Vanilla Gift Card $1.525M California Restitution Settlement — $15 or Full Loss

What Changed Recently?

The restitution fund opened for claims on October 23, 2026. It settles a lawsuit San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed in San Francisco Superior Court in November 2023, alleging that non-reloadable Vanilla Gift Cards were sold in cardboard packaging that thieves could open and reseal to copy the card number, so balances could be spent before the rightful owner used the card. The lawsuit also alleged that InComm improperly denied refunds to people whose cards were drained. InComm denies the allegations.

This is not a class action. The San Francisco City Attorney brought the case on behalf of the People of California, and the City Attorney’s office oversees the fund. Money left after valid claims and administration costs goes to the City Attorney’s office for future consumer protection work.

Who Qualifies?

The notice sets five criteria, and a claimant has to meet all of them:

• Be a California resident.

• Have bought a non-reloadable Vanilla Prepaid Gift Card in California between November 1, 2019 and September 30, 2024, or have received one as a gift (or otherwise lawfully acquired one) that someone else bought in California during that time.

• Have been unable to use some or all of the card’s balance because of one or more unauthorized transactions.

• Believe the unauthorized transactions came from someone tampering with the card’s packaging.

• Not already have received a refund from InComm for the money lost on that card.

People who live outside California, or whose card was bought in another state, do not qualify. Someone who asked InComm for a refund and was denied, or never received a decision, can still claim.

Where Would Someone Have Gotten a Vanilla Gift Card?

Vanilla Gift Cards are prepaid Visa and Mastercard debit cards sold by InComm in fixed amounts, usually $10 to $500, with a one-time purchase fee. According to the City Attorney’s complaint, they were sold at retailers throughout California, including Safeway, Target, Walgreens and CVS, typically on gift card racks at the end of aisles, and online at vanillagift.com. Many people who qualify never bought one themselves: a card received as a birthday, holiday or work gift counts if it was bought in California during the covered period.

The settlement covers non-reloadable Vanilla Prepaid Gift Cards, the kind sold in a cardboard sleeve with the dollar amount printed on the front. The complaint describes InComm’s OneVanilla card as functionally the same product, but the settlement notice names only the Vanilla Gift Card, and reloadable cards such as MyVanilla are not non-reloadable cards.

How Much Can You Get?

The fund totals $1,525,000, including administration costs. What a claimant receives depends on how much documentation comes with the claim:

• Complete Proof of Claim: the full value of the lost funds reported, with no limit on the number of cards.

• Incomplete Proof of Claim: up to 75% of the lost funds, depending on how much documentation is provided.

• No Proof of Claim: a flat payment of up to $15 per card, for no more than two cards, so up to $30 in total.

The fund pays proof-backed claims first. If there is not enough left to pay $15 on every claim without proof, those flat payments are reduced; claims with proof are not affected by that reduction. Online claimants can choose payment by Venmo, PayPal or check, and mailed claims are paid by check.