Jan 1, 2018, 10:53 am
Last edit by: wyogold
This is the thread for 2018. The previous discussion can be found here.
The 2019 thread can be found here
New to MO: Read this entire Wiki (Click to open) and all posts for some tips before asking common questions. It is best to know what you are doing before you try.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tested Gebit cards:
1. DO NOT WORK - Any Vanilla product affiliated with InComm or ITC Financial Services will not work for swipes over $49.99.
2. Visas issued by MetaBank work great.
3. MC issued by US bank work good, but you need to change payment type to debit before they enter the amount in the register. See below for details.
5. Gdot/sun work but take about an hour to activate.
NEW Limits as of 11/18 - 8K with ID every 24 hours. ID required for MO over 1K.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________
Some tips for starting out:
All WM registers allow 4 debit swipes per transaction, but YMMV per store and cashier. Refer to cards as Debit cards.
Start slow and buy one MO with one Gebit to see how it works. Refer to cards as Debit, only this community calls them Gebits. Your store or cashier may have rules that other stores do not have, only allowing one swipe per trans or up to 4 swipes per trans. Read all the tips below and all the posts below before trying more advanced transactions. NO variety or design of VISA or MC Gebit's will ever auto-drain at Walmart so always tell them the amount you want to pay per card. Fee: 1K MO or less is usually 88 cents each, but ask or check the wall. Subtract the fee from the total or pay in cash. If a store says "no", thank them and try again another day with a different clerk.
Helpful details and tips for advanced transactions:
1. Cost: 1K MO fee is usually 88 cents each(Some states limit MO total to 750 or 950 and may have a different fee). Subtract fee from your total or pay in cash. Can buy two 1K MO in one transaction with 4 swipes for 88 cents x 2 in most states. NO variety or design of VISA or MC Gebit's will ever auto-drain at Walmart so always tell them the amount you want to pay per card.
2. Split payment transcations: You cannot successfully swipe more than 4 cards in a single transaction. If the cashier screws up and enters $50.00 instead of $500.00 (thus making it impossible for 4 swipes to complete the transaction), the transaction will need to be canceled. The funds should return to your cards right away but may take 24 hours, so note the time and person helping you. When a transaction is canceled during the trans, the money returns to the cards. If canceled after, the cash reg drawer opens and they pay you back in cash.
3. Split payment: The amount of each swipe needs to be entered by the cashier. Ask to "split the payment by $$$". The Gebit must have current balance of that amount or more otherwise slip with Error 51 will print out. Warning: (YMMV) It appears (my experience on 3 occasions during prepaid card load and buying MO in 2 different WMs) that after the debit card was charged no cash could be credited back to the card. Cashier should issue cash back. Keep the slip and contact manager if in doubt. Remember date, time and register if no slip.
4. Bad Printer: IF, by chance, you've swiped your GCs successfully, a receipt prints but the MO doesn't, make sure to ask to see the receipt and check near the bottom IF it says CHANGE/REFUND with a negative sign before the amount of GCs you swiped, that means the cashier must give you cash refund. Cashier may have to call for the cash dept manager to verify the refund. Some stores may outright give your cash refund immediately while there are others that will ask you to come back. Think twice before you buy MOs while on vacation or when you're in unknown to you territories for issues like this.
5. Kiosk: Very few Kate's can sell money orders anymore.>>>>Sometime 2016, a lot of WM supercenters have done away with Kate (kiosks that allows loading of prepaids/sell $500 MOs). As of today, MOST, if not ALL WMs, have replaced this with the regular slim ATM to check balance/withdraw money.
6. MCGC liquidation- The cashier should not enter the amount first. Technically they just can't hit enter after entering the amount. Let the CSR know you need to swipe first and switch the payment type to debit, then swipe and hit "Cancel" or "Change Payment" to select "Debit" on the screen, enter the pin and have them enter the amount.
Debit codes PDF
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/attac...0&d=1461170080
The 2019 thread can be found here
New to MO: Read this entire Wiki (Click to open) and all posts for some tips before asking common questions. It is best to know what you are doing before you try.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tested Gebit cards:
1. DO NOT WORK - Any Vanilla product affiliated with InComm or ITC Financial Services will not work for swipes over $49.99.
2. Visas issued by MetaBank work great.
3. MC issued by US bank work good, but you need to change payment type to debit before they enter the amount in the register. See below for details.
5. Gdot/sun work but take about an hour to activate.
NEW Limits as of 11/18 - 8K with ID every 24 hours. ID required for MO over 1K.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________
Some tips for starting out:
All WM registers allow 4 debit swipes per transaction, but YMMV per store and cashier. Refer to cards as Debit cards.
Start slow and buy one MO with one Gebit to see how it works. Refer to cards as Debit, only this community calls them Gebits. Your store or cashier may have rules that other stores do not have, only allowing one swipe per trans or up to 4 swipes per trans. Read all the tips below and all the posts below before trying more advanced transactions. NO variety or design of VISA or MC Gebit's will ever auto-drain at Walmart so always tell them the amount you want to pay per card. Fee: 1K MO or less is usually 88 cents each, but ask or check the wall. Subtract the fee from the total or pay in cash. If a store says "no", thank them and try again another day with a different clerk.
