what msg did it show / print?

Thanks. The CSR likely aborted the transaction when they noticed that I swiped the card. No receipt was printed out; they had to call the supervisor to reset the register. The VGC loaded without any problems at another WM though.

Invalid Tender or Invalid Card
There was a big thread on reddit about this a while back. It seems some WM MC terminals (not all the terminals in the same WM) got an "update". We're still not sure if it's JUST Metabank VGC and ONLY with Serve (there were some DP suggesting BB still worked). Same WM MC, the POS also prevented using Metabank VGC for money orders.

But another WM a few miles away worked.

I just noticed the email sent June 21 regarding statement for unactivated S approved on May 21. Received this card end of May and did not activate. Just came from vacation so I compared it my other sleepers that remained unactivated (these were approved way before the May 21 shutdown) that did NOT receive any statements. I decided to activate this card so that I can load it to the max until the next wave comes. I intend to load the full amount for this month until Sunday.

This is odd that statement was generated for un-activated card. I had a card not activated, then received notice (email?) stating that if I do not activate the new card, the new card would be closed.

Going forward, I'll just keep 2-3 cards active. BB/Serve is very labor intensive for MS. I'll only use them when I get stuck with some cards that I can't easily get rid off.

Are you loading and then closing the following month prior to the card being axed?
Or are you just loading and then repeating until the card is beheaded?

Odd, indeed! This card was approved the same day of shutdown and I'm puzzled why I got the statement when it is (was) in sleep mode while all the other derivative cards from early this year does NOT generate statements while on sleep mode. I decided to maximize use just in case it gets are axed even with zero/minimal load. I'll still let the other cards sleep to serve as back ups.

I don't max out 2 months then close acct based on reports of blanket SSN ban; I have different use for axp cards now so I activate only 1 at a time, load the max each month until the next ax falls. Hopefully, the next one will be over a year from now.

The old trick of "cut and wash" is no good. Even you MS with just one card, your SSN will still be banned. You are just left with the cards AmEx does not catch. A one year inactive card can still be banned.

I expect the next ax cycle going to be another 1.5 to 2 years away.

a friend's BB & S inactivated accts i helped open last month got the stmts as well, although no warning email that accts will be closed if not activated or such...

I got banned back in the first ever bluebird purge. Since then, I haven't had time to engage in or research other manufactured spending options. At the risk of offending those who more religiously follow this thread, is there a reasonable chance that I might be able to open a Serve account now despite getting banned back at the time of the first purge?

u can try... won't hurt; if still banned, will get the msg like 'unable to open...'

I'm very new to MS and bought a Vanilla VGC from WM. I've found a hard time liquidating it since WM in Dallas does not accept debit for money order and many online billpay sites do not accept Vanilla. Does anyone know if I can load Serve with a Vanilla VGC? In the future I'll be avoiding these and focusing on non Vanilla VGC.

test & see; worked in the past may still work now or no longer

I suggest you do LOTS of reading. Vanilla does not work at WM as debit. Registers are hardcoded. Other Visa/MC brands work fine at WM as debit.

Yeah I thought I had done a lot of reading, but learning that I didn't quite do enough. Vanilla is now my enemy.

Thanks for the help, definitely going to be taking it slow.