hdlz

I pay $3500 mortgage each month

gloreglabert

Some people need to have their phones taken away.

DCBob

+1. The OP obviously does not know when to say no.

the_jaguar

I made a $3K+ payment couple of days ago, but I am still waiting for the payment to post. I don't foresee any issues though.

jsgoldbe

Paid mortgage for first time with BB this month Was a little nervous, but made sure the transaction completed in enough time to have a backup payment ready if needed.

I have enough other bills to pay with the BB that I don't need the stress of waiting to see if my house payment is good. Not to mention, you cannot set up recurring payments with BB, whereas I can with my mortgage.

iqbalt80

Sent over 1600 to my citi biz and over 2400 to my chase bold.. was there within 2 days. no issues.. first time sent the payment..

kdinino

Paid rent no problem, paid spg amex all have taken a few days. No issues here

JRV62

Made 3 or 4 payments in the 3-4k range plus I have paid my mortgage the last 3 months w/o any problems.

Hilbe

I called my credit card company and the charges never hit their system. There is something wrong with the CVS authorization system in regards to my card and many other FT users as well (scan previous pages). I called to ask why my credit card is being accepted on some days and being denied on others with the "use alternate tender" message. Simple as that.

People need to chill out. I posted the message to let the other users know I had reported the problem to CVS.

TheBOSman

Instead of simply giving another as I'd normally do (and still want to in truth, and I would do the same if I met you in person, so don't think I'm simply hiding behind a computer), I will attempt to explain why this community does not view that as a good idea.

You have told CVS, in effect, that you are buying VRs on multiple occasions weekly. On some of these occasions, your card is not being accepted. What you have done is gotten a human, someone in CVS corporate, involved. Everything of this nature is done with as little human involvement as possible from the party involved (in this case CVS). Human involvement, in the past, has not ended well. You have alerted CVS that you are buying multiple VRs weekly with a CC. CVS may not know that the same person is purchasing multiple VRs weekly, but now they know at least one person is attempting to do this, and have a record of a conversation with this person.

What they may decide is that this is not something they want to have happening. You've also caused a human, who gets paid money, to look at this issue. This increases the costs to CVS of selling VRs, and accepting CCs for said purchase. There is a point where accepting CC for VRs will not make sense for CVS; both its other large red pharmacy counterpart and Office Depot have decided that accepting CC for VRs does not make sense. In OD's case, they have stopped selling VRs completely, and have recently done away with all higher value gift cards.

You feel that the solution to your issue that CVS will give you is "fixing" whatever problem is preventing you from purchasing VRs in the rapid succession that you are. This community fears that the solution may instead be to stop carrying VRs or to limit CC purchase. This has happened in the past, and will happen in the future. Whether it will happen here is unsure as always until widespread reports come flowing in (as the first person to report here that OD stopped carrying VRs I know that all too well, and I found out the hard way by driving 25 miles to my closest OD).

With all of these, there will be problems that arise. The best course of action is to wait, be patient, and try again later. Calling risks blowing it up for everyone, most particularly yourself. We cannot prevent you from calling, so if you called, and it somehow led directly to this shutting down, we cannot have prevented that. However, you could have.

Hilbe

I probably should have mentioned I do shop at CVS for other items as well. It gets rejected by CVS regardless if I'm buy 2 VRs or if I'm buying valentines day items.

Lifehacker running the story on the whole BB + CVS/VR thing didn't seem to cause any issues, so I've got little concern as to having them look over my purchase history for 2 or 3 months impacting anyone but myself.

TheBOSman

Perhaps get a replacement physical card from your CC company first then, maybe there is an issue with the magnetic stripe not being read correctly by the register.

84fiero

I'm not sure how CVS corporate is going to "look into" your purchase history. At best they may call the store and do a perfunctory "you guys having issues with your card readers/system?" However as TheBOSman described very well, specifically alerting a CVS corporate toad to multiple, short-timeframe VR purchases at best will not solve your specific card issue and at worst, may be one of the straws that breaks the camel's back.

Human involvement increases the risk even more if the person you speak with, or someone else who becomes involved, fancies themselves a "fraud buster", or corporate hero. You know the annoying kid in school that had to snitch on the other kids - even if nothing was being done truly wrong? Well, those kids didn't disappear, they became adults who have the same attitude!

What's done is done, but you need to think long-term benefit vs. your immediate annoyance. Why not try a different card? A different CVS?

That's entirely possible, even if the OP only has trouble at one store. I had a card once that gave me fits almost every single time I used it at Kroger. Not a problem at other places. I just called the card company and said the mag stripe isn't being read properly when I make purchases. Easily got a replacement, no cost, no fuss.

Hilbe

The lady in CS on the phone was immediately able to see my purchase history on my credit card after I gave her the #.

The problem is not my card. I use it everywhere without issues since it is my primary card. The problem is with CVS. I have about 5 or 6 CVS within 5 minutes of my house. All of them will "alternate tender" me on that card. As mentioned, other users in this thread have the exact issue with certain cards at CVS giving the "alternate tender" message. Nobody has posted a "I'm able to use it again" post that I recall.

I have probably bought 4 or 5 VR on this card total since November, mostly due to the message in their system. It's not going to set off any alarms since I have been using the Chase, Citi, etc. cards instead. However, it's my biggest reward card and tied to a lot of payments online, so I would prefer they get it fixed.

mizzou1

I receive that message using one of my cards whenever I try it in two CVS. The same card works in other CVS and other cards work in those two CVS.