Helpful details and tips for advanced transactions:
1. Cost: 1K MO fee is usually 88 cents each(Some states limit MO total to 750 or 950 and may have a different fee). Subtract fee from your total or pay in cash. Can buy two 1K MO in one transaction with 4 swipes for 88 cents x 2 in most states. NO variety or design of VISA or MC Gebit's will ever auto-drain at Walmart so always tell them the amount you want to pay per card.
2. Split payment transcations: You cannot successfully swipe more than 4 cards in a single transaction. If the cashier screws up and enters $50.00 instead of $500.00 (thus making it impossible for 4 swipes to complete the transaction), the transaction will need to be canceled. The funds should return to your cards right away but may take 24 hours, so note the time and person helping you. When a transaction is canceled during the trans, the money returns to the cards. If canceled after, the cash reg drawer opens and they pay you back in cash.
3. Split payment: The amount of each swipe needs to be entered by the cashier. Ask to "split the payment by $$$". The Gebit must have current balance of that amount or more otherwise slip with Error 51 will print out. Warning: (YMMV) It appears (my experience on 3 occasions during prepaid card load and buying MO in 2 different WMs) that after the debit card was charged no cash could be credited back to the card. Cashier should issue cash back. Keep the slip and contact manager if in doubt. Remember date, time and register if no slip.
4. Bad Printer: IF, by chance, you've swiped your GCs successfully, a receipt prints but the MO doesn't, make sure to ask to see the receipt and check near the bottom IF it says CHANGE/REFUND with a negative sign before the amount of GCs you swiped, that means the cashier must give you cash refund. Cashier may have to call for the cash dept manager to verify the refund. Some stores may outright give your cash refund immediately while there are others that will ask you to come back. Think twice before you buy MOs while on vacation or when you're in unknown to you territories for issues like this.
5. Kiosk: Very few Kate's can sell money orders anymore.>>>>Sometime 2016, a lot of WM supercenters have done away with Kate (kiosks that allows loading of prepaids/sell $500 MOs). As of today, MOST, if not ALL WMs, have replaced this with the regular slim ATM to check balance/withdraw money.
6. MCGC liquidation- The cashier should not enter the amount first. Technically they just can't hit enter after entering the amount. Let the CSR know you need to swipe first and switch the payment type to debit, then swipe and hit "Cancel" or "Change Payment" to select "Debit" on the screen, enter the pin and have them enter the amount.
Debit codes PDF
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/attac...0&d=1461170080
Buying Money Orders at Walmart (2018)
Apr 16, 2018, 4:52 pm
#633
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: NY
Posts: 523
All of my local WMs are dead for GCs. A couple of weeks ago my closest WM asked, for the first time, what kind of cards are you using? Told them the truth, and was told "no more GCs", "due to notice from Fraud department". But all seemed fine as the location a mile away still worked. A week later that one gave a "debit not available" notice. So I went to a long time go-to WM 5 miles away, and all was fine. Until 5 days ago, when I got that "debit not available" notice. Yesterday went to 5 locations up to 21 miles away, got that same notice at every one.
I know the cards are fine, as I cashed them out at a grocery store. So all of my local WMs have been hard coded to reject GCs, and strangely the CSRs haven't been told a thing about it. They are still assuming there is a problem with my cards or the pin. As more and more people try and fail to get MOs, they will figure it out I guess. But it would have made it easier on everyone if the CSRs knew up front, and saved us all the trouble of trying. Sigh...
Apr 16, 2018, 4:57 pm
#634
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: LAX, SNA
Posts: 359
All of my local WMs are dead for GCs. A couple of weeks ago my closest WM asked, for the first time, what kind of cards are you using? Told them the truth, and was told "no more GCs", "due to notice from Fraud department". But all seemed fine as the location a mile away still worked. A week later that one gave a "debit not available" notice. So I went to a long time go-to WM 5 miles away, and all was fine. Until 5 days ago, when I got that "debit not available" notice. Yesterday went to 5 locations up to 21 miles away, got that same notice at every one.
I know the cards are fine, as I cashed them out at a grocery store. So all of my local WMs have been hard coded to reject GCs, and strangely the CSRs haven't been told a thing about it. They are still assuming there is a problem with my cards or the pin. As more and more people try and fail to get MOs, they will figure it out I guess. But it would have made it easier on everyone if the CSRs knew up front, and saved us all the trouble of trying. Sigh...
Apr 16, 2018, 5:51 pm
#635
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,784
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but its not like you weren't about to find out anyway. Or maybe this is just my local SoCal area, and folks elsewhere will be fine. I doubt that, but I'd like to think it's truel
Haven't tried doing bill pay, but I'm guessing that there is basically one system for all of this, and it's being rolled out store by store. Besides WM I was getting MOs at Albertsons grocery stores. Tried 2 new ones yesterday that still worked, but the 3rd one was hard coded. Today went to my local go to Alb, that worked a few days ago, and hard coded. I'm guessing it's a week or so before this has spread across all payment systems that use any form of MoneyGram. If it's being done by MoneyGram, rather than by the store chains, that would explain why store CSRs don't know anything about it.
