My regular store was all sold out today and when I told her she was shocked! Makes me wonder how widespread this is getting because I have NEVER had a problem there... I could probably get $5k/day and there would still be plenty.

Yes, I agree that the individual purchases is strange. No way to track who is buying and how many are being purchased. This is the info they need to catch actual money laundering lol.

I once did $2500x2 with ID and then $500x5 with no ID. Cashier of 20+ years got a lot of grief and was almost fired. Fortunately I know her and she knows me from my purchases and job (local school teacher), so she had no problem doing that for me. She had no clue she might be fired over it. We laugh about it when I go in to buy $5k every couple weeks.

Agreed, it makes no sense at all. That's why I emphasized this manager is a miserable f**K. I think he's purposely flying under the radar to avoid any issues.

As a follow-up to my original post, I went to another CVS and the manager was fantastically helpful. She actually showed me the corporate policy stating that the daily limit is $5,000 and the individual transaction limit is $5,000 She then proceeded to ring up $5000 in VR cards for me. Because she was so chatty and helpful I hit her with a few questions. The gist is that employees have the discretion to deny anyone a gift card purchase for whatever reason. She's also heard from lost prevention that a few stores locally have been getting hit with fraudulent credit cards so they are incredibly risk averse.

I know EVERYONE has an opinion on this subject, so take this as you would any other anecdote/advice.

As an aside, I asked if she would let me snap a picture of the policy for future transactions and after saying yes she jokingly changed her mine (that would have been a Flyertalk VR god send, LOL :D )

Over the course of 5 hours crisis arose and then crisis averted, LOL.

Agreed, it makes no sense at all. That's why I emphasized this manager is a miserable f**K.

As a follow-up to my original post, I went to another CVS and the manager was fantastically helpful. She actually showed me the corporate policy stating that the daily limit is $5,000 and the individual transaction limit is $5,000 She then proceeded to ring up $5000 in VR cards for me. Because she was so chatty and helpful I hit her with a few questions. The gist is that employees have the discretion to deny anyone a cash equivalent/gift card purchase for whatever reason. She's also heard from lost prevention that a few stores locally have been getting hit with fraudulent credit cards so they are incredibly risk averse.

I know EVERYONE has an opinion on this subject, so take this as you would any other anecdote/advice.

As an aside, I asked if she would let me snap a picture of the policy for future transactions and after saying yes she jokingly changed her mine (that would have been a Flyertalk VR god send, LOL :D )

Over the course of 5 hours crisis arose and then crisis averted, LOL.

This has also happened to me. Incomm is telling me that they are waiting for the Secret Service to respond. Mine is only for $500. I have a problem where I do not know which receipt goes with my OV. I have 2 CVS receipts with each 10 cards on them and on 7-11 receipt. They first denied my claim and I resubmitted it under the same case number and now they are telling me that they got the Secret Service involved. This has been very annoying and time consuming.

I just think the card did not match the package as well. I do not like how you cannot match the card itself to the receipt.

The last 4 digit of your card will show up in the receipt.

Look under the barcode of your card and look at the number next to the "ACTIVATED" on your receipt.

My system of tracking involves taking a photo of the receipt and back of the card, stapling them together and putting them into a monthly envelope that goes into a storage bin.

The picture I file away in my computer in a folder just for Vanillias and I record the last 4, date, and purchase amount into a spread sheet.

Actually, the last 4 digits on the receipt doesn't match the last 4 on the debit card. They match the last 4 digits on the package. I usually throw away the package after pulling out the cards. This time, I paid attention to the receipt and cards, and found out they do not match. It seems that I need to keep the package as well at least before I successfully load the cards.

Deleted.

Went back to an old store where a shift supervisor was on a powertrip. Wife went earlier in the day and bought one with CC. I went when he was at the register and claimed "reloabdables are cash only." I just laughed and said thanks. Won't be going there again; will just stick to the other one within a mile from my house.

For the active cards you can match the expiration dates to the dates on the packages to eliminate those. For my cards there was only one card that I couldn't match, and this was the bad card. The last 4 digits on the receipt match the cards for vanilla reloads, but for onevanilla they only match the package. The card inside does not have any numbers that match the package except for the expiration date for the good cards.

Do you guys all document your ice cream purchases? Taking a photo of each receipt if it's just $1k each time, can take a while. I'm wondering if this is of any use? (sorry just being lazy).

Meanwhile my stores are drying up. The ones dried up already don't restock, and 2 of my favorite stores just dried up today. I had to go on a search and found another one 8 miles from my house.

I keep the receipts until I've used the VRs and the amount has been applied to my Bluebird. I also make a record of each VR purchase in a spreadsheet including the full barcode, redemption code, purchase location, purchase date, and redemption date. I retain the physical VR cards for a little while mainly to see how big of a collection I can build. :D

I've got every receipt for purchase and for GCs, the load at WM. Each card is uniquely coded by me and the receipts have the same code. Separate spreadsheet tracks everything by purchase date, load date, cash back/miles earned, amount spent, fees, outstanding cash float, monthly BB load amounts, etc. Just archived off all the 2013 stuff into a shoe box.

This is probably overkill, but it came in very handy once when I ended up with a scammed GC. I can also see it becoming very tedious if I were to really try to ramp up (I stick with 2x BB in general for right now)

They had plenty of VRs at the CVS I go to today, so I guess they finally got a shipment.

Do employees / managers ask why you're buying "so many" VR's?

My Ink & AmEx Simply Cash arrive this week. I estimate I will need to buy 2K - 3K of VR's, etc. over the next 2 1/2 months to meet the rest of my min spend requirement for the signup bonuses.

I want to shrink my reliance on VR's to meet the min spend. I do a far amount of "stapling" which is why I signed up for Ink (buying their FAR crap) -- and I planned to buy 3rd party GC's at Staples (e.g. Whole Foods, Amazon).

Any tips on how to "start" buying VR's without being flagged by the CC's? Obviously I wouldn't buy 1K of VR's the instant I activate the cards. Only fear I have is the shortage of these VR's.