Feb 3, 2017, 11:18 am
Last edit by: vagrants
This is a new thread for 2017. The previous discussion can be found here.
Moneygram does not allow mobile app MO deposit regardless of whether or not the bank allows it. However, this policy doesn't seem to be enforced. You can still deposit via ATM or in person.
Banks that allow Money Order deposits via Smartphone
Allow MO deposits via Smartphone:
Do not allow MO deposits via Smartphone:
Allowed Via ATM:
Moneygram does not allow mobile app MO deposit regardless of whether or not the bank allows it. However, this policy doesn't seem to be enforced. You can still deposit via ATM or in person.
Banks that allow Money Order deposits via Smartphone
Allow MO deposits via Smartphone:
- BB&T. $1,000 per day, $3,000 per month. WU works fine. Doesn't seem to take MoneyGram.
- Charles Schwab, depending on account up to 10k/day (While they allow MOs, their app may not be able to read all MOs. MG only work with dark printouts.)
- Citadel FCU: normally works great with WU, but only do one deposit, small amount first time to test. Increase deposit amount slowly, and do not exceed 2K daily or they may call you and ask what you are doing, or freeze account. Very fraud-conscious at this CU. MO funds avail. within 24 hrs. Apparent $10K/mo limit.
- Citibank (500 first 6 months, 1500 thereafter) Citibank does not allow MoneyGram mobile deposits and most ATMs reject the MO.(Ref)
- Clearview FCU
- DCU - works, reports of shutdown for MS specific behavior (depositing Money Orders) start in March 2017 (Ref, Ref, Ref posts 99 and onward)
clears immediately (Ref). Very finicky that the MO be filled out completely and the back is endorsed "for deposit only DCU". - Everbank ($50K per day total, no check bigger than $50K) (but see report of shutdown
Ref) - NorthePointe bank. 10 day hold per new accounts <30 days old.
- Penfed. $5K per day limit. WU works fine. A portion of deposit may be held back for a few days. Doesn't seem to take MG (amount entered doesn't match amount detected error message).
- Simple* (March 2014: People now receiving emails asking source and purpose of MO deposits) (Ref)
15 photo deposit per month and $3000 per deposit (first 5 are limited to $2000). Robust MO reading (Ref) - SunTrust Only seems to accept WU, posts next day if in before 9pm.
- United Bank
- UFB Direct
prefers MoneyGram MOs; WU MOs work fine also. Will Shut down. (Ref) - USAA (Ref)
May be limited to $1k/day available immediately (Ref), with remainder held for 1 week. User experience: $5k/day. One person reported shutdown after a few months, doing less than 5K mo in MO deposits.(Ref) - Wells Fargo
$2500/day $5000/mo ($1000/day $3000/30days for new accounts < 180 days) (Ref)
user experience: multiple <=$500 (Ref); WU MO (Ref)
Do not allow MO deposits via Smartphone:
- Ally
- Amalgamated Bank (cannot deposit MOs via mobile app)
- Aspiration
- Bank of America
Not reliable MO reading (Ref)
Effective 2/23 BofA no longer accepts mobile deposits of MOs or TCs. (Ref) - Bank of the West
- Barclays. The terms state MOs are not allowed. MG worked twice but not again!
- Capital One 360 (won't accept MO via mail in deposit either)
- Chase
- Discover Checking* (NUMEROUS REPORTS MONEY ORDERS ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED); user experience: <2k (Ref); 2 days to post (Ref); terms do not explicitly state a limit (Ref)
- Eastern Bank. $2500 per day, $7500 per month. Update 3/22/16: Per chat, Eastern no longer accepts MO over Mobile Deposit
- Fidelity Investments - no MO's accepted at all
- Fiserv-based credit unions
- Fulton Bank
- Huntington Bank
- LMCU Will shut down MO deposits for high volume.
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- PNC (Ref)
- Radius Bank: Mobile deposits no longer allowed
- Sallie Mae (actually, does not accept money order deposits at all)
- Santander: MG and WU are a no go
- TD Ameritrade: doesn't take MO period. Not by app, mail, or in person.
- TIAA-Direct (3 checks per business day, $10K per day) No longer viable after calls by Candy in Sep 2014.
- Vanguard - No MO's accepted at all
Allowed Via ATM:
- BoA - may be deposited at ATM (Ref)
(Ref) - Bank of Oklahoma (BOK)
- Cambridge Savings Bank (Boston MA area) - accepts MoneyGram at ATM, haven't tested others yet, fund post in 1-2 business days, automatic detection doesn't usually work (have to edit the check amounts) (ref)
- Capital One Bank/360 - automatic amount detection for Western Union, posts within 1-3 days; Auto detects MoneyGram if the ink is dark enough, available next 1-3 days (Mar 17 Ref); USPS accepted, but not auto detected, available 1-3 days (Mar 17 Ref).
- Chase - about four days to clear (Ref) (Ref). Cleared next day.
- Citi
Haven't been able to successfully deposit Western Union but MoneyGram usually works. No longer works, have to deposit with teller. - Citizens: ATM will automatically detect amount as long as ink isn't faded; if read incorrectly or not at all you can manually edit amount
- Huntington - Since the ATM upgrade, WU MO gets rejected. Needs to be deposited with teller.
- KeyBank: Will accept Western Union money orders. Refuses to accept MoneyGram (from WM) money orders. Recent 2016 reports of problems and risk of shutdown if
- M&T Bank -- can deposit MoneyGram, but you have to enter the amount manually.
