My debit card doesn't work when I try to order a new phone online.

I am trying to order a new phone through the Cricket Wireless online store. I am using a Vanilla Visa debit gift card as payment. Mind you, the amount on the card DOES exceed the total price of the phone as well as the additional fees required! Plus, I’ve always been using such cards to pay my monthly bill.

The issue I’m having now is, when I’m at the checkout page, I’m using the “Credit Card” option. When I input the card number, expiration date, CVV, and all that, then hit “Continue”, I keep getting an error message saying, “Your card was declined. Please use another payment method.”

Why is this? I think I know what MIGHT be the issue. Where it asks for a first and last name, I tried MY first and last name and still didn’t work. I even tried “a gift” as the first name and “for you” as the last name and that didn't work either. There’s no “name” on this card.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!