3V paypal giftcard review DO NOT BUY

[tiggercats]

What an absolute pile of poo

The front of the mounting card says

Check out faster with paypal. Load your paypal account and spend on ebay

On the back in a reasonable size font it says

You can use this gift card to load your paypal account then shop online at ebay or wherever paypal is accepted

Then there is a whole load of small print about expiry time and fees. But what it fails to mention on the card is that you have to go through a tedious registration process to get a visa number, expiry date and ccv code, then you have to add that card to paypal where they rob you of £1 for authorisation (refunded after 10 days). Only then can you use it on paypal and only for something that costs the same amount or less than the value of the card. You cannot put the amount towards something and pay the difference and you cannot add the funds to your paypal balance.

I have 3 £25 vouchers and went to buy a bike seat to take LO out but I'm currently in limbo waiting for my 3 x £1 to be refunded and then I can begin trying to get all the money in one place. If you want to transfer one balance to another card there is a £1.75 fee, if you want to transfer it to your bank it is a £3.50 fee. The cheapest way round it seems to be sending a paypal gift to someone and getting them to send it back to you, that way I'll only lose £1.05 per £25 in fees and will end up with the money in my paypal balance.

If you want to give anyone paypal funds then just send it gifted.

 

[TomJ]

Have to agree with earlier review that this pre-paid VISA card is a bit of a con. The registration process is tiresome. In the fine print it says you get charged a £2 monthly administration fee evey month from the 9 month after purchase unless you have spent all the credit! (What a rip off - what costs does the card provider suddenly incurr if you dont use your all your card balance after the 8th month?!) If you want to spend via eBay and you already have a Paypal balance then you can't use this card as the funding source until you have a zero Paypal balance. Also you have to register it on your Paypal account as an additional credit card - tedious. Then there is the potential problem of how to use up the whole balance, on say, a £50 gift card e.g. buy something online for £47.99 and then you have to find something for £2.01, unless you can find a retailer that accepts partial payments from various cards. I managed to get rid of the balance on my 3v Paypal card by using it as a conventional credit card (not via Paypal) and paying my water bill online with it. I paid the remainder of the water bill with another credit card. And of course watch out for the card losing ALL of its balance after 12 months - what a nice money making scam eh?! And it all begins with someone innocently thinking they are doing you a favour by buying you a simple gift card. Never again. The £2 monthly fee appears described as A2A ONLINE on your 3V online statement, and there is no advice on the 3V website as to who this is so you have to work it out for yourself.