I've always gotten a Visa gift card from my bank (for free as a customer) and then paid my annual VIP fee. Unfortunately, my bank doesn't sell them anymore so I bought one from Walmart only to find the fine print on the inside says it's not good for international transactions explaining why my transaction was denied when I tried.

The Vanilla Visa MasterCard gift cards can be used for international transactions, and since they're processed as a CC and not a gift card you won't lose any value

So which is it, Visa or MasterCard?  The two don't mix ... .

Same here,  I just tried a visa card (I think it may have been vanilla,  but didn't work. ) Money orders are a hassle ....

And it was declined. It was not for TER but I tried the vanilla because I read about it on TER. Someone said it would work. Well it didn't, and that was 4 years ago.

2012 was the last year you could use Vanilla Visa for overseas purchases. Federal laws were passed to prevent it. To get a prepaid Visa for international use you have to give ID and a SS number.

I was in a store and I forgot to look ... many prepaid cards used to say "For domestic USA payments only" or "Not for Int'l transactions" or some kind of wording like that.

Looks like using gift card and losing some value is only option for me if I want VIP back then. I guess I'll have to think of it as inconsequential in scheme of things although it's almost like knowing I paid 350 when she has another ad for 250/hr running simultaneously.

I had the same issue, figured out a work-around:  I told a single friend if I wanted to buy something online that I didn't want my wife to know about, and asked if I could give him cash and use his debit card.  I used my email address in the transaction so the confirmation came to me, and he later told me it showed up as some generic item on his statement.  It's worked twice now, so well that when I went to renew, I realized the secure pay server was ready to go - I could have done it and not even told him.  (DON'T DO THAT!)  Just find someone who trusts you enough to let you give them cash and use their debit card, and be sure to use your own email address.  Good luck!