I’ve been MSing VISA gift cards from my local Tom Thumb and converting to money order by using it as a debit card at my local Kroger to hit the $15K annual spend on the Hilton Surpass. I’ve done it on and off over the last 2 years, most recently in August.

However, when I went back today, the vanilla VISA gift card isn’t registering at all when I swipe it. I thought maybe Kroger’s POS software now prevents VISA vanilla gift cards from being used to buy money orders? Seems like it’s just blocking it. But from seeing posts on here, it’s actually an issue with the gift cards?

It is a Vanilla VISA, says distributed and serviced by InComm on the back.

When I try the balance feature online on the site, it keeps saying error. When I call in and check, it shows $500 balance.

edit: tried to buy a bag of chips, the card reader isn’t even reading the card when I swipe. So the cards are definitely locked down somehow.