How do I add a Visa gift card balance to my Amazon account?

[aja8888]

I received a Visa "Vanilla" gift card as a birthday gift and I want to add the funds to my Amazon account (Gift card funds?). How in the world do I do this (or can I?)? I have searched here and on Amazon, but Amazon only discusses their gift card and cash.

Thanks.

 

[djsander]

I have one as well and from what I’ve read go to your account and payments and add it as another credit card. From there use the entire balance to add or buy an Amazon gift card. Or I think if you keep track of the balance on the card you can use it for purchases. If it works let us know. I’ve got to find the email for the one I received. It’s $5 so haven’t got around to expending much energy on it.

 

[braumeister]

I found this:

Log in to Amazon and click "Account & List" > "Your Payments" > "Add a payment method" > "Add a credit or debit card" and enter the gift card information.

Open the Amazon app and tap the profile icon. Tap "Your account" > "Your Payments" > "+Add" > "Add a credit or debit card" and enter the card information.

Be sure to select the Visa gift card upon checkout. You cannot combine Visa gift cards with another payment method on a single purchase. Check your balance.

 

[aja8888]

Thanks folks!

 

[aja8888]

Well I tried "add a credit or debit card" and it wants my name, expiation dates, etc, which this gift card does not have. So I am still stuck.

 

[aja8888]

I think I found it. You don't add another payment method, you go down further on that page under Rewards and balances and click on the rewards and balances link under the Amazon Gift card picture. Then it opens a link where I Can add the gift card.

EDIT: That didn't work.

 

[braumeister]

aja8888 -- 1
Amazon -- 0

Nice going!

 

[cathy63]

Well I tried "add a credit or debit card" and it wants my name, expiation dates, etc, which this gift card does not have. So I am still stuck.

This is the correct way to do it. Are you sure there's no expiration date on the gift card? I have never seen a Visa gift card without one, though the print might be very small or it might be on the back. The name doesn't matter, you can put your own name or "Gift Card" or anything else in that box.

After you have added the Visa gift card to your Amazon account, then you can use it to reload your Amazon gift card and wipe out whatever's on the Visa. I do this if I have a small amount left on a Visa gift card that would be hard to spend in a regular store. Amazon lets you reload their e-gift card with any amount and you can use it to pay for part of a purchase, so it never goes to waste the way leaving it on the Visa gift card would.

 

[aja8888]

This is the correct way to do it. Are you sure there's no expiration date on the gift card? I have never seen a Visa gift card without one, though the print might be very small or it might be on the back. The name doesn't matter, you can put your own name or "Gift Card" or anything else in that box.

After you have added the Visa gift card to your Amazon account, then you can use it to reload your Amazon gift card and wipe out whatever's on the Visa. I do this if I have a small amount left on a Visa gift card that would be hard to spend in a regular store. Amazon lets you reload their e-gift card with any amount and you can use it to pay for part of a purchase, so it never goes to waste the way leaving it on the Visa gift card would.

Thanks, I found the expiration date on the packing it is enclosed in. OK, I can use any name like mine or just gift card. Got it!

Thanks.

I probably have gotten two gift cards like this in my whole life so I am not handy with them. I've given away lots of them though.

 

[aja8888]

Well, no success. I entered the card number, my name, and the expiration date. I then tried to reload $50 of it on my Amazon gift card. Amazon keeps saying the have to re-enter the card number and I have done that a few times. Atill gives me a No-Go.

What I have is a Vanilla Visa Debit card with a $200 balance on it. I have not used it or taken it out of the holder it came in. It shows a $5.95 charge to use it the first time.

Do I have to activate this card first? Nothing says I do? I wouldn't even know how to do that.

I just checked the balance on the Visa Vanilla site and the card is active and has a $200 balance.

 

[Calico]

Deleted

 

[aja8888]

Maybe I need to give it some time for Amazon to process this?

To add: I rechecked everything and also selected use as a debit card to remove any PIN needed.

It just continues to say "processing".

If it's not approved by tomorrow, I will delete the Visa payment card.

