I’ve been buying plenty of Paypower prepaid visa debit cards this year. I’ve done so because my closest store sells them on credit, and is a Grocery. For me, this represents the best deal I’ve seen in quite some time. If you’re unable to capitalize on this deal today’s post offers an alternative which can still reward you with very low Cost Per Mile.
Reloadit Packs
Reload it packs are, for lack of a better term, the lesser known reload pack. While Greendot and Vanilla Reload get all the publicity, +Reloadit are an afterthought. Think of them as GoBots to Transformers, RC Cola to Coke or Sega’s Master System to Nintendo’s NES.
Introductions aside, Reloadit Packs have always had one real benefit over VR and GDMP’s; some have a $950 purchase limit per $3.95 fee. Coupled with Grocery stores which sell these cards the reloadit packs have an opportunity to drive your cost per mile way down.
I’m also covering them because today, finally, the Reloadit Safe online Bill Payment service launched. It had been set to launch last month, then that was mysteriously pushed to March 6th. I logged in today and was able to take a look around. I’ll go over the basics of the Reload it Safe, discuss why it is inherently not safe, and also go over the Bill Payment feature of the “safe.”
How Reloadit Cards Work
The biggest difference between Reloadit and other reload packs are that you can either load them to one of their supporting prepaid cards, or you can load them into an online “Safe.”
The “Quick Load” feature works like loading your bluebird with a VR. You input the number on the back of the Reloadit, and also the card number of the debit card you’d like to load, and the money is instantly added to your prepaid card. The list of cards which support reloadit is small you can use it with Paypower Cards, and about a dozen other prepaid cards including many not shown below:
In addition Reloadit cards can be loaded and used with Evolve Money’s bill payment feature. Big Habitat did a good write-up of this here. As you’ll see later the best way to pay a bill with Reloadit packs is through Evolve.
A Quick Overview of the Safe Service
The reason I’ve been most interested in these is because of the new feature being launching today, the Reloadit Safe Bill Pay.
The thing that interested me most is that if a Reloadit Reload (ugh, that name!) didn’t have to be loaded onto a prepaid card, and could instead be used to pay a credit card bill directly, you could close the loop without worry about your prepaid cards being shut down. I was waiting for the bill payment feature to open so I could test this theory. Unfortunately, using the Bill Payment feature to pay a Credit card not possible.
I still wanted to outline these reload packs because I think it is important to get more unorthodox ways of earning miles out there–especially those which get our CPM down lower. $3.95 for $950 and a Grocery bonus makes this a great way to earn MR. And the new packaging no longer saying “CASH ONLY” which means you’ll have a greater chance at these working for you. If your store restricts Paypower cards but not these packs this might be an avenue you can use instead you might even want to buy a Paypower card with CASH, and load these to it.
I’ll cover some common questions running through my mind, and possibly through yours:
Will you be able to cycle Thousands through Reloadit Safe? Maybe, but only if you find a bill which can be paid. The FAQ puts these restrictions: “There are no limits on the number of packs in the Safe, but you cannot add more than $2,850 worth of packs to your Safe in one day. You cannot have over $10,000 worth of Packs in your Safe at any given time.”
Could you be shut down from Reloadits? What is really odd is that at no point while using the “safe” is your SSN ever asked for. I went through and did a mock bill payment–also no SSN asked. Without that I don’t know how they could blacklist you, but always assume the worst, and plan accordingly. Remember the float rule; your account could be blacklistedblacklist your SSN or address, and leave you stuck trying to liquidate through other means.
Which is Better, Evolve or Reloadit? The payees list looks to be identical to me. Unfortunately with Reloadit Bill Payments there is a $1 per Bill fee. Evolve wins this round.
Your Reloadit “Safe” is not Safe
Remember your money is at no time safe in this system. It is called a Safe, and the money is FDIC insured, but don’t assume it is safe, and don’t assume you can get it back out on your own schedule. Need proof of how unsafe it is to use this service?
For whatever reason the secure https:// version of the site doesn’t work for me. You shouldn’t ever input sensitive information into a non-secure site. In addition you can hold up to $10,000 in this account–but the password used to secure it cannot use special characters.
From here you can load prepaid cards, keeping your Reloadit Packs in the “safe” and using them by logging into the service. As far as I can tell the only real benefit is if you have a bill which can be paid by the Reloadit Bill Payment network. From test searches the payee list looks identical to Evolve’s:
Wrap Up
The Reloadit Reload isn’t a bad product. The price is great, and, as I discussed earlier, you might find that buying them is easier now that they no longer say “Cash Only” on the front.
Separate from the reload packs, there is no real benefit to using the “safe” or the bill Pay feature. The safe is anything but secure, and the bill payment is inferior to Evolve. The whole idea of the safe has me scratching my head a little. Keeping your reload packs on an unsecured website seems like a disaster in the making. I’m using Reloadit Packs–but I’m being very cautious as I do so.