In my experience escalation to a manager is not necessary because usually the cashier will call a manager. In instances where a manager is not called but cashier refuses, usually it is better to walk away. However, if you know the management is friendly to your activity it can be worth it to ask for management. It can also be worth it to ask for management if there is nothing to lose (IE it's not just one rogue cashier but all/majority of cashiers refuse transactions).

This is all YMMV on a daily, hourly, minutely basis. Bought MOs twice at one of my WMs this week with no issue whatsoever. Went in yesterday and all 3 CSRs freaked at once at the exposure of my VGC. You'd think I dropped my pants. I put the card in my pocket and walked away.......not mentioning the other 2 times this week I've bought MOs without issue there.

Seen similar situations at other stores shortly after a staff meeting concerning fraud prevention.:cool:

WORD.

I prefer to just walk away and try again another day rather than waste my time and energy when I encounter someone obviously power-tripping. One thing, though, I take note of the power-trippers and stay away from them. I'm glad I can unload 80% of my GCs to VIPs at DG where power-trippers are rare, IME.

To me, that is a debatable action only because of my limited opportunities to MS in my area and I never want a transaction to not go through. I'll just whip out a couple of my real debit cards and complete the transaction if necessary and just eat the $.70. I also never order a $2000 money order, but instead just $1000 or $999.30. THEN, if everything goes smooth, i say "I want to do that exact transaction again". Yes it costs an additional $0.70, but it limits my exposure and gets the attendant focused on doing it again.

For those that say they are eating $500, THAT SEEMS INSANE.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...alkinabout.jpg

I posted this question in "Buying MO at Walmart" thread, but perhaps this is a better place for my question.
Assuming getting MOs is not a problem, how do you dispose of them? I am doing on average anywhere between 10-20K a month. I have a CU account where I slowly and steadily deposit around 10K a month. I used to send the rest directly to my credit cards as payments. However, I recently got a phone call from Amex customer service asking me to stick to "one form of payment" (they said that I could pay by MO but it has to be just one MO, not multiple). So it gave me pause.
Now I am not sure how I should dispose of the MOs - deposit more than 10K per month into one account? Open several accounts and deposit smaller amounts? The advise I get is often conflicting. I wish to avoid shutdown by my bank yet avoid "structuring" as well.
How do you guys dispose of your MOs??

Whatever you do, diversify. Your government preaches diversity so have multiple channels open at all times to recycle paper. Take your MS more seriously than Equifax takes security over your Social Security number. :rolleyes:

As a contrary point of view, step up you deposits to your CU and do all of it through them. When I'm on my game and not slacking I'm depositing ~50k MO per month to my local CU and pulling payment from the CC directly from the CU checking. If I'm slacking, I may only do 30k

That gives me hope! I only do up to maybe 25K/month max. I try not to spend the deposited money right away, I do avoid depositing 10K in any 7 day rolling period, I even have a saving account with the same CU where I deposit anywhere from $50 to $200 each time I deposit MOs into my checking.
Anything else I can do to prevent future "attention" or even shutdown?

In my limited 3 yr experience with CUs, I prefer to get a call from their RMG early on so I know exactly where I stand regarding my MO deposits. I read people's advice about having good relationships with the teller but for me, cordial relationships with tellers and branch managers have NO bearing on RMG decision when one's account gets flagged. The BM even told me they cannot override decisions made by the RMG, they have to comply and close accounts of "valuable clients".

Therefore, it is best to keep in mind that NOT all CUs are the same (but all of them have *RMG or LPD); one's experience with THEIR CU has no bearing on YOUR experience with yours. YMMV. One has to do their own thing with THEIR CU and hope for the best. This is my opinion, fwiw.

RMG/LPD = risk management group/loss prevention dept

If your CU has several branches in your city, does it affect you if you make your deposits in different branches? I often do it for convenience sake, depending where I am and where is the closest branch. I figured - since it's the same CU and same account - it makes no difference. But now I wonder...

Best to use one branch and develop a good rapport with your tellers.

Well said. With any kind of volume, you WILL get a call from the RMG. How that situation is handled will determine if you get to stay with them.

Depositing money orders and structuring/suspicious activities
 

You should be concerned about the feds more than a bank closing down your account/s with them. So both, but I'd be more concerned about the feds.

To avoid raising structuring flags, some people do over $10K deposits per transaction on purpose (as opposed to, say, $7.5K one time and $3K another time a few days later), others just deposit the MOs as they come along (per MS trip/day, etc). Opening several accounts and spreading the deposits in an attempt to avoid being flagged would probably raise more flags with Feds (and possibly banks' own risk departments depending on what data they have access regarding outside accounts) on top of being more work.

I am not sure there is a solid advise out there on best practices to avoid trouble so to speak, and the situation would vary on our individual circumstances. A lot seems to revolve around MO being considered cash for reporting purposes in regards to structuring and similar suspicious activities. So are they? Some say yes some say no, some say it depends. From some online searching:

- This person makes the argument MOs aren't raising flags as cash would regarding how most of us use them (VGCs > MOs > paying back credit cards).

- (with the obvious caveat of taking people's anonymous claims for what they are worth) This person claims to have worked for the fraud department of a big US bank and supports the argument that banks aren't gonna worry much just because you deposit MOs totalling under or over $10K.

- This other person claims to have worked for a bank and seems to advocate structuring-like behavior to avoid routine bank reporting on what this person consider innocent miles-related activities. My common sense tells me to absolutely not follow this advice. Structuring is its own illegal activity, you don't want to be in a situation where your best chance of not being prosecuted is for a specific law enforcement officer/entity to decide not to pursue the case because you don't seem to be doing other illegal activities in tandem with structuring, or at the time. You wouldn't want to attract that kind of fed investigative scrutiny to begin with.

- This person (see comments above the one linked) claims to be a lawyer and former federal prosecutor and strongly advocates against structuring. They seem to make the point that feds will perceive something to be structuring if done seemingly intently, i.e. you have over $10K of cash or cash-equivalent at hand and don't deposit it all at once to avoid reporting. So it doesn't seem like it would be a problem if you deposit MOs at < $10K intervals within a few days if you didn't arrange it that way on purpose.

Also regarding whether or not MO is seen as cash in this context, this 2012 article says:

Does that article cite any official source?

As an accountant who handles the filing of BSA paperwork in a retail store, I once ran into a situation where an auditor tried to nail me for not having a CTR on file (BSA forms are filed electronically, but company policy requires a paper copy on file as well for CYA purposes) for a transaction that was over $10K but did not involve any cash (money orders only). The company's legal dept backed me up and told them that because no actual cash changed hands, a CTR was not necessary.