 

[braumeister]

I then tried to reload $50 of it on my Amazon gift card.

I think this might be the problem. I believe Amazon only lets you use it to buy something, not to load it onto another card.

 

[cathy63]

I think this might be the problem. I believe Amazon only lets you use it to buy something, not to load it onto another card.

You can definitely reload your Amazon gift card (the electronic one that's part of your Amazon account, not a physical one that you purchase from Amazon or a store) by using any valid payment method. I have done this many times to convert Visa gift cards to Amazon credit.

 

[cathy63]

... What I have is a Vanilla Visa Debit card with a $200 balance on it. I have not used it or taken it out of the holder it came in. It shows a $5.95 charge to use it the first time.

Do I have to activate this card first? Nothing says I do? I wouldn't even know how to do that.

I just checked the balance on the Visa Vanilla site and the card is active and has a $200 balance.

Do take it out of the holder so you can see what's on the back of the card as well as anything printed on the holder underneath the card. I haven't had a Vanilla branded card before, so maybe there's something unique about them. I would go ahead and enter it as a credit card though, not a debit card.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

Do take it out of the holder so you can see what's on the back of the card as well as anything printed on the holder underneath the card. I haven't had a Vanilla branded card before, so maybe there's something unique about them. I would go ahead and enter it as a credit card though, not a debit card.

In order to use the Visa gift card on line, you have to “register” it with the issuing entity. There should be a web site on the card to do this. You will need to enter the card number, expiration date and your name. There may be other information that is needed. I don’t have good computer access right now to check. Once you have completed this step, go to the Amazon website and try adding the card as a debit card , as you tried earlier.
Good luck.

 

[aja8888]

In order to use the Visa gift card on line, you have to “register” it with the issuing entity. There should be a web site on the card to do this. You will need to enter the card number, expiration date and your name. There may be other information that is needed. I don’t have good computer access right now to check. Once you have completed this step, go to the Amazon website and try adding the card as a debit card , as you tried earlier.
Good luck.

I just did this and the card is "active". I'll go ahead and re-enter it on Amazon later today as I deleted it last night.

 

[Sunset]

.....

After you have added the Visa gift card to your Amazon account, then you can use it to reload your Amazon gift card and wipe out whatever's on the Visa. I do this if I have a small amount left on a Visa gift card that would be hard to spend in a regular store. Amazon lets you reload their e-gift card with any amount and you can use it to pay for part of a purchase, so it never goes to waste the way leaving it on the Visa gift card would.

Thanks I did this and used up $19.89 on a visa gift card

It was a little confusing of course, but I added the gift card to my list of cards.
Then went to my Amazon Gift card and added to balance, and typed in the amount.
Then selected the newly added gift card for payment and it said it would take 5 minutes.
When I came back to Amazon it was there.

No more lost $$$

Then I went back in to Amazon, and deleted the gift card from my list. ->Payments, selected the card, clicked on edit, clicked on remove..

 

[aja8888]

I finally added the $200 gift card as another payment method and I re-loaded $50 on my Amazon gift card balance to see if it worked, which it did. I guess I had to go to the Visa gift card site and sign it in first to activate it.

One thing I can't do is see the remaining balance on the listed new payment method (the Visa gift card) on the Amazon payment page. I looked on the Vanilla gift card site and it shows a remaining balance of $0.00 so the funds were transferred in total to Amazon.

So how do I check the remaining balance? I can't track it down on Amazon.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

So how do I check the remaining balance? I can't track it down on Amazon.

Go to account-> your payments-> wallet
Scroll down to Rewards and balances to see your balance. it may take a few minutes for the balance to appear.

To see transactions, go to account-> your payments->Transactions

Happy shopping!

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

Thanks I did this and used up $19.89 on a visa gift card

It was a little confusing of course, but I added the gift card to my list of cards.
Then went to my Amazon Gift card and added to balance, and typed in the amount.
Then selected the newly added gift card for payment and it said it would take 5 minutes.
When I came back to Amazon it was there.

