Answers to the questions people actually ask.

Three things: the 16-digit card number on the front, the expiration date in MM/YY format, and the 3-digit CVV on the back. That's the whole list. We don't ask for an email, a phone number, or a zip code.

Sort of. We rate-limit at about 30 checks per IP per hour, which nobody hits in normal use. If you somehow do, the form will tell you to wait.

Sometimes. We support cards issued by most US-based prepaid providers, which covers nearly every Vanilla, Visa, and Mastercard gift card sold at US retailers. Cards issued in other countries usually come back as "Card not found." We're adding regions slowly. EU support is in the works for 2026.

A few possibilities, ranked by how often it actually is each one:

1. A digit was typed wrong (this is about 60% of the time, honestly).
2. The card hasn't been activated. Some retailers don't auto-activate at the register; check your receipt for an "activation confirmed" line.
3. The issuer's lookup service is briefly down. Try again in 10 minutes.
4. The card is from a region we don't yet support.

On the back of the card, in the small panel next to the signature strip. It's the 3-digit number. Some older cards print it inside a tear-off panel that has to be scratched off first.

It's the date the physical plastic stops working. After that, you can usually call the card issuer and they'll mail a replacement card with the same balance, at no charge. On most modern prepaid cards, the money itself doesn't expire, only the plastic.

Yes. Most prepaid gift cards just print "Gift Card" or leave the name field blank. You don't need to put your name on the card to use it.

That said, some online merchants will reject a transaction if the billing zip code on the card doesn't match the shipping address. You can register the card with a zip code on your issuer's website (the URL is on the back), which fixes this.

Most US-issued Vanilla cards work only in the US. The card packaging will say "for use in the US only" or similar. If it's not on the packaging, assume it doesn't.

Usually yes. It depends on the issuer. The two common ones are:

Purchase fee. A one-time fee paid at the register when the card was activated. Typically $3 to $7. You don't have to pay this; the gift-giver already did.

Monthly maintenance fee. Kicks in after a period of inactivity, usually 12 months. Typically $3 per month. The fee schedule is required to be printed on the card packaging.

Almost always the monthly maintenance fee. Check the back of the original packaging. If the dates and amounts don't match what's on the packaging, call the issuer with the card in hand and ask them to walk through the deductions.

Almost never. Standard prepaid gift cards are single-load. Reloadable prepaid cards exist but they're a different product, even though they can look identical on the outside. Look for the word "reloadable" on the back of your card. If it's not there, it isn't.

Call your card issuer (the number is on the back of the card) and ask to dispute the transaction. Have these ready: the date, the dollar amount, and the merchant name as it appears on the charge.

Dispute resolution takes 30 to 90 days. We can't help with disputes from our end — we're a balance checker, not an issuer.

Three usual reasons:

1. Billing zip mismatch. The merchant requires AVS verification and your card isn't registered to a zip. Register it on your issuer's website first.

2. Pre-authorization hold. Gas pumps and hotels pre-authorize more than the final charge (a gas pump often holds $100+ before settling for the actual amount). If the hold exceeds your balance, the card declines.

3. Recurring billing. Many subscription services reject prepaid cards by design.

This is usually a pending pre-authorization that hasn't fully cleared yet. Some merchants (especially restaurants, where tips are added later) hold the original amount and then settle the final amount a day or two later. Wait 48 hours and the balance should stabilize.

We can't, and we want to be honest about that. We don't have access to your card account, we can't freeze the card, and we can't reissue one. Call your card issuer directly. The number is in the original packaging or on the issuer's website.

Most issuers will replace a lost card with the remaining balance, though some charge a small replacement fee (usually around $5).

You can usually still recover the balance if you have either the card number written down somewhere or the original purchase receipt. If you have neither, you're in a tough spot.

One option that sometimes works: if the card was bought at a retailer with a credit card, the retailer can sometimes look up the gift card number from the transaction record. Bring the buyer's credit card and the rough date of purchase to the customer service desk.

If you can read even part of the number plus the expiration date and CVV, your issuer can usually pull up the account from those. Call them with the card in front of you and read off what you can.

No. The card number you enter is held in memory just long enough to forward it to the card issuer for the balance lookup, then discarded. We don't write it to disk and we don't log it anywhere.

The only thing we keep is a daily count of "balance check" events, for capacity planning. That count doesn't include card numbers or anything that could identify a specific card.

One first-party cookie for site preferences, and only after you change a preference. No third-party analytics, no ad pixels, no Facebook tag, no Google Tag Manager.

Server-side request logs run for 14 days for debugging, then get deleted automatically. The logs include IP addresses and request paths but never card data.

Two regions: us-east-1 (Virginia) and eu-west-1 (Ireland). We route requests based on your geographic location and we don't move balance check data across borders.