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

[cathy63]

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.

The main problem with just using it as a payment method is that you can only use it on orders where the amount due is less than the balance of the card. Once you've spent it down to a smaller amount, it may be hard to find a small enough purchase. That's when converting the remainder to an Amazon card is really useful. Otherwise, Visa just gets to keep those last few dollars.

Sometimes you can use up a visa gift card at a store by splitting a payment onto two cards. You have to find a cashier who knows how to do it, and the store has to allow it (they pay an extra merchant fee for it), and it annoys the people in line behind you.

 

[mrfeh]

Sometimes you can use up a visa gift card at a store by splitting a payment onto two cards. You have to find a cashier who knows how to do it, and the store has to allow it (they pay an extra merchant fee for it), and it annoys the people in line behind you.

I've done this at retailers, and don't remember it being much of a hassle.

Certainly less hassle than what the OP has gone through trying to get it added to their Amazon account.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

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.

Amazon does not allow you to split payments between 2 different methods on the same order, UNLESS you use the Amazon gift card as one of the methods. So if you do not have enough left on the Visa gift card to cover the entire order, the transaction will not go through. You can get stuck with a small amount on the Visa gift card and not be able to use it. By transferring any remaining balance from the Visa gift card to the Amazon gift card, you can use the Amazon gift card and another payment method, say a credit card, to pay for the order.

 

[badatmath]

I seem to remember those cards work fine at gas stations. The pump cuts you off when you are out of money IIRC.

I never give them as gifts seem like a hassle.

 

[meleana]

I added my gift VISA debit card, but they don't have a way to use it in combo with another payment method like a credit card. So like, for example, I have $1.00 left on the debit card but it won't let me use that plus my credit card to pay for an item over $1.00.

 

[meleana]

Amazon does not allow you to split payments between 2 different methods on the same order, UNLESS you use the Amazon gift card as one of the methods. So if you do not have enough left on the Visa gift card to cover the entire order, the transaction will not go through. You can get stuck with a small amount on the Visa gift card and not be able to use it. By transferring any remaining balance from the Visa gift card to the Amazon gift card, you can use the Amazon gift card and another payment method, say a credit card, to pay for the order.

How do you transfer money from a gift/debit card to an Amazon Gift card? Do you mean purchase an Amazon gift card with the debit.gift card? What is you only have like a $1.00 on the debit card?

 

[cathy63]

How do you transfer money from a gift/debit card to an Amazon Gift card? Do you mean purchase an Amazon gift card with the debit.gift card? What is you only have like a $1.00 on the debit card?

Yes, this is exactly what you do. Every Amazon account has a reloadable gift card associated with it, so you just reload your account's gift card from your Visa gift card. You can't use two credit/debit cards to pay for one Amazon order, but you can use an Amazon gift card and a credit/debit card together so if you don't have enough left on the Visa gift card to pay for your order, converting it to an Amazon card makes it usable.

First login to your Amazon account. Go to your payment settings and add your Visa gift card as a payment method.

Then go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance Click on the yellow button that says Reload Your Balance. Enter the amount of the Visa card in the "Other" box and then click Buy Now. Choose the Visa gift card as the payment method. You can put any amount in the "Other" box, so even if your Visa card has an odd amount like $1.87 left on it, you can enter that amount and get the Visa balance down to $0.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

How do you transfer money from a gift/debit card to an Amazon Gift card? Do you mean purchase an Amazon gift card with the debit.gift card? What is you only have like a $1.00 on the debit card?

Yes, purchase or add funds to the Amazon gift card that all Amazon accounts have. You can find it by going to account->your payments->wallet. Then scroll down to rewards and balances. Click on add rewards and balances. Use the Visa card as a payment source. Fill in the amount you want to transfer from the Visa card,$1.00 in your case.

It can take some time for everything to update. Click on the transactions menu item (next to wallet) to check on the progress.

