The way today's rebates are awarded via a prepaid virtual card / like it or not

I'd definitely rather receive a rebate via paypal or venmo, not just because of the annoyance of using up the virtual card. It cuts into credit card rewards too.

I do a bunch of rebates and get a bunch of these cards. Tips to get rid of them:
- never had an issue using the exact amount online to pay my internet provider (Optimum) or Verizon in the past
- as the OP said, Amazon gift card (prepaid card has to be worth more than $1). Other sites typically let you do custom gift card amounts and you can load them to your digital wallet (walmart and target)
- I typically use them on medical bills online, yeah annoying to use 10 small value cards towards a bill but processing them for an exact amount is easy and usually the minimum transactions are low ($5 or less).
- Some apps allow split payments (NJ Transit does this) or paypal I believe has a split payment option too for select retailers.

I put a post it on every physical prepaid card with starting value and then just list the transactions on the card so I always know the balance.
 
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I put a post it on every physical prepaid card with starting value and then just list the transactions on the card so I always know the balance.

I haven't had a prepaid Visa (either a reimbursement or rebate) where I couldn't access the balance through my account. I think most also have a phone number to call to check the balance.

My only complaints about some of these were the monthly fees, although they might take a while to start. If I had one I just made sure to use it up, although I think there were some that I held onto for six months. Maybe one I didn't completely use, but it might have been less than $5 left.
 
I haven't had a prepaid Visa (either a reimbursement or rebate) where I couldn't access the balance through my account. I think most also have a phone number to call to check the balance.

My only complaints about some of these were the monthly fees, although they might take a while to start. If I had one I just made sure to use it up, although I think there were some that I held onto for six months. Maybe one I didn't completely use, but it might have been less than $5 left.
Yeah true you can just check the balance online or call. I also do the post it for the physical cards so if I am in a store I make sure there is enough on the card and all the charges are "real" - similar to balancing a checkbook.
 
My main issue with the prepaid cards is that (unlike store gift cards) they don’t take the full card balance off a transaction that’s larger than the card balance. Instead, they just decline entirely. That is, a card with $49.99 left on it won’t apply any of those funds to a $50 purchase (opposed to a gift card, which would apply its available balance and leave the outstanding amount to be paid by another means). Using the last bit on the card seems to be a pain - I’ve had luck prepaying inside of gas stations for the entire remaining balance, then pumping exactly the value of the prepaid card in fuel. That seems to be the easiest way to take it to zero value. But this requires you to keep track of the balance, which is obviously more complicated than just using a bank’s mobile app to deposit a check, which is then entirely fungible.

I’m not the biggest fan of them compared to check-based rebates, but free money is free money.
I actually have found from experience that Walmart and Lowe's can do a split payment, where I have said to apply $xx.xx to the charge, and whatever's left on my CC. But no question it's a pita. I do agree with everyone a check, is preferable, but that seems to be a thing of the past...and as mentioned my rebate tends to be spent on amazon, even though it was a prepaid debit card either MasterCard or Visa...

again noteworthy was that the card expires in 6 mos, and must be claimed in 3 mos...both stacking the odds against the recipient...
 
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