I believe the first time was a gift.
bryosgirl's avatar
Okay, so as I understand it, you purchased the VGC, waited long enough for it to be activated by Blackhawk (the company that manages most giftcards, loyalty programs and digital payment), and linked the card to your PP account without issue, then tried to send funds as a personal transaction.

go to send the cash and it says the bank to which the card is tied to was flat out blocked.

I'm a bit confused by this line in the context of the entire message. Is the message saying your card is blocked, or that the recipient's account is blocked?

If it's your card that's been blocked, then you likely triggered an antifraud protocol, especially if you tried to send it to a personal account. Whether or not this is the case, it's worth noting that Visa/MC giftcards are meant to be used for business transactions, not personal. Circumventing it by sending the funds as cash through PayPal can launch a fraud investigation and harm your account's standing with PayPal, so try to avoid personal transactions in the future.

If the message is stating that the recipient's account is blocked, the account has probably been flagged by PayPal. There are a number of reasons this might happen (the account could be filing too many refund requests, it may have participated in too many unusual or sketchy transactions, another user could have filed a complaint against them, etc), but whatever the reason if it's flagged it is unable to send or receive transactions from most or all users.

Keep in mind it's entirely possible that something else is going on, but based on the info provided these are (in my mind) the most likely scenarios. PayPal gave you the standard refund period, so that's a good sign, but it might be worth submitting a ticket through the website to follow up on what happened.
SuperShanko's avatar
To note, this has worked with other disposable cards. I've had a card deny before like this, but in this case not "lose" my money, and the account I sent it to is still fine.

Message <-- In most cases it flat out denies me and that's it, but I've never had an instance like this. Now like I mentioned, I called both them and Paypal, Paypal being more helpful mentioned that money might go back given how it shows in the statement.

To add to my complaint being the customer service to the VGC totally sucking and being all "Well I don't know what to tell you!" BS.
bryosgirl's avatar
Yep. It's almost certainly an antifraud protocol, especially if you've used giftcards for personal transfers in the past, and it's probably Blackhawk who initiated the block on Visa's behalf, which is why Visa is out of the loop (not to mention the fact that customer service only handles everyday problems). All I can say is stop doing it. Giftcard scams are highly prevalent and while your intentions may have been harmless, using services like PayPal to turn them to cash (the most common form of scam) is prohibited and continuing to do so can result in progressive action from a locked/banned account to legal action.

Previously I didn't comment on the customer service portion because really it sounds more like displaced frustration than bad customer service, and frankly it isn't going to resolve or prevent this issue from occurring again.