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Problem loading Bluebird with Vanilla Visa GC

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Old Nov 15, 2013, 2:29 pm
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Last edit by: ChrisFlyer66
As of 6/19/2014, Walmart does not accept debit transactions above $49.99 from cards issued by Bancorp, namely Vanilla Visas (OV, VGC, etc.). Attempts result in "Alternate Tender Required," "Debit Not Available," and/or some other error message, at both registers and the Money Center Express (MCE, kiosk, Kate, ATM).

There is no workaround.
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Problem loading Bluebird with Vanilla Visa GC

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Old Jun 19, 2014, 7:43 am
  #601  
 
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Originally Posted by FindAWay
Originally Posted by psone
Went to load bb, serve, BP. All failed. Done a million times. Alternative payment method required. Tried multiple OV cards. Multiple registers. These agents are as surprised as me. They see me often. Anyone else?
+1 datapoint with OVs. I tried registers first then Money Center (change payment seemed to work...went all the way to entering PIN and looked normal...until alternate payment method required popped up).

To add - the cashier was as surprised as me and gave me the error receipt - it says "Debit Not Available Appr. Code = 94" (after a first line that I assume includes identifying information).

I always tried $500 per swipe...maybe $100 or less works per speculation in other thread.
Update - I tried the same OVs at a working Kate (never seen this one operating before!) this morning for BB load amounts between $50-$99.99 and all went through on card 1 (draining the $500). When I tried card 2, it asked me for my PIN twice before giving me the "tender not available" error; so, I may have mistyped the PIN when I set it (since it asked for the PIN a 2nd time before deciding and since card 1 worked).

Or, I hit a swipe limit? Per datapoint below:

Originally Posted by nandemo1
Got onto a Kate as soon as the store opened this morning and did 7 swipes at $99 each before it gave an error on one of the cards. I'll go back later to finish them off but hopefully this gets resolved.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 7:51 am
  #602  
 
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Originally Posted by met152
Confirmed. Had problems with BP and loading at Kate. Same card worked mins later at grocery for MO.
Could you tell me which grocery take GC for MO? Thanks!
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 7:58 am
  #603  
 
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Originally Posted by karenfly
Could you tell me which grocery take GC for MO? Thanks!
Not to be a jerk but your question is irrelevant to what we are trying to solve. Either PM the guy or search locally, YMMV depending upon location.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 7:58 am
  #604  
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Originally Posted by karenfly
Could you tell me which grocery take GC for MO? Thanks!
not to be rude but people need to stop posting specifics on here.

Best way to figure it out is to get in the car and drive around and find out. then dont post it here!
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:01 am
  #605  
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Originally Posted by karenfly
Could you tell me which grocery take GC for MO? Thanks!
since the chains are regional in nature your best option is to simply write down all the different ones within your area , stop into each and ask at the cs desk. Its really no different then buying the cards some stores of the same chain were always ca$h only or set their own max, same with MOs I know where stores within the same chain dont offer it while others do

If I tell you Lou's has MOs and at $.49 per $500 what good does that do you if you dont live in Fairbanks
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:01 am
  #606  
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as posted in another thread:

The key people is that we all just shut up.

I am certain the Bancorp people and others read the blogs and threads like these.

I am certain that when they do, they sit there and figure out what we figure out and quietly and smugly thank us all for babbling it out in here.

If we want to continue this craft we need to stop talking about it so much. It needs to be more in code, more underground, more in PMs and emails and less in public with specifics. I have been saying this for a long time in many places but many people just keep on blabbering thinking, nahhhh it cant be! MM's crazy!

And then things die and they are like, gee, I wonder why that happened?

Alternative cards and places to burn them should also NOT be talked about or else those too will go away.

I am serious and if people doubt me, those people are naive and wrong.



Bancorp makes money on people who use their products for many small transactions. What we do, while perfectly legitimate, renders only ONE transaction. The minute you buy the card and put a certain highest amount on it, they know what you are going to do, and they don't like it. I do not like how they operate but that's what they do. It's their model. And what we do is against this so they want to stop it.

They will eventually get to the other places that are alternates to WMT and then you will see the same thing happening there. Slowly it will take place. mark my words. Sure, the PIN feature will be available but you wont be able to use it anywhere we need to use it for what we need to use it for.

We have to put a stop to the yapping in this thread, the CVS one and the PIN available one and the OV one.

Cant anyone see the correlation between our increased traffic on these threads and the decline of use of these cards?

Did the giant Bancorp have a conversation with the giant Wmt? I have no idea. No clue if that's even doable or if both sides would cooperate. But something happened and now the result is you cant use this product like you used to do.

We have to do whatever it takes to prolong our craft and do less of what it is that makes it fall apart.

The choice is all of ours.
We have all been guilty--myself included.

We must stop!
NOW
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:04 am
  #607  
 
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Originally Posted by Marathon Man
not to be rude but people need to stop posting specifics on here.

Best way to figure it out is to get in the car and drive around and find out. then dont post it here!
That or share it via PM...a lot of this is location specific and the best advice is what Marathon Man suggested. Sometimes "feet on the ground" is the best method to finding out which stores in your area will sell you MOs with a debit card.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:09 am
  #608  
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Originally Posted by bmrisko
That or share it via PM...a lot of this is location specific and the best advice is what Marathon Man suggested. Sometimes "feet on the ground" is the best method to finding out which stores in your area will sell you MOs with a debit card.
the problem is a lot of people want the goods but aint willing to go out and do the work for themselves.