- PNC Bank: ATM will automatically detect amount as long as ink isn't faded; told by teller that ATMs have no problems accepting MO deposits
- Santander - ATM accepts MoneyGram, often need to edit the amount. Reports of locked funds, YMMV. (ref)
- TD Bank
- USAA
- US Bank, can deposit MoneyGram, but you have to enter the amount manually.
- Webster Bank - accepts MoneyGram, need to enter amount manually, funds available next day (Ref), same with USPS Money Orders (Ref) and Western Union
- Wells Fargo accepts MoneyGram
- going over even just a few thousand a month.
Banks that allow Money Order deposits via Smartphone or ATM(2017-onward)
Mar 26, 2017, 1:42 pm
#121
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 910
I'd guess is due to the risk of criminal behaviors with similar patterns as MS. Yeah they can trace MS, but practically speaking it would likely cost-prohibitive for them to police and keep tracking every MO-heavy client. Do they take the risk, do they keep the profits from such accounts considering most will be simply MS-ing but a few might be money laundering or sponsoring criminal/terrorist activities? Especially considering that to a mid-size or large bank/CU, MO-heavy accounts are a small percentage by comparison. I'd probably do the same if I was at a decision making position within these financial institutions, I'd weed out such clients if I could do so in a cost effective manner. After all, their business models aren't designed for clients like us, we're the aberration.
Mar 27, 2017, 1:06 pm
#123
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: BOS, PVD, HYA
Programs: MR, TYP, AA, B6, DL, WN, HH, MB, 2V
Posts: 658
Capital One auto detects amount on MoneyGram but not on USPS. Usually clears next day for me (once the account has been open for a month or so). Updating the wiki now 
Mar 27, 2017, 4:07 pm
#124
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 40
- DP- Alliant CU mobile deposit of usps MO via smartphone to checking was successful. Submitted this morning and went under review for 3 hours then posted as accepted. Well maybe this is not news...It was not listed on the wiki...But was written about briefly maybe 6 months ago in this thread
Last edited by AZDbacks17; Mar 27, 2017 at 7:13 pm Reason: Update
Mar 28, 2017, 3:04 pm
#125
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,592
Mar 29, 2017, 7:51 am
#128
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: BOS, PVD, HYA
Programs: MR, TYP, AA, B6, DL, WN, HH, MB, 2V
Posts: 658
I definitely have 360 checking. In my area, all banking is done at ATMS at a Capital One Cafe. I can only deposit the money orders at the ATM, even if I wanted to use a bank, and they seem to be working fine. I deposited my first MOs over a month ago, and no issues so far.
Mar 29, 2017, 8:34 am
#129
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 283
Same with WU MOs. However, a lot is dependent on darkness of ink and whether it prints clearly, so a good deal of the time I still have to type in the amount.
Mar 30, 2017, 7:04 pm
#130
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 1,066
- DP- Alliant CU mobile deposit of usps MO via smartphone to checking was successful. Submitted this morning and went under review for 3 hours then posted as accepted. Well maybe this is not news...It was not listed on the wiki...But was written about briefly maybe 6 months ago in this thread
Mar 30, 2017, 8:25 pm
#131
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 40
well...I'm only doing 1k/month at Alliant and 1k/month at WF....Just category bonus spend ...I doubt they will even care. Guess I will find out...Anyway thanks for the info..
Apr 4, 2017, 11:19 pm
#133
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 542
I just got both SPG cards for my wife and myself and have never done any MS before. I need to hit 2k more on a CSP she recently got, 2x 8k for the business SPG, 2x 5k for the personal SPG. That leaves me needing $28k in the next 6k months. It seems like from this thread I'll need to utilize multiple banks since most have relatively low limited over 30 days for new users. Anyone have any Austin specific (or general) advice on how to clear this kind of MS?
Apr 5, 2017, 7:32 am
#134
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: BOS, PVD, HYA
Programs: MR, TYP, AA, B6, DL, WN, HH, MB, 2V
Posts: 658
I just got both SPG cards for my wife and myself and have never done any MS before. I need to hit 2k more on a CSP she recently got, 2x 8k for the business SPG, 2x 5k for the personal SPG. That leaves me needing $28k in the next 6k months. It seems like from this thread I'll need to utilize multiple banks since most have relatively low limited over 30 days for new users. Anyone have any Austin specific (or general) advice on how to clear this kind of MS?
In all seriousness though, read a ton. Don't deposit huge MO amounts into your home bank. Be careful with multiple banks - you don't want to structure your deposits. I'd look for other routes, not just MOs. That's a lot to ramp up to in a relatively short period of time. Prepay some bills, pay rent with Plastiq, that sort of thing.
Apr 5, 2017, 9:46 am
#135
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 542
Bolding mine. Next 6,000 months? Plenty of time
In all seriousness though, read a ton. Don't deposit huge MO amounts into your home bank. Be careful with multiple banks - you don't want to structure your deposits. I'd look for other routes, not just MOs. That's a lot to ramp up to in a relatively short period of time. Prepay some bills, pay rent with Plastiq, that sort of thing.
In all seriousness though, read a ton. Don't deposit huge MO amounts into your home bank. Be careful with multiple banks - you don't want to structure your deposits. I'd look for other routes, not just MOs. That's a lot to ramp up to in a relatively short period of time. Prepay some bills, pay rent with Plastiq, that sort of thing.
Over 6 months:
Combined goal: 28k
Combine natural spend: 6k
Total MS required: 22k
With that goal in mind, according to this wiki, we can open 2 WF checking accounts and deposit 3k per month (each) from MOs. With perfect throughput that would be up to 36k in 6 months. Am I missing something? MS route I was planning on going was Simon->WM MO->deposit via app at WF.
No I do not use WF for any banking needs so I'm not too worried about burning bridges there I just need them to clear these MOs over the next 6 months.