+1. Good approach IMHO.

Some stores staff are complete donkey butts.
Nothing you can do about it but come back later when other people are working. Sometimes its a combination of certain employees that can spark the insanity. There is this guy who works at a late night CVS who has sold to me oodles of times before. Because one shift manager was working he flip the script and started acting like the GC rack was cash only. I looked at him like he had 3 heads or something. Shift manager came by and started saying oh we've never sold them with CC. I reminded this shift manager that he himself has sold them to me with CC many times as well. We went to the back and pretended to consult someone and when he returned he allowed the sale. :rolleyes: When I see either one of them alone I have no issues. When they are together the act like the dynamic cash-only duo. Sad really... All that energy could be better applied to better themselves so they wouldn't have to stand behind the counter.

+1. The bizarre excuses, rationales, and paranoia we encounter never ceases to amaze me.

Kybosh's post bring up an interesting question - do you guys think CVS employees are buying tons of cards? They obviously know what is going on and they have the power to circumvent the system.

Most employees are clueless of MR..and every time I try to buy a VR, I get questioned(by employees that know me well by now) as to why I want to spend $4 in fees to pay bills when I can simply write a check?

Nope, at least not regular cashiers.

A CVS pharmacist in NYC got fired for ringing up thousands of dollars worth of VRs one night for himself @:-)

Really??? Thats awesome!

Meh. That is my MO and it works fine. Mumbo jumbo about keeping money in the account or doing the odd "real" transaction has not shown to keep any of the prepaid gigs going any longer (see Netspend, Accountnow, MVD etc)

The ones rolling in it are the supervisors at Bluebird who can bypass the $5000 monthly load limit :p

Agreed. I think some of the posts above mine are very disrespectful towards CVS employees.

I don't disagree that some employees can be a pain with the questioning (been there) or the rules they seemingly made up on the fly. But ...

The way some people are spending (thousands in one transaction) can and does look suspicious to any outsider (IRS or even any regular person not familiar with BB). The average person has no need/use for BB.

Those folks are just doing a job and it's not the most well paid job or even gratifying job at that. Most of them are doing their job the best they can to make an honest's day pay, and that's a commendable trait. Not everyone is privileged enough to get to travel or can spend lots of time looking for 'deals' when they are possibly working multiple jobs to put food on the table for themselves and their families.

It's common respect and the disdain some of you have for those working at CVS are frankly, IMHO, quite appalling.

/rant

My CVS has plenty of VRs, but has started asking for my ID for any VR purchase. Do we know what they are scanning for? As long as they scan should i just buy the maximum or stick to the $500 and $1000 i normally buy?

If you're buying beans then turning around and paying them off 48hrs later I feel you are doing it wrong, IMO. Buy then deposit into BB then transfer into personal savings account and collect interest until bill is due. It is not much but a few extra dollars a month are always welcomed. In addition buying then paying off right away might attract too much attention.:confused:

Thats fine if you do it that way. Youre still not floating thousands of dollars. None of your cash is tied up.

I thought of doing that but feel that transferring all 5K out of BB to bank account would be more likely to get BB noticing then just using it to pay bills. I do earn 1% on my checking account but think transferring all the money out is a lot of effort for just $4 a month interest on the $5K. Plus I like to get my cards paid off before the statements close to prevent a balance reporting on so many cards.

Parking $$$ in an account until the bill is due is not the best way to churn if you have the ability to REALLY churn. If you only have a BB and your bandwidth is only 5-10k a month then I guess you have no choice.

But if you can make MOs and do Bill Pay then its a waste to have money sitting in your bank. Pay that bill off and churn again as often as possible. Depending on your bandwidth you should be able to churn your CLs at least 2-3 times if you are so inclined. Of course its all about your bandwidth (i.e. ability to churn large sums of money through various means) and your comfort level.