We tried to keep these short and human-readable. Where lawyers needed specific words, we used those, but the rest is plain English.
By using this site you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, the site isn't for you. We don't require an account, so the moment you submit a balance check or send us a message, the agreement starts.
These terms are between you and Vanilla Gift, Inc. (a Maryland corporation). Whenever you see "we" or "us," that's who that is.
We let you look up the current balance on a prepaid Visa, Mastercard, or similar gift card. You give us the card number, expiration, and CVV. We forward that to the card issuer's lookup service and show you whatever they return.
We are not the card issuer. We don't hold your funds, we don't process transactions, and we can't change anything about your card.
For any of the above, contact the card issuer directly. The number is on the back of your card.
Use the site for what it's for: checking the balance on a gift card that belongs to you, or to someone who has asked you to check on their behalf. That's it.
Things you may not do:
If we believe you are doing any of the above, we may block your access without notice. If we believe you are committing fraud, we may share information with the affected card issuers and with law enforcement.
We show you what the card issuer returns. We do our best to keep the connection reliable and fast, but the actual balance is whatever the issuer says it is, even if our page shows something different (which can happen if there's a delay, a recent transaction, or an issuer outage).
If you see a balance you weren't expecting, please confirm directly with the issuer before making decisions based on it.
We aim for high uptime but we don't promise it. Sometimes the site is down for maintenance, sometimes an issuer's lookup service is down, sometimes there's a network problem. We don't owe you a refund or credit for downtime, because the service is free.
The site, its design, code, copy, and trademarks belong to Vanilla Gift, Inc. You may link to any of our pages. You may not copy substantial portions of the site or scrape its content.
Trademarks of card issuers (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) belong to their respective owners. We use them descriptively, as the law allows.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
That paragraph reads in capital letters because lawyers say it has to. In plain English: we try our best but we make no formal promises.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of your use of the site is limited to $50. Yes, that's small. The service is free, and a $50 cap is the simplest way to say "we can't be on the hook for the contents of someone's gift card."
We are not liable for indirect, consequential, or incidental damages. We are not liable for the actions of card issuers or merchants.
If you use the site in violation of these terms and someone sues us as a result, you agree to defend us and pay our reasonable costs.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute that can't be resolved informally goes to the state or federal courts located in Baltimore County, Maryland, and you agree to that venue.
Before you sue us, please email support.vanilliagift@gmail.com. We've never had a dispute that couldn't be sorted out over email.
We may update these terms. When we do, we update the date at the top. If the change is meaningful, we put a notice on the homepage for at least 14 days. Continuing to use the site after the notice means you've accepted the new terms.
Email: support.vanilliagift@gmail.com (one address for everything — legal, privacy, support, press).
Vanilla Gift, Inc.
1101 N. Calvert Street, Suite 405
Baltimore, MD 21202
USA