 

[meleana]

Yes, this is exactly what you do. Every Amazon account has a reloadable gift card associated with it, so you just reload your account's gift card from your Visa gift card. You can't use two credit/debit cards to pay for one Amazon order, but you can use an Amazon gift card and a credit/debit card together so if you don't have enough left on the Visa gift card to pay for your order, converting it to an Amazon card makes it usable.

First login to your Amazon account. Go to your payment settings and add your Visa gift card as a payment method.

Then go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance Click on the yellow button that says Reload Your Balance. Enter the amount of the Visa card in the "Other" box and then click Buy Now. Choose the Visa gift card as the payment method. You can put any amount in the "Other" box, so even if your Visa card has an odd amount like $1.87 left on it, you can enter that amount and get the Visa balance down to $0.

Thanks! I just did it! Will see how it works on my next order!

I never knew this! I lost so many balances on cards in the past because I didn’t know this work around.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Yes, this is exactly what you do. Every Amazon account has a reloadable gift card associated with it, so you just reload your account's gift card from your Visa gift card. You can't use two credit/debit cards to pay for one Amazon order, but you can use an Amazon gift card and a credit/debit card together so if you don't have enough left on the Visa gift card to pay for your order, converting it to an Amazon card makes it usable.

First login to your Amazon account. Go to your payment settings and add your Visa gift card as a payment method.

Then go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance Click on the yellow button that says Reload Your Balance. Enter the amount of the Visa card in the "Other" box and then click Buy Now. Choose the Visa gift card as the payment method. You can put any amount in the "Other" box, so even if your Visa card has an odd amount like $1.87 left on it, you can enter that amount and get the Visa balance down to $0.

Thank you Cathy, that was easy.
I transferred the remaining balance from My California Middle Class Rebate Visa card, so one less card to deal with.

 

[braumeister]

The main problem with just using it as a payment method is that you can only use it on orders where the amount due is less than the balance of the card. Once you've spent it down to a smaller amount, it may be hard to find a small enough purchase. That's when converting the remainder to an Amazon card is really useful. Otherwise, Visa just gets to keep those last few dollars.

Sometimes you can use up a visa gift card at a store by splitting a payment onto two cards. You have to find a cashier who knows how to do it, and the store has to allow it (they pay an extra merchant fee for it), and it annoys the people in line behind you.

I've found supermarkets are generally easy for this at self-checkouts. When the gift card is used up, it just starts to prompt you for a method to pay the remainder.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Timely thread. A couple days ago, my good friends gave me a $100 gift card and a $200 gift card for helping them out during a medical crisis. I tried hard to turn these gifts down, but they were very insistent. Those details are for another thread.

I don't like gift cards because of having to remember the balance on them, how to use it all up, etc. The same issues as others in this thread have had, I'm sure.

So I just added the $100 card to my Amazon Gift Card balance as discussed above. It worked perfectly. In fact, I also got a $10 "Reload Bonus" for some reason. Cha-ching. I buy enough on Amazon to make this a worthwhile way to use up the cards.

However, when I tried to use the $200 card in the same way, Amazon balked and said I needed to revise my payment method. I re-entered the Visa card details from scratch and tried again and same thing. I suspect Amazon may be not like me using 2 different debit cards one after the other. Probably a fraud prevention check. Or perhaps there is a daily limit on how much you can do. I'll try again tomorrow.

Oh, my friends also gave me a $500 Walmart gift card... that one I'll just use up at Walmart buying groceries over the next several weeks.

Edited to Add: It turns out to not be an Amazon problem. Upon checking the balance of the Visa card using the card's website, someone made 2 transactions at Target early this morning, wiping out the full value of the card. Upon doing a little research, this is a huge problem. And the criminals tend to like to spend them at Target.

 

[jollystomper]

How do you transfer money from a gift/debit card to an Amazon Gift card? Do you mean purchase an Amazon gift card with the debit.gift card? What is you only have like a $1.00 on the debit card?

Yes, this is exactly what you do. Every Amazon account has a reloadable gift card associated with it, so you just reload your account's gift card from your Visa gift card. You can't use two credit/debit cards to pay for one Amazon order, but you can use an Amazon gift card and a credit/debit card together so if you don't have enough left on the Visa gift card to pay for your order, converting it to an Amazon card makes it usable.

