After my late night research this is correct. FT is the authority on M$ all arrows eventually point to FT.

It's a game changer for people who do this method. Read 2 posts up from yours, apparently mall GCs that are not Vanilla cards also do not work.

My own view is that this is temporary. I'd be hesitant to edit the wiki at this point.

The snag in rationale for me is that the merchant contract Walmart signed with Visa has stipulations on Visa acceptance. They can choose whether to accept cash, credit or debit for a transaction but I don't believe they can choose to reject Visas issued by a particular bank. That's the whole point of the Visa association: universal acceptance. I expect this to be restored in a future POS system update.

In the meantime you may wish to file a complaint with Visa:

https://usa.visa.com/checkoutfees/contact.jsp

Are there additional reports/data points that any non-Vanilla cards are blocked.

And if Walmart says "No", Visa will cancel its contract with Walmart? This is like issuers telling you that a foreign multinational abroad MUST accept your US swipe card. If they don't, and you complain to Visa, nothing changes.

Also, even if the threat DID work, Walmart would probably go cash only for these things

This is a bancorp problem with government regulations and nothing to do with Visa or Walmart. Eventually it will be rectified.

There are remedies short of canceling the contract. I can think of about 5 billion reasons Visa might like to countersue WalMart.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A2Q2BJ20140327

Which of the following merchant violations do you believe are occuring here? (PS - keep in mind that when you use a prepaid Visa card, you agree to the T&C of the card. Have you ever read those?)


The merchant added a checkout fee, or payment card surcharge, to your purchase for using your Visa Debit or Visa Prepaid card (NOTE: U.S. merchants are permitted to add a checkout fee to credit card transactions under certain conditions).

I was assessed a surcharge greater than 4% of my purchase.

The merchant added a checkout fee to your purchase for using your Visa Credit card without disclosing the surcharge at the store entry or point of sale, or without providing the final surcharge amount on the receipt.

The merchant required a minimum purchase amount on a Visa transaction that exceeded $10 (NOTE: U.S. merchants may require a minimum purchase amount on credit card transactions that does not exceed $10.)

The merchant required a minimum purchase amount on a Visa transaction that was made with a debit card.

The merchant displayed an improper Visa acceptance mark, did not display Visa signage or displayed Visa signage but refused to accept your Visa card.

I agree it will eventually be corrected but thought the Bankcorp issue was only in their reloadable pre-paid products. Do you believe this is just sloppy programming attempting to segment those products?

Nope reread the story. It isn't only reloadable cards. I doubt there was any programming changes at all on Walmarts part.

Bearing in mind that a surcharge and service fee are not the same thing.

Thanks. That's very interesting. I can google but a link would be much appreciated for the discussion.

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2014/.../#.U6b81xZZJ0A

Not sure. Still reading this as reloadables.

“With respect to general purpose reloadable card activities, the bank shall not establish any new prepaid card program or issue any new prepaid card product, or establish any new distribution channel for existing prepaid card products,” the decree notes. The decree also places similar restrictions on the bank’s future credit card merchant-acquiring activities and the third parties it works with providing those services, including independent sales organizations.

I'm interested in other's thoughts.

How about my question regarding whether you've read, agreed to, and have abided by, the T&C of the card in question?

I have but you'll have to be more specific if there is a provision you believe impacts this action by WalMart. What do you assert?

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...collapsed.aspx

According to Bancorp's SEC filing, the FDIC has restricted the bank, until further notice, from issuing nonbenefit reloadable prepaid cards and from any automated clearing house transactions for merchant-related payments.