RIP good friend Vanilla Reload Card and other reloadable cards.
I don’t know which cards will allow credit cards on and after Friday. I asked about the variable load (up to $500) cards, and she thought those might be safe. It’s too early to tell. So if you can, buy what you need today and Thursday.
It was a good run, my friend. You will be missed.
FYI, this has already happened in NYC from what I have experienced. I went to 4 different CVS’ in Manhattan today (Wed. 4/3) and the transaction is already hard-coded into the registers as CASH only. RIP, indeed. I’m screwed because I just got my brand new shiny Citi AA Executive w/ the $10K spend requirement. Other than AP and my tax bill, which is not huge, I’m still about $4K short to reach that spend. There aren’t any WM near me anywhere… can’t wait to move to SoCal where at least I’ll be able to find WM more easily. I think my strategy will be to buy $4K worth of GCs and just use those for my regular expenses for a few months, instead of credit cards. Any other ideas?
Oops! Sorry. Got the date wrong. I meant to say, today Wed 4/2
If you can float the money, you might be able to use Kiva. You can also prepay certain bills. Lastly, you can use PayPal or Google Wallet and pay the 2.75% fee. It costs $27.50 per $1000. Might be worth it to you.
Have never used Google Wallet before, so no idea what that’s about. I’m going to do some research into that. That fee is a killer, though… Thanks!
The PayPal fee would be the last resort.
We all may want to short CVS stock after their next earnings announcement. I expect record sales in q1 but a big drop in gross sales Q2!
Buy some put options Steve.
Just a thought but you might want to blur the names so some CVS manager isn’t getting in trouble for posting this.
well, i just apply the chase united CC. I guess i have to find the alternative method. There are WM in Nassau County, NY. Yes you may have to drive there or take the train whatever, at least there is an option.
One Vanilla Cards still purchasable at CVS via CC here in New York. Involves a trip to Wal Mart but c’est la vie!
A little extra work never hurt anyone :)
Stopped at 2 CVS on the way home. First one said cash only. Second one let me buy 10 VR’s haha.
Mike — where are you located??
Northern IL Suburbs of Chicago
Thanks! Keep buying them, if you can. They’re all gone here in NYC, as far as I know (I’ve been to 7 locations throughout the city, which is not exhaustive, but it’s a quite a few that had always sold VRs w/cc). All cash registers are hard coded now. Good luck!
Thanks Laura, I’ll check out my local store this morning.
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I wonder if at first last Saturday, CVS was planning a regional change. I have a feeling that during the mass hysteria that ensued when the rumor came out, people kept telling cashiers and managers about a memo they saw. Some people called CVS asking if they went to a new cash-only policy. After all of this, CVS probably reconsidered their policy change and decided to go from implementing it regionally to implementing it nationwide. It’s just my guess that a ton of idiotic frequent flyers might have killed this deal. If we want Visa gift cards at CVS to keep going, the frequent flyer community needs to be more mature about it and do basic things stay under the radar.
correction: I meant “do basic things to stay under the radar”
Nothing last forever in this crazy cat and mouse game. Might as well milk it as long as possible without going too deep and ruining it too fast. The people at my favorite CVS told me about this older guy who would buy a lot of cards and having one of the cashiers explain why he did it to earn money and miles was entertaining.
Occurrences like that are exactly what concerns me. Who let the cashier know what that older guy is doing? There’s just not enough of a sense of precaution. These last few days showed how careless frequent flyers can be, and your story is a microcosm of that.