No more lost $$$

Then I went back in to Amazon, and deleted the gift card from my list. ->Payments, selected the card, clicked on edit, clicked on remove..

Brillant!!!! I had $2.92 on a Visa gift and couldn't figure out what to with it. This worked great!

I love this forum

 

[cathy63]

I finally added the $200 gift card as another payment method and I re-loaded $50 on my Amazon gift card balance to see if it worked, which it did. I guess I had to go to the Visa gift card site and sign it in first to activate it.

One thing I can't do is see the remaining balance on the listed new payment method (the Visa gift card) on the Amazon payment page. I looked on the Vanilla gift card site and it shows a remaining balance of $0.00 so the funds were transferred in total to Amazon.

So how do I check the remaining balance? I can't track it down on Amazon.

Something is not right here. When you add a Visa gift card as a payment method on Amazon, no money comes out of the gift card balance. To Amazon, a Visa gift card is just the same as any other credit card. They have no way to know what the balance/credit limit is until you try to buy something and the purchase either succeeds or is declined by the card issuer.

In this case, you bought a $50 Amazon gift card reload, so the balance on the gift card should be $150 minus the $5.95 service fee you mentioned previously.

Vanilla should have a page that shows you all the individual transactions against this card. Do you see a $200 debit from Amazon?

 

[aja8888]

Something is not right here. When you add a Visa gift card as a payment method on Amazon, no money comes out of the gift card balance. To Amazon, a Visa gift card is just the same as any other credit card. They have no way to know what the balance/credit limit is until you try to buy something and the purchase either succeeds or is declined by the card issuer.

In this case, you bought a $50 Amazon gift card reload, so the balance on the gift card should be $150 minus the $5.95 service fee you mentioned previously.

Vanilla should have a page that shows you all the individual transactions against this card. Do you see a $200 debit from Amazon?

Strange things are happening. I used the payment option (the new gift (debit)) to load $50 on my Amazon gift card. That worked. Then I tried to purchase an $11.00 item using the gift (debit) card as a payment option and it got rejected. I waited an hour and then reprocessed the transaction and it got rejected again.

So, I archived that $11.00 order as I could find no way to cancel it. Then I tried reloading some new funds to the Amazon gift card, which I did successfully earlier today. That got rejected. So I archived that order and deleted the debit card. I then went to the Vanilla site and saw that my card has a balance of $144.05.

That's it, I'm not messing with this anymore. I'll just use the Vanilla Visa as a regular debit card.

 

[mrfeh]

Strange things are happening. I used the payment option (the new gift (debit)) to load $50 on my Amazon gift card. That worked. Then I tried to purchase an $11.00 item using the gift (debit) card as a payment option and it got rejected. I waited an hour and then reprocessed the transaction and it got rejected again.

So, I archived that $11.00 order as I could find no way to cancel it. Then I tried reloading some new funds to the Amazon gift card, which I did successfully earlier today. That got rejected. So I archived that order and deleted the debit card. I then went to the Vanilla site and saw that my card has a balance of $144.05.

That's it, I'm not messing with this anymore. I'll just use the Vanilla Visa as a regular debit card.

I really don't see the point of trying to add it to your account.

Why not just use it as a payment method when you check out? Avoid all these hassles and also then you could use it elsewhere.

 

[cathy63]

Strange things are happening. I used the payment option (the new gift (debit)) to load $50 on my Amazon gift card. That worked. Then I tried to purchase an $11.00 item using the gift (debit) card as a payment option and it got rejected. I waited an hour and then reprocessed the transaction and it got rejected again.

So, I archived that $11.00 order as I could find no way to cancel it. Then I tried reloading some new funds to the Amazon gift card, which I did successfully earlier today. That got rejected. So I archived that order and deleted the debit card. I then went to the Vanilla site and saw that my card has a balance of $144.05.

That's it, I'm not messing with this anymore. I'll just use the Vanilla Visa as a regular debit card.

It sounds like Vanilla had a temporary glitch. They declined the $11 charge and showed a $0 balance on your card for a while. Sounds like things are straightened out now.