Financial Transaction Report for GC Purchases of $2,000 Plus?
 

Yesterday I bought 10 x $200 Visa GCs at Office Max. This was one more than I'd bought previously at an office supply store. The manager was called over and filled out a Financial Transaction Report including my personal information and a very general description of the items purchased ("gift cards"). He said this U.S. Government form is required for any purchase of financial instruments totaling $2,000 or more, and you can't avoid the form by backing out of the purchase once the manager shows up. The manager also said he fills out these forms all the time for corporate buyers.

Anything to beware of here? I was thinking these GCs should be deposited to my wife's BB account. She has separate bank accounts, so that should pose no problem.

A few people reported having to do the same thing during the OM promotion of $10 off of Visa/MC GC.

Since you are not using fake credit cards there is nothing to worry about. This was started as lot of fake credit cards were used to purchase GCs. So for $2k+ they will have your info and in case your card turns out to be fake they can then track you down with the info your give them.
This is just a security precaution to prevent fraud. So nothing to worry about since you made a legitimate purchasae

If you peruse the OMax store policy, they reserve the right to take down info for gift card transactions > $2000. Nothing to worry about. I'd bet the reports go straight into a box in a warehouse somewhere.

Depending on how much you value your privacy, try and keep it under $2k and normally I have never gotten one filed even with obvious structuring. They're supposed to copy down each and every serial # down for the gift cards etc. Few managers I've dealt with hate the paperwork and will give you the 3rd degree. Others are a lot more understanding.

I purchased $1,500 in gift cards at OfficeMax a few weeks back and the cashier started whispering something into her mouthpiece. She eventually got frustrated with the other person not understanding her and she yelled out to her manager "What's the limit for when we have to file a report?" The manager walked over and said "It's below $2,000 so no report needed."

I'm curious. What do they mean you cannot back out? If you just leave the store will you be arrested and under what charge? Or will they just file an incomplete report on you?

More like you cannot reduce the amount purchased to avoid the report.

You certainly can back out by not buying anything and they would not fill out any paperwork.

The one way they can make you fill out the report is if they have your card in hand, since they might not return it to you without one.

Yes, it happened to me as well as OM, apparently $2K or above requires filling out the form. I just hand over my DL and had the cashier/manager fill out the form. IMO it is not a big deal.

http://images1.fanpop.com/images/qui...54_408_300.jpg
I AM smiling...

They tried to get me to fill one of these out at my grocery store for buying 2K in GCs. I told them they should have told me about it before they made the sale to me.

Idk if OM is the same, but at this store they wanted my name, DL #, address, social and some other meaningless info. Basically everything you need to steal my identity.

I wasn't about to fill out the form and give it to Joe Schmo the high school kid with a summer minimum wage job. Idk what they do with these reports and Idk who sees them. I was not about to give them all that info.

I wrote down my name and address and left.

Kroger's high dollar GC ID check policy is a lot less intrusive. When you check out they ask for your DL and enter the number in the register. They dont ask for name address and all that. Cashiers could care less about all that stuff. Just enter in the info as the register requires.

Not sure what the max amount is to trigger this but I would always by 1k and the register would ask for DL #.

The Kroger stores in my area do it for any gift card purchase over a hundred dollars. It starts to get rather annoying.

It happened to me during the OM $10 off few weeks ago... in my case the first day the supervisor asked how much are you buying because we have to file a report above certain limit (refused to tell me the limit on that day),ended up not filing the report because it was less than $2000 I believe...But the next day went for more....about 6 or 7 $200 cards...the cashier calls the same supervisor who talked to me the day before and sates that since I'am about to buy more than $2000 worth of GC (CUMULATIVE) the report needs to be filed so I refused to fill it out and just walked out...
This could be store specific (or manager/supervisor) YMMV though..