Sure, it would be nice if a few friends from say, different regions or parts of the country all chatted together to share ideas and what works and what doesnt (that's what I do by the way, and in a few different such groups) but what happens to some is that they dont yet have these networks or are not willing to try and set them up, so they instead rely on the work of others to just tell them what to do and how.

This is bad. What's wrong is that people DO share the ideas and tips and dont realize that they are posting their findings that they worked on for nothing in return. Not that they should get like compensated or anything, but rather, why give up everything YOU know just so some lazy ... person can thrive off it?

Also people stop getting creative and stop figuring out how to do things on their own. That is bad too.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:13 am
  #609  
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Originally Posted by CtownMilesAddict
Actually, I've been wondering about this for some time now, ever since some Wal-Marts have tried to stop us from using gift cards despite the system allowing it. Do they really lose extra money on swipe fees for VGCs? Since a PIN is used, it is processed as a regular debit card on Wal-Mart's end, and the swipe fees on PIN Debit are pretty small (unlike credit swipe fees, which is why CCs aren't allowed for these types of transactions). In any event, if they are willing to accept regular debit cards for loading/MOs and pay the swipe fee, then how are VGCs different? They are processed on the exact same PIN network, as a debit, and so should have identical swipe fees, so I'm not sure why Wal-Mart cares about processing them- unless I am missing something?

Either way, if this is the workaround- boy, is that stupid, because it will cost them MORE with all the extra transactions. I can't believe they're that dumb... maybe the law doesn't allow them to reject these GCs but does allow a transaction limit, and they don't realize that if they impose it we'll still keep going and their fees will go UP?

The other explanation is that this is all just a mistake or a glitch, and in a few days all will either be back to normal or dead completely, without the <$100 workaround. Time will tell.
21 cents per swipe, plus 0.05%. The percentage doesn't matter when you do 1 x $500 or 5 x $100. The per-swipe certainly does.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:15 am
  #610  
 
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Originally Posted by Marathon Man
the problem is a lot of people want the goods but aint willing to go out and do the work for themselves.

Sure, it would be nice if a few friends from say, different regions or parts of the country all chatted together to share ideas and what works and what doesnt (that's what I do by the way, and in a few different such groups) but what happens to some is that they dont yet have these networks or are not willing to try and set them up, so they instead rely on the work of others to just tell them what to do and how.

This is bad. What's wrong is that people DO share the ideas and tips and dont realize that they are posting their findings that they worked on for nothing in return. Not that they should get like compensated or anything, but rather, why give up everything YOU know just so some lazy ... person can thrive off it?

Also people stop getting creative and stop figuring out how to do things on their own. That is bad too.
I agree to an extent. While I know this is taking the thread off-topic, yes I have benefited from the works of others on this forum and some blogs, but I have also gone out around town and tried to find other places that don't get discussed here on FT. It is always good to have back-up locations to purchase MOs in case another method gets shut down. I can also understand why people are hesitant to share methods as it increases the risk of being discovered and shut down. Similar to how a lot of power sellers on eBay and Amazon don't talk about their golden geese. Many of us thought Kate was too big to fail...well she hasn't completely failed yet, but she is sure making it more difficult for a lot of us.

Now if a good virtual method of washing OVs would just come around...I've been racking my brain and trying different things, but haven't come up with a solid method yet.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:21 am
  #611  
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Im gonna guess at why wmt may not be liking gc swipes for mos...

Note that other gc types and products may still work but I will bet that OV is the most used type...

Maybe they fear things like that this debit card is not named and there could be fraud. Or there have been charge back attempts, or too many people are taking up resources (store time and staff time etc) so they are doing whatever they can to discouragr people from doing the craft.

Not sure, but I can tell you there are a lot more people doing this at the large retail chain than there used to be
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:23 am
  #612  
 
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Originally Posted by Marathon Man
not to be rude but people need to stop posting specifics on here.

Best way to figure it out is to get in the car and drive around and find out. then dont post it here!
I have tried several and could not find any grocery that will do it with GC. Do you think I will ask if I have not tried?
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:23 am
  #613  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
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has any1 ever got a "transaction denied" msg while using kate?
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:27 am
  #614  
 
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Originally Posted by karenfly
I have tried several and could not find any grocery that will do it with GC. Do you think I will ask if I have not tried?
Maybe change your question. "Can I buy a MO with a DC?"
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:29 am
  #615  
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Originally Posted by karenfly
I have tried several and could not find any grocery that will do it with GC. Do you think I will ask if I have not tried?
Well lemme put it this way... And Im guilty of it in this post:

The words "grocery store" and mo/gc really shouldnt be posted on any of these threads or blogs if we all want this crap to be here say 9 months from now.

That said, in some towns or cities or states there just aint none that work.

One thing I had done at one point was to actually FLY to other places where a friend lived and MS there for a weekend! Just keeping in mind that such activities are best kept small and stealth. You dont wanna like decend like flies on someone elses world and kill it for them either.
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