First login to your Amazon account. Go to your payment settings and add your Visa gift card as a payment method.

Then go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance Click on the yellow button that says Reload Your Balance. Enter the amount of the Visa card in the "Other" box and then click Buy Now. Choose the Visa gift card as the payment method. You can put any amount in the "Other" box, so even if your Visa card has an odd amount like $1.87 left on it, you can enter that amount and get the Visa balance down to $0.

The only limitation is that you have to have at least a $1.00 balance left on your gift card, you cannot add an amount less than that.

 

[jollystomper]

Sometimes you can use up a visa gift card at a store by splitting a payment onto two cards. You have to find a cashier who knows how to do it, and the store has to allow it (they pay an extra merchant fee for it), and it annoys the people in line behind you.

If one shops (or if one dares to shop ) at Walmart, the self-checkout handles this very easily. You choose to pay with debit/credit and pay with the gift card first. It will charge up to the gift card balance, and then display the remainder that you then use another card to pay off.

 

[audreyh1]

Edited to Add: It turns out to not be an Amazon problem. Upon checking the balance of the Visa card using the card's website, someone made 2 transactions at Target early this morning, wiping out the full value of the card. Upon doing a little research, this is a huge problem. And the criminals tend to like to spend them at Target.

Seriously, can you elaborate?

Did they have the card credentials and were waiting for the card to be activated?

I’ve only received e-gift cards thank goodness,

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Seriously, can you elaborate?

Did they have the card credentials and were waiting for the card to be activated?

I’ve only received e-gift cards thank goodness,

I'm not really sure how it happened. The gift card was purchased from Target on 11/1. It was given to me on 11/3. Today, I attempted to use it at Amazon, but it was not accepted, but no real reason was given.

I then looked up the card balance at the www.mybalancenow.com website that many of these cards use to track the balance. This is the website shown on the back of both of my Visa gift cards.

The Balance shows as $0. It shows it was funded with $200 on 11/1 (the date of purchase at Target.

It then shows 2 transactions done this morning at 6:49 am at TARGET 00020263. One is for $157.32 and one is for $42.68. Nicely totally wiping out the $200 balance.

I tried to use the card around 3:45 pm, I guess. So it would seem that they used the card up several hours before I happened to try it at Amazon. It doesn't seem like it was tied to my attempt to use it. Although, it's a bit of a coincidence that they used it on the same day I tried to.

I called the number on the back of the card and eventually figured out how to speak to a person. He could see the 2 transactions. He took my info and I have to send an email with a copy of the card, the receipt it was purchased with (which I happen to have) and my drivers license. He says they will investigate and get back to me. There were no promises of anything.

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks for the details.

I had read about problems like this long ago, but thought they had put preventions in place like inability to see card details by the casual shopper.

It’s ridiculous if this is a common occurrence.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Thanks for the details.

I had read about problems like this long ago, but thought they had put preventions in place like inability to see card details by the casual shopper.

It’s ridiculous if this is a common occurrence.

The card came nicely concealed in a cardboard wrapper. All that showed was a bar code for the Target clerk to scan to ring it up and to activate it. There are bunch of digits visible as well, but not the card number itself or the expiration date. The Target sales receipt says the card would be activated within 60 minutes of purchase. I did not have to do anything to activate the card to use it.

Very weird. I have sent the required info to the email address I was given. I won't hold my breath that I will see anything. Time will tell.

 

[cathy63]

I've found supermarkets are generally easy for this at self-checkouts. When the gift card is used up, it just starts to prompt you for a method to pay the remainder.

If one shops (or if one dares to shop ) at Walmart, the self-checkout handles this very easily. You choose to pay with debit/credit and pay with the gift card first. It will charge up to the gift card balance, and then display the remainder that you then use another card to pay off.

I usually avoid self checkout at the grocery store (hate looking up produce) and don't have any Walmarts nearby, but I suppose it would work at other stores with self-checkout. It's good to know this is an option if the Amazon hack stops working.

