Originally Posted by Happy

4 offices so far, including one corporate owned location. The first 2 told me the same thing as the last one that I posted, they all mentioned "the region is not allowed to sign up non-customers" without telling me what exactly the "region" is, until the 4th office manager who told me it was the SE States though I doubt the correctness of this broad "region". The manager of the 4th office just returned from another office further east towards the ocean - so that means it is no point to go that side of the town.

At the 3rd office one of the tax advisor actually tried to sign me up and we went all the way to the screen where electronic authorization signature was needed and he told me to scroll down the page on the little device where I could sign - the system then frozen and disconnected. He went to ask his co-worker what happened - the co-worker said the function was blocked - they were no longer allowed to sign up customers who did not use tax services. Undaunted, this gentleman called their help line, and was told the same thing. No more card issuance for people not using tax service. The next open to public period is November this year.

The last office told me that it would be Emerald Advance - in that they "advance" you some money before you get your tax refund money, when signing you up for the Emerald card...

Also apparently the offices around here are all connected - i.e. calling each other on suspicious walk-ins, as the last office's manager chatted with me on how crooks were going to literally all offices around town.

It would be nice to have the Emerald card since MVD no longer works.

However since there is no problem getting the VGC which is plentiful here, the advantage lost when not able to get Emerald card is not too bad - it is the extra buck paid on VGC versus VR, and of course the easier method of liquidation, plus the cost saved on the liquidation. Basically at $7K a month, it amounts to $17 in total. Local WMs actually not too bad. I was the only customer today at a MC for my 6K MOs on the AS card. After that I bought some groceries and had a good time on price match. The WMs here will do price match from any stores that have a printed ad. Great for BOGO items. ;-)