This weekend we posted that Major Change to Vanilla Reloads at CVS- Cash Only, in which CVS would be going to cash only for Vanilla Reload purchases starting March 31st.
While according to this Flyertalk thread, many people have still been able to buy Vanilla Reloads at CVS stores with their credit cards, however some stores are now only allowing cash.
The newest update, was sent in by a reader in which the memo shows the policy to go to cash only will rollout across their entire chain by April 4th which is this Friday, so if you want to get in on a few extra Vanilla Reloads before they go to cash only, you only have a few days.
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“however some stores are now not allowing cash.” That’s good news, no? 😉
I don’t understand this–If I max out my VR purchases over the year, I spend about $800 on the cards. How can getting $0 dollars from me (and I presume many others) be a better solution?
Tried this morning (4/2) at a CVS in Minneapolis, MN while travelling and the register did not allow use of any cc or dc for buying vanillas. Tried to load serve as well but did not allow. A message would popup after the cashier would press to confirm the payment method (credit/ATM) stating “Tender method not allowed”. Bought a $500 Visa Gift card as a test and the transaction went through just fine using the same cc for payment.
@Nathan, due to CC processing costs, CVS probably takes a one to five dollar hit on every 500 dollar reload card they sell depending on what % they give to the CC company and what percent of the $3.95 fee they keep. There is no reason for them to want to sell reload cards at a loss like this. We may not like it but it makes sense from a business perspective and if I were a CVS shareholder I would have wanted them to do this many months ago.
Meh – selling reload cards at a loss brings traffic to the store. But if CVS want to go against national policy and make it more difficult for the MS folk to buy their drugs, maybe we should expand Obamacare to regulate their profits! Hey, as with banking, maybe the regulators could control salaries and bonuses, starting with Cary Cheney’s…
What’s interesting about the wording on the memo is that it says “Reloadable debit cards”.
VR’s aren’t reloadable debit cards. (as well as many of the others that are mentioned) They are an instrument to get money onto a reloadable card but they themselves aren’t a card.
Agree with Patrick. There is nothing “reloadable” about VR’s(except the name). I wish they were. Imagine how many $3.95 fees we could save.
Was successful on 3/30 at one store in Dallas. Have not been successful since. Called or visitied in person 8-12 stores in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and all have received the notice. I went to one at lunch and actually got to the point of sale and the register denied the transactions. They did not have the notice posted like some other CVS in the area.
My friendly CVS people in Norther VA. volunteered to me that “those cards I buy” are cash only now. Was in the store today for a different reason.
Register wouldn’t allow credit card payment in NC cVs today. Lady knew about memo and advised I would not longer be able to use credit card after 4/4, but register wouldn’t accept credit card as form of payment today.
Success today 4 cards in Davis California at 2nd store. I suspect the variable rollout of this change, depends a lot on how much VR inventory is to hand. If the store has a ton of plastic sitting on the shelf or in a drawer, they’ll want to wait until the 4th to deploy.
At only 1 pt per dollar on my CC I’m not going to waste my time trying to find out if my CVS is still selling them w/ CC payment.(it’s a bit out of the way) However, I am going to need to find another way to earn points on my mortgage payment and a couple other bills! Anyone have another favorite outlet?