 

[Sunset]

........
Oh, my friends also gave me a $500 Walmart gift card... that one I'll just use up at Walmart buying groceries over the next several weeks.

Edited to Add: It turns out to not be an Amazon problem. Upon checking the balance of the Visa card using the card's website, someone made 2 transactions at Target early this morning, wiping out the full value of the card. Upon doing a little research, this is a huge problem. And the criminals tend to like to spend them at Target.

It's a real problem with gift cards.

There are many ways criminals set people up to be robbed of the money. So basically you can't tell if the gift card you get is going to soon be zero'ed out of money.

Real gift cards, which of course to me seem "more real" are actually the ones most in danger of being worthless within a day or two of being purchased.

Better go spend that $500 card tomorrow...

 

[Calico]

I'm not really sure how it happened. The gift card was purchased from Target on 11/1. It was given to me on 11/3. Today, I attempted to use it at Amazon, but it was not accepted, but no real reason was given.

I then looked up the card balance at the www.mybalancenow.com website that many of these cards use to track the balance. This is the website shown on the back of both of my Visa gift cards.

The Balance shows as $0. It shows it was funded with $200 on 11/1 (the date of purchase at Target.

It then shows 2 transactions done this morning at 6:49 am at TARGET 00020263. One is for $157.32 and one is for $42.68. Nicely totally wiping out the $200 balance.

I tried to use the card around 3:45 pm, I guess. So it would seem that they used the card up several hours before I happened to try it at Amazon. It doesn't seem like it was tied to my attempt to use it. Although, it's a bit of a coincidence that they used it on the same day I tried to.

I called the number on the back of the card and eventually figured out how to speak to a person. He could see the 2 transactions. He took my info and I have to send an email with a copy of the card, the receipt it was purchased with (which I happen to have) and my drivers license. He says they will investigate and get back to me. There were no promises of anything.

I'm trying to understand why they would need your driver's license. It's not like the card was purchased in your name.

Given the fact that the card was already targeted and used by criminals, I would be very leery about giving anyone my DL info, but that's just me. Super paranoid about things like this!

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I'm trying to understand why they would need your driver's license. It's not like the card was purchased in your name.

Given the fact that the card was already targeted and used by criminals, I would be very leery about giving anyone my DL info, but that's just me. Super paranoid about things like this!

This is a common complaint with the company that sells/administers these cards. Most people don’t like that they have to provide the ID. But it’s well documented online that they request it. I suppose I could have not sent it, but I’m willing to prove who I am if that helps prove I’m not someone trying to further scam them for money.

 

[Calico]

This is a common complaint with the company that sells/administers these cards. Most people don’t like that they have to provide the ID. But it’s well documented online that they request it. I suppose I could have not sent it, but I’m willing to prove who I am if that helps prove I’m not someone trying to further scam them for money.

That certainly makes sense. As I said, I just fall into the "super paranoid" group of people who trust no one!

 

[CDRE]

Yes, this is exactly what you do. Every Amazon account has a reloadable gift card associated with it, so you just reload your account's gift card from your Visa gift card. You can't use two credit/debit cards to pay for one Amazon order, but you can use an Amazon gift card and a credit/debit card together so if you don't have enough left on the Visa gift card to pay for your order, converting it to an Amazon card makes it usable.

First login to your Amazon account. Go to your payment settings and add your Visa gift card as a payment method.

Then go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance Click on the yellow button that says Reload Your Balance. Enter the amount of the Visa card in the "Other" box and then click Buy Now. Choose the Visa gift card as the payment method. You can put any amount in the "Other" box, so even if your Visa card has an odd amount like $1.87 left on it, you can enter that amount and get the Visa balance down to $0.

Thanks cathy63! Worked perfectly!!

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I just got an email from the electric company saying my reward for the BYOT (bring your own thermostat) program had arrived. Of course, it was in the form of a Mastercard gift card. I opted to receive it virtually vs. physically, and within five minutes I was able to use the full amount to reload my Amazon gift card. Easy peasy.