Quick answers to the questions that come up the most. If something here does not solve your problem, scroll to the bottom for contact options — or just enter your card details and check right now.
Go to the homepage, type your 16-digit card number in the top box, the expiration month and year in the two small boxes, and the PIN in the last field. Press Continue. A green box with your exact balance appears in about 15 seconds. The tool works with any Visa, Mastercard, or Vanilla prepaid gift card sold in the United States. You do not need an account or an app.
On a physical card, flip it over and find a silver or gray scratch-off strip. Scratch gently with a coin — pressing too hard is the most common way people destroy the digits. The 3-digit code underneath is your PIN. Vanilla cards place this strip near the signature line. Some cards print 'Security Code' or 'CVV' instead of 'PIN' — it is the same thing. On e-gift cards, the PIN appears in the same email as the card number. If the scratch-off is damaged beyond reading, call the issuer at the phone number on the card back. They can read it to you after verifying your identity.
No. This site charges nothing. The issuing bank charges nothing either — a balance inquiry is a read-only request. It does not deduct funds, does not count as a purchase, and does not appear as a transaction on your card. You can check as many times as you want.
They are deleted immediately. When you press Continue, your card number, expiration, and PIN travel through a TLS-encrypted tunnel to the issuing bank, which replies with your balance. Once that result hits your screen, our server discards every byte of card data. Nothing is written to a database, a log file, or a cookie. If you are skeptical, open your browser developer tools after a check — you will not find your card number stored anywhere.
Yes — same form, same steps. Open the email from the retailer, copy the 16-digit number, the expiration, and the security code, and paste them into the fields on the homepage. One gotcha: some retailers show only the last four digits in the email for security. If that is the case, log into your account on the retailer's website or contact their support to get the full number.
Almost certainly an activation problem. Retail gift cards must be scanned and activated by the cashier during your purchase. At self-checkout kiosks, people frequently forget to scan the activation barcode on the card packaging. The store charged your payment method, but the card itself was never funded. Take the card and receipt back to the store — they will complete the activation in seconds. No receipt? If you paid by debit or credit, the store can often trace the transaction by your card number.
The funds cannot legally expire for five years from purchase, per the federal Credit CARD Act of 2009. But the plastic card itself may have an earlier expiration date stamped on the front. After that date, the card stops working at merchants — but the money is still yours. Call the issuer and they will mail a new card with your remaining balance. Good to know: California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and a handful of other states ban gift card fund expiration entirely, regardless of the five-year federal floor.
If a gift card sits unused for 12 or more months, the issuer can start deducting a monthly fee — usually $2 to $5. Federal law prohibits fees during the first 12 months after purchase or last use. The fee amount and schedule are printed in the Cardholder Agreement that came with the card (most people throw it away — check the issuer's website for a digital copy). The easiest way to reset the clock: check your balance on this site. On most cards, a balance inquiry counts as account activity and pushes the inactivity timer back to zero.
Email us directly — we reply within two business days. Or try the balance checker — seeing the actual result often answers the question.