maybe use a 2% card like Arrival, Venture, Spark,...etc...;)

+1 Why is it necessary to beat around the bush?

btw txt n nstgrm s now jst 504.95

For me, it varies. I get a feel for the store, cashiers and managers and try to get to know them a bit over time. Often, when cashiers are unfamiliar to ringing up GCs, they can be uncomfortable at first. To me, I am only transferring $3,000. To a new cashier, it looks like an enormous $3,000 purchase. One cashier was even trembling and had to call a manager over for help. Yet, after a while, its just business as usual - "6 GCs tonight for ya?".

CVS: My CVS got antsy around $2,500. A manager said only $2,500 one time. So each visit, I did a $1,000 Serve load and $2,500 in GCs. However, there was one cashier who was so laid back. I don't know if he was stoned or just naturally ultra-chill. Yet, he rang those VRs up like they were candy bars. After $2,500, I said "wait a minute, I'd like a couple more". He was like "Yea, whatever, dude, go for it". So, I grabbed a few more. I tried to get in $4k when he was on the register.

I have several DGs, drug stores and grocery stores in my area I visit regularly. They have gotten comfortable with me after a while. Yesterday, during a manager override, the manager said "Oh, he is okay, he comes in all the time. If there was a problem, it would have happened many moons ago." Yet, these stores seem to have a $500 to $1,000 comfort zone and I don't want to push it. They all know me as the guy that gets 1 or 2 cards. If a stranger walked into my local store trying to buy $2,000 in GCs on CC I guarantee that the managers would be suspicious and diligent.

I really miss Speedway. Man, they sold OVs like packs of cigarettes around here. There were cashiers that would roll their eyes and sigh when I was taking too long to find the right card in my wallet! "Okay, lets speed it up here buddy, people in line". My kind of place for MS!

Are OV GCs still being sold using credit cards at CVS?

Like many things, varies a lot. I walked into a new (for me) CVS, bought $4000 in VR (obviously this was before THE EVENT!) split between two cards, and the cashier had no concern whatever. Since then of course I go back there to buy OV as it seems the most laid back CVS I have been in.

Yes, although a few cashiers or managers are taking the memo to mean OVs, too.

It's worth reading the VR website to see where the cards are sold.

CC fees are not that high on cash equivalent purchases. This is obvious in the numerous retailers that sell GCs for CC - as a business, they wouldn't take a $5 hit per card plus the possible loss due to chargebacks even if they got to take 100% of the activation fee, which isn't the case. CVS, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Safeway, etc. aren't run by monkeys. If it didn't make business sense, they wouldn't take them.

The actual charge for a CC varies upon credit card, type of purchase, whether in store or online, etc. It isn't a flat rate. Swipes average 2% - some are lower like these for cash equivalents, some are higher like for online purchases. All this data is aggregated and the total fee contrived once Level 3 data is passed from the merchant to the issuer.

Even with the above information, after CC fees, CVS made close to nothing per card. Their share of the activation fee covered the fees. They were fine with that in the beginning because it drove foot traffic to stores.

What changed was a massive upswing in fraud toward these cards (see news posting on thefts, calling the store for activations, chargebacks, etc.) and a possible change in what Incomm wanted as their share of the activation fee.

It no longer made business sense to accept them.

cool beans, I bought 5 visa gift cards (not OV) today at CVS with my old amex blue, no paypal cards were on the rack.

Thank you

You're claiming that cc processing and interchange fees are LOWER for cash equivalents? Can you point to some evidence of that?

And if this was rational at all, why would there be such a thing as a "cash advance" fee? Shouldn't that be lower than a normal fee under this logic?

There are plenty of retailers that don't take CC for gift cards, and I don't think their interchange fees are any different. Many retailers sell certain products as loss leaders, hoping to drive sales in other areas.

I don't know if it was a "massive upswing" in fraud. There has always been gift card fraud, and MS doesn't contribute to that. My guess is that while the sale of these cards certainly drove traffic to their stores, those people didn't buy other products, so they could no longer justify the meager margins (or perhaps even a small loss) on them.

I just walk into a new CVS, plop $5K in OV on the table, and say "$500 each please". Only two problems lately. One cashier said "I think there is a limit of $1K", I responded let's give it a try, and if the computer says no, we'll stick with $1K. The computer was fine with $5K. :)

At the other, the cashier mumbled about "excessive spend", but did the $5K load for each of us. When we returned the next night for $5K more each, she said she had to write us up for "Excessive spend", so we just said thanks anyway, and bought them at another CVS down the road. :cool:

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