Where I live in the US we're not permitted to buy these with cash. We don't have to provide any identifying information to activate but we cannot legally purchase them without that link to the original card purchase.
I am not aware of any states where you cannot buy non-reloadable visa gift cards with cash at values up to $500. Reloadable ones are the ones that often require KYC.
I do this all the time in California and have in other states as well.
If you are sure your state bans non-reloadable visa gift card purchases with cash I would love to find out what state to research what is going on there.
I think check into Illinois and New York. As far as I know it’s not possible to acquire visa gift cards (non-reloadable) for even $100 without activation which results in implicit linking to some identity.
