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I have an online virtual debit card which was provided from a company as a refund.

To all intents and purposes, this is indistinguishable from a physical card but I've yet to find anywhere online where I can use for part payment so how to you spend the exact amount left on the card?

I had thought about topping up by an amount so that I could spend the exact amount on my next purchase but that is not an option nor is sending to a bank.

By not spending the exact amount, I'll be liable for inactivity fees and just having any money sitting there doing nothing is not benefiting me but more likely will the issuing company...

Monika
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5 Answers5

65

One trick I've used in this situation is to use the card to buy an amazon gift card for the exact amount you have left on the debit card. You can select the email option so you don't even have to deal with a physical card. Then immediately redeem the gift card and you have a credit on your Amazon account.

Don't know about you, but I shop there enough that that credit balance gets used up before very long.

JohnFx
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11

Paypal allows splitting your funds between multiple cards for some retailers. While it's not universal you might be able to use it if you shop at these through PayPal. Hopefully they will also extend this list in the future.

Based on the DoctOfCredit website the following retailers are accepted as of 3 March, 2022:

List of retailers that allow splitting:

Paypal Digital Gifts
AliExpress
Cashstar
Bestbuy.com
Walmart.com
Target.com

Even for retailers that don't allow splitting you can also try to use your PayPal balance to do the trick, especially if you don't really use your balance over there frequently. As PayPal will first use funds from your PayPal balance and only then from the card selected, you just need to top up the PayPal balance just right (example if you have a prepaid balance of £10, and an item you wish to buy for £25 you need to have a PayPal balance of £15 to get it right). This however needs some pre-planning, especially if you do normally have a PayPal balance, and it's not zero all the time.

SztupY
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5

Some time ago, I had a quantity of Visa gift cards to spend, and found that my ISP (cable TV) provider easily took a partial payment. So, as balances dropped below being easily used at a supermarket, say $10 or so, I just made a series of partial payments and used up the final balances that way.

JoeTaxpayer
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4

Here are a couple of possibilities, which may or may not work in your case:

  • Close it with a tiny balance (pennies) and lose that. Check the closure policies, which may or may not be the same as if you run the balance down to exactly zero.
  • If it can be used in a physical store (phone contactless), many grocery stores can use a mixture of card and cash, or even multiple cards. Restaurants can almost always split bills to requested amounts.
Chris H
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1

Your bank might be able to do a balance transfer from the card to your account. This has worked for me in the past.

Davislor
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