Brugge

That's what I'm planning on doing. Which is why I'm not waiting to see if Kate recovers. We are doing a RB "card run" this weekend, and need to close BB in time to register RB, get the permanent card, and load $5k each at Target before the end of the month. So between BB and RB we will do a total load for $20K this month for the two of us.

Thanks to SW companion pass and SW points, we get to go to Santa Fe for a long weekend, and pick up RB in Albuquerque on the way. Staying in some rather inexpensive IHG properties since my wife's IHG promo offer was a simple stay twice get a free night anywhere. Those 2 nights in New Mexico get us a free night in Hong Kong at the Intercontinental this Feb, which would otherwise cost $350 USD. I just love the miles and points game.

Then next month, no more driving to Kate, no more OV fees. We have a new Target literally one mile from home. That will be sweet.

I just have to make it thru both of our BB loads at $49.99. Loading at Target, for as long as it stays the way it is now, will be easy peasy.

rtraveler

The Intercontinental HK is supposed to have a pool with a nice view. My family stayed there this year and they loved the location. Have fun on your vacations!

Brugge

I've never done MOs, and didn't want to put in the work to figure it out for just one last month of BB.

If I'd known that Kate wasn't going to work, I wouldn't have bought the OVs, and probably would have driven to Simon instead. But Kate was working fine the last few days of the month. Since CVS put in the $2K per day limit, we bought $4K of OVs the last two days of Oct to be ready to load on the 1st. So I needed to get those processed somehow.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

dcpilgrim

I tried OV on Sunday, to check it for myself. Gave up after 3 swipes. I would have pushed a bit more except all the data points (thx). Dumped it through evolve rather than running the $49.99 marathon.

mbaker4096

OMG. You poor thing. Crazy that there was no sign that the OVs were going away.

prasha11

I still do not understand the obsession with OV, is it because Meta and US bank not available to some? only few people keep this thread going endlessly! If you dwell here, u are missing out other MSing opportunities.

commdiver

OV is better because CVS carries it. CVS is better than grocery stores for MSing because they do not have Nazi-like logs and generally are open to MSing. When I hand $5,000 worth of GCs to a grocery store employee, they look at me like I am some crook. At CVS, the "worst" reaction I get is "You want $500 on ALL OF THEM?!" followed by a "Ok, let's see if this works."

craz

I think the $1 less in fees $4.95 instead of $5.95 has alot to do with it, maybe not for you but for most folks. Also the OVs doesnt have 'GIFT CARD' in bold letters written all over it.It looks alike more like a reg DC would. At times when I was asked to show the card and it was a OV the cashier said no problem, never heard that when I had a reg GC in hand

ericdabbs

The more I do OVs, the more I think the extra $1 is worth the price for paying at grocery stores just because its easier to unload at WM. Ever since the workaround not being reliable for 1 swipe, I beg to differ than the majority of folks still value that extra $1 per card for savings in exchange for playing the 50/50 game.

The problem is what @commdiver eluded to which is...grocery stores look at you like a crook when you want to buy $4-5K of VGCs at a time compared to 3 letter pharm store which may or may not bat an eye when you want to do the same amount. I would gladly pay an extra $1 if it meant I only had to do 1 swipe instead of multiple swipes at WM or have to drive around to FDs to dump $500/time. With grocery store VGCs, you can even do split payments at WM to load at BB/Serve but I would not dare try to do split payments with OVs since you might get lucky once for the first $500 but you might run into issues with too many swipes to unload the 2nd $500 and have to cancel the entire transaction.

Stoughton

Not everyone has access to qualities of non Vanilla branded cards.

On a really good day, I can buy $2k in non Vanilla. (w/o having to drive an hour)
Every day I can buy $10k-$15k in Vanilla

prasha11

My experience at the grocery store is easy, they have known me for a long time (some of them are for 15/20years) I get 10 cards each time, initially they were surprised (with a smile) I told them I get airline points, they go that makes sense! I use the same few cashiers, now no one even checks my ID, and if I go to Albertsons they need to over ride the 2nd card scan and all after that. all appreciates the business with a smile! I have problems only at WMTs because cashier positions are not stable

$1 for 25/35 cards monthly, makes a difference, but the aggravation is not worth to me, when I am using AmEx with 5% cash back. Most cashiers at MC know and ask for the name on the card, when that happens I wish I had something to print my name on it, I also thought of starting a name printing service 'personalize your gift cards'

Brugge

From this thread Oct 28th:

From this thread Oct 29th:

From this thread on Oct 30th:

Are those the signs you were talking about?

If there was an announcement the last week of Oct that OVs would cease to work as of the 1st of November, please tell me the number of the post.

So yes, I did my due diligence. I checked this thread the last few days of Oct, and the reports were very positive. I also read on the CVS thread that things were tightening down. Wanting to get our last monthly load of BB done while the loading was good, and having a new CVS limit of $2k a day, I bought a bunch of OVs to load as soon as Nov 1st hit.

By the way, I'm not whining. I'm doing what I need to do to get our Nov BBs loaded to the max. We're going to get $20K of MS done thru BB and RB this month. I'm fine with that. If Kate were working normally, that would be better of course. But truth be told, if I were to drive around collecting a Simon card here and a Meta card there, instead of OVs, it would take way more time and gas than just loading $49.99 takes.

And making me feel better than fine is that all of this is helping to pay for a Singapore Suites Class trip to Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong this February. Followed in July with AA FC to Europe for a month. With a high floor room in Nice with a balcony directly overlooking the ocean thanks to Club Carlson.

Brugge

^ Tru Dat

mplst

No go 2 different stores 5 swipes, both the new keypad and old.

It also seems a credit card transaction less than 50 does not require a signature, I'm sure somehow that has to do with why the 49.99 works.

jrweaver912

Around here it tends to be the opposite CVS likes to ask all the questions. First they want to scan my id, then they ask how i'm paying, then they want the card to verify the last 4 (admittedly they have been doing this for a while).

The grocery store on the other hand never bats an eye. "You want to do $2k each on 3 cards? No problem". Only issue i have with them is their insistence on writing down my drivers license info when I buy over 1k in MO's at a time.

But in the end it works out well. I grab OV from CVS or walgreens to unload there and grab metabank there + some simon from the mall out that way to unload at WM.