Today i bought a $25 dollar Vanilla Visa Prepaid card. Today i tried to use it to purchase the game XIII. When i tried to use it, it gave me an error and made me retry. It did not work. I then created a Paypal account with the card.... and then it still would not let me get the game. I registered the card online. Can anybody help?

Is that card unlocked for international transactions?

Edit: If it is US only, then you could try this: Charge your Paypal account with money from the gift card (click on "Add funds" in Paypal to see how), then buy the game in GOG and pay with Paypal. The first transaction (from the card to Paypal) should work since it's a local transaction for you. The second one should also work because once the money is on Paypal, Paypal doesn't care any more about "US only" restrictions. However, this is _only_ a theory so far. I suggested it twice to people in similar situations, but have never gotten a feedback whether it actually works.

it does not say that its locked. i have used this type of card on Steam and it works fine.

Steam would be a local (national) transaction for you.

I edited my previous post with a suggestion, you can decide whether it's worthwhile to try it out. :)

What was the exact error message you got?

i am currently trying your suggestion.

This was the error massage i got.


There was a problem processing your order
notdeadyet01 your payment attempt was declined, which typically indicates that you input the wrong credit card information (please double-check it) or that your bank automatically rejected the transactions for some reason.
Please note that If you use your credit card through PayPal, the problem should be present as well, as though you used the card directly on our site.
Some banks automatically reject all international transactions (we're based in Europe). In such cases you should contact them and ask them to allow transactions with us. If you wish to do so, please use "GOG Limited" and "www.gog.com" as reference. You would have to confirm that you wish to make a purchase from us. This should only be required for the first transaction and the rest should go through normally.
Other possibilities are:
the card doesn't support online transactions (and can only be used in shop terminals and ATMs)
the card isn't activated or set up to allow online transactions
the card doesn't support international transactions at all (this is the case for many debit/prepaid/gift cards)
the card doesn't support transactions made when you're abroad (if that is the case)
(very rare) the card requires using the 3DSecure (Verified by Visa / Mastercard SecureCode) service, which isn't used on our service.
If contacting your bank doesn't help, there are two possible workarounds:
Use a different card (if possible)
Send funds to a PayPal account beforehand (under PayPal's My Account -> Add Funds) and then use that account to make a purchase on our site. PayPal typically only allows users to add funds directly from a bank account, rather than from a credit card. This will allow you to you avoid any credit card-related payment problems.


Edit: well the paypal thing did not work. its not a big deal i guess. i will go look around to see if there is another place i could buy the game.

What error did you run into when you tried to attach the card to the paypal account?

Hmm, seems they got a pretty informative error message - I can't add anything beyond that. Keep us informed whether the workaround works (though the error message indicates that adding funds directly from a credit card might not work).

same thing

Paypal gave you the exact same error GOG did?

I think SirPrimalform meant "What error did you get while trying to add funds to Paypal" - not sure though.

@SirPrimalform: As I understood it, _attaching_ the card to Paypal did work, but paying for the game afterwards didn't, and adding funds directly from the card didn't work either.

http://creditcards.lovetoknow.com/Visa_International_Prepaid_Debit_Card

There are pre-paids specifically for international use. This might be your best bet.

Question - have you activated the card (dumb question :)) and tried to make a purchase with it from somewhere else (online or in person) ?. Not sure how it works in US, but here in Australia pretty much all VISA and Mastercard prepaids are pretty much the same - should be able to use them on and offline (as long merchants ur buying for support using these cards).

I used to have a Wal-Mart prepaid Visa card I used strictly for online transactions. Something I noted was the fact after the money is gone, or even just put aside for the coming transaction, it won't be released until the payment is fully complete. Meaning, they hold the money until it passes completely through, which could be a few days depending.

I know these places have an online option allowing you to check your balance. If I'd have to wager, I'd say that's probably the case here. Though I'm not 100% certain, in any case I'd look to see if there is an online transaction history/status page for your card. Once found check, (or heck even call Customer Service), and see if they are holding the money until it clears or if you even had any left.

As a secondary note, those things are more of a hassle than you think. On the Wal-Mart one, it charges you a fee of $3.00 every month, just for having the card. Secondly, they charge you $3.00 on top of what you want to reload it with. For instance, if I want to put $20.00, I'll actually need $23.00 instead. In the end it was a hassle, plus even if the card is completely empty they still charge the $3.00 monthly fee. In the end the fee's add up and it's in the end, not worth the hassle, at least for me anyway.

Still, hope this helps you out, and if this isn't it, then please tell us what was going on.

Online merchants usually try and pre-authorize the card. So if you had a $15 card for example, if you try and spend between $14.01 and $15.00 it might fail. I know Amazon likes to pre-authorize $1 dollar and then try and deduct the rest. If there's credit left, you get that dollar back and the transaction goes through. If not, it fails.

In the specific case of the OP's Vanilla Visa, this card is no good for international transactions. All of the other posters have given good advise that unfortunately neglected that important point.

"You may use your Vanilla Visa Card anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted within the fifty United States and District of Columbia; however, it does not include the territories of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. The Vanilla Visa Card cannot be used at merchants outside of the United States, including the Internet and mail order/telephone order merchants outside of the United States."

PayPal is likely to refuse it, too. This from PayPal admin Adrian, whom I've dealt with before:

"At this time, we don't recommend adding pre-paid debit or credit cards, as they seldom pass our stringent security measures. Even if they do, and the payment is later refunded, we're required to send it back to the card - which can be a problem for you if you have since discarded the card.

As for using the card you have to purchase another gift card in store, that will be limited by the terms of conditions of the card you have, the merchant you are purchasing from, and the terms and conditions of the card you are purchasing. You'll want to check with each."

If the card issuer doesn't allow international transactions, and PayPal won't allow it on your account, you are SOL.

"Visa. It's everywhere you want it to be." NOT.