Potentially sheer genius. I need to research it but you may be right. Thx.

Adding a data point from SoCal. Just bought a OV, went to register it on the website and am also getting the "Internal Error" message. Will wait a few hours and try again.

just use the vanilla visa site to check, they are all linked to the same DB.

data point- i had purchased OV last night and had the internal error. i checked earlier today and i was able to see the balance on the OV site..went to wallie world and loaded to BB with no issue ....Katy, TX here. i bought OV long time ago before i knew about VR but oh well now i can continue this hobby but wtih an added step of wallie world...which is not a big deal for me , the one i went to today was on the way home, took me 4 minute to be in and out. don't MS too much but do pay few bills and need some money to pay for college for the summer.

Thank you both for your replies and suggestions. I tend to use ATMs since I deposit often on weekends and after hours due to my day job and a young child usually in tow.

Glad to hear that this isn't some change on Moneygram's part and just confusion by the bank. Most likely due to the faded ink like you mention. My local Walmart just got a brand new money order machine and the ink is so dark purple it's almost black, hope that lasts for a while!

Thanks again!

Going in to the branch on Wednesday to hopefully get this cleared up.

CVS Violating Merchant Terminal Agreement?
 

For the business owners on here, has anyone questioned the validity of a company determining cash-only purchases?

According to my merchant agreement for the privilege of accepting VISA/MC/AMEX/DISC/JCB/etc, a merchant cannot—with some VERY minor exceptions, e.g. US Government, universities, other select non-profits, etc—impose restrictions on what items they are willing to sell by card, while classifying others as cash-only.

So long as a consumer presents a card from the major card networks accepted by the merchant, said merchant cannot refuse the presented form of payment; otherwise, when reported and investigated by the network that polices merchant adherence, said company/proprietor/etc is subject to revocation of said privileges, which would cast them back into the 1960’s.

So, is CVS an exception to this (alongside, Walmart [whom I’d imagine leveraged their immense buying-power to amend ANY contract their engaged with], Dollar General, Office Depot, and the slew of other merchants that impose this rule, not for the “fraud” purposes the cashier monkeys and their supervisors tout [because that’s what they’re told], but the REAL reason: high merchant discount rate fees for processing transactions because the cards being used [bonus/perk/high-status cards, e.g. VS, WM, WEMC, AMEX, plus the protections and affiliate bonuses that all increase the card processing fees imposed unto the merchant by their merchant acquirer])?

This is the company’s problem. It’s part of their cost of doing business and also the reason they cannot—save for those aforementioned minor exceptions—pass those terminal fees through to the consumer as a surcharge.

If these companies do NOT have some special exception, EVERYONE should start filing complaints with VISA/MC/AMEX/etc to get these guys in line, and in doing so, should those respective companies refrain from selling the product going forward to stop the bleeding (which they have the right to do as a company), then that’s on them, but it’s a legitimate end, not some blatant violation of an existing agreement they’re bound by.

I'd like to imagine I'm not the first person to point this out, OR am I COMPLETELY missing something?

NegotiatorRogerSmith, I am not sure if you are correct, but even if you are, none of the CC issuers will do anything. Why would they yank the acceptance of their cards from CVS? They would lose billions in swipe fees.

NRS I'm sure there are some exception categories, for example cash equivalents... the reason CVS moved to cash only was because incomm the company that provides the VRs raised their cut of the transaction (by raising their card fees charged to CVS) so ofcourse when it wasnt as profitable for them to sell, they switched to cash only.

Is this known for a fact? Just curious. I figured it was because of the rampant fraud, but that is just my guess.

I'm sure that was a factor in the decision too, but usually the CC companies eat up the fraud liabilities, so not sure what CVSs exposure to that side would be apart from providing the *service/ability* to those perps.

the raising of the fee structure by incomm was noted on the infamous memo.

this also leads me to believe the service provided in the backend is by incomm -- which makes sense of why Serve was switched to cash only loading as well. because for stores that sell certain reloadable products (in my area atleast), for example greendot products are also *processed* or loaded/activated by incomm apparently when I looked at the transaction receipt.

Not sure about nation wide companies but our local small businesses accept cash only all the time or even if they do accept CC, they never accept Amex.

First of all, there is no way of knowing whether these companies have a special exemption. The contract between CVS (or its acquirer) and Visa is proprietary business information, and is not available to anyone else.

With that said, even if the contract requires them to accept cards for all products, Visa has no incentive to do anything about it. It is similar to when stores require ID or impose non-permitted minimum purchase requirements. Feel free to complain all you want, but Visa does not care. They get millions in swipe fees from these stores. They aren't going to bother.

Can Vanilla Reloads be purchased with a credit card at CVS? Million Mile Secret web site said it could (showed pictures with arrows) but just want to verify.

Why not read wiki before asking?

Went into a CVS last night and politely had to explain to both the cashier and the shift manager that OneVanilla was not on the list. They both were 100% sure that it was but I mentioned that I had bought them since the memo and the manager verified. Then when I was trying to pay with Isis (for bonuses) the manager freaked out and said they had to see the card. I tried to explain that that takes away from the point of having a secure Wallet on your phone but she wasn't having it. (I guess she was just put off from the start with the young woman buying 1 grand in gift cards and pointing out she was wrong.). I mentioned that I understand different stores have different policies and thanked her for her time. I kindly walked out the door and drove to the next CVS a few miles away. (But then Isis started having issues and I ended up not being able to use it.)

I also saw someone in line in front of me buy a Moneypak for $150 (or w/e) with cash. I rarely see the people that use these products for real life reasons. (I saw someone buy a Walmart Moneycard last week too.) I always want to inform this people about Bluebird or Serve (for real). These products are far superior IMO to other prepaid accts for people who actually needs them. Free cash reloads and no monthly fees to name a couple of reasons.