We are an independent publisher. Our reporters create honest, accurate, and objective content to help you make decisions. To support our work, we are paid for providing advertising services. Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Next” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. The compensation we receive and other factors, such as your location, may impact what ads and links appear on our site, and how, where, and in what order ads and links appear. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, our site does not include information about every product or service that may be available to you. We strive to keep our information accurate and up-to-date, but some information may not be current. So, your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms on this site. And the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.

This page may include: credit card ads that we may be paid for (“advertiser listing”); and general information about credit card products (“editorial content”). Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Apply Now” button or “Learn More” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. When you click on that hyperlink or button, you may be directed to the credit card issuer’s website where you can review the terms and conditions for your selected offer. Each advertiser is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its ad offer details, but we attempt to verify those offer details. We have partnerships with advertisers such as Brex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Discover. We also include editorial content to educate consumers about financial products and services. Some of that content may also contain ads, including links to advertisers’ sites, and we may be paid on those ads or links.

For more information, please see How we make money.

No More Vanilla Reloads With a Credit Card at CVS From March 31, 2014

Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

Update:  You can no longer load a Vanilla Visa to your Bluebird.

Via Points Miles and Martinis, you might not be able to buy Vanilla Reloads with a credit card at CVS after March 31, 2014.

Some CVS stores don’t accept credit cards for Vanilla Reloads, but this looks like a new policy which is applicable at ALL CVS stores.  We all knew that this day was coming!

Is This the End of Our Romantic Shopping Trips to CVS?

Why Is This Bad?

I’ve written about Vanilla Reloads and how you can use them to load your Bluebird account and pay for expenses (mortgages, rent, credit card bills etc.)  you wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay with a credit card.

Many CVS stores let you buy Vanilla Reloads with a credit card.  But this news might mean you can’t buy Vanilla Reloads with a credit card anymore!

Image via @Ringsthecaddy on Twitter

Cary Chaney who wrote the above memo is the category manager for prepaid cards at CVS, so this looks like it is the real deal.  Most shops don’t let you buy reloadable cards with a credit cards, so it was only time before CVS changed their policy.

What Should We Do?

We won’t know for sure if this is real (or an early April Fool’s joke!).  But in case it’s not, it could be worth maxing out your Vanilla Reload spending on March 30, 2014 (today) just in case.

I’m not in the US, so I can’t head to a CVS to personally verify the change.  So apologies if this is a false alarm for some folks!   But it sounds like CVS might be tightening their rules.

That said, you can still buy $500 Visa gift cards (with a PIN) and go to Wal-Mart to load your Bluebird.  So Bluebird is not dead…yet!  But it certainly is more inconvenient to go to Wal-Mart than it is to load your Bluebird online.

Bottom Line

You might not be able to buy Vanilla Reloads with a credit card at CVS from tomorrow.  I’m not sure if this is regional or applicable at all CVS stores.

If you’re near a CVS tomorrow, you could stock-up on Vanilla Reloads.  Hopefully, this is a false alarm.  But if not, this will change the way lots of folks meet minimum spending on their credit cards.  But check out these other ways to help with the minimum spending requirements on credit cards.

I have my fingers crossed!

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)