If you are holding any GCs, and think your local location still works, run don't walk to get your MOs while you (maybe) still can. And For God's Sake, don't buy any more than you can afford to hold to use for ordinary spend.
Haven't tried doing bill pay, but I'm guessing that there is basically one system for all of this, and it's being rolled out store by store. Besides WM I was getting MOs at Albertsons grocery stores. Tried 2 new ones yesterday that still worked, but the 3rd one was hard coded. Today went to my local go to Alb, that worked a few days ago, and hard coded. I'm guessing it's a week or so before this has spread across all payment systems that use any form of MoneyGram. If it's being done by MoneyGram, rather than by the store chains, that would explain why store CSRs don't know anything about it.
If you are holding any GCs, and think your local location still works, run don't walk to get your MOs while you (maybe) still can. And For God's Sake, don't buy any more than you can afford to hold to use for ordinary spend.
Apr 16, 2018, 6:34 pm
#636
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
If it turns out that WM has found a way like the USPS did to disallow all debit GCs, it'll be game over for a lot of MSers. Hopefully, this trickles s-l-o-w-l-y to all regions so many will have time to finish their MSRs. Once GCs are hardcoded into the system, there will be no more YMMV depending on cashier/friendly stores. It'll be just like USPS where using GCs went dead overnight.
Meanwhile, it's time to look for other recycling centers for those who wish to proceed loading and unloading GCs.
Meanwhile, it's time to look for other recycling centers for those who wish to proceed loading and unloading GCs.
Apr 16, 2018, 6:39 pm
#637
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 161
i experienced the double beep in NOVA at the last remaining WM that would accept billpay. I will be running to liquidate this week. its been real.. so sad its dead!
Apr 16, 2018, 6:40 pm
#638
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 161
thanks for letting us know where you are at and the DP.
Apr 16, 2018, 7:03 pm
#639
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 506
Although I managed to unload all 16K in 3 different WMs today one of a friendly CSR told me after today I wont be able to use GSc anymore at that location. Definitely something is up, a corporate memo or something.
Apr 16, 2018, 7:51 pm
#640
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,423
If it turns out that WM has found a way like the USPS did to disallow all debit GCs, it'll be game over for a lot of MSers. Hopefully, this trickles s-l-o-w-l-y to all regions so many will have time to finish their MSRs. Once GCs are hardcoded into the system, there will be no more YMMV depending on cashier/friendly stores. It'll be just like USPS where using GCs went dead overnight.
Meanwhile, it's time to look for other recycling centers for those who wish to proceed loading and unloading GCs.
Meanwhile, it's time to look for other recycling centers for those who wish to proceed loading and unloading GCs.
Apr 16, 2018, 7:52 pm
#641
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SAN
Programs: Delta Gold. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Explorist.
Posts: 1,674
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but its not like you weren't about to find out anyway. Or maybe this is just my local SoCal area, and folks elsewhere will be fine. I doubt that, but I'd like to think it's truel
Haven't tried doing bill pay, but I'm guessing that there is basically one system for all of this, and it's being rolled out store by store. Besides WM I was getting MOs at Albertsons grocery stores. Tried 2 new ones yesterday that still worked, but the 3rd one was hard coded. Today went to my local go to Alb, that worked a few days ago, and hard coded. I'm guessing it's a week or so before this has spread across all payment systems that use any form of MoneyGram. If it's being done by MoneyGram, rather than by the store chains, that would explain why store CSRs don't know anything about it.
If you are holding any GCs, and think your local location still works, run don't walk to get your MOs while you (maybe) still can. And For God's Sake, don't buy any more than you can afford to hold to use for ordinary spend.
Haven't tried doing bill pay, but I'm guessing that there is basically one system for all of this, and it's being rolled out store by store. Besides WM I was getting MOs at Albertsons grocery stores. Tried 2 new ones yesterday that still worked, but the 3rd one was hard coded. Today went to my local go to Alb, that worked a few days ago, and hard coded. I'm guessing it's a week or so before this has spread across all payment systems that use any form of MoneyGram. If it's being done by MoneyGram, rather than by the store chains, that would explain why store CSRs don't know anything about it.
If you are holding any GCs, and think your local location still works, run don't walk to get your MOs while you (maybe) still can. And For God's Sake, don't buy any more than you can afford to hold to use for ordinary spend.
Apr 16, 2018, 8:33 pm
#642
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Bau at my go to Wm today. Csr hadn't heard anything about any changes. But I'm dropping my float just in case to sub 10k, which is one month limit of 2 bluebirds.
Apr 16, 2018, 8:57 pm
#643
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,442
Got the same notice at one of my usual WMs last week, when they shut me down cold. Said that a corporate memo had been sent to the store manager limiting me to a single swipe of a debit card and only once a day.
I was cashing in $200 VGCs and went to another WM which did not have the restriction. I will have to try my other locations to see if things are getting dicey.
I would sell Metabank stock (if such a thing exists) right now if the rumors are true.
Apr 16, 2018, 9:44 pm
#644
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Northeastern United States
Posts: 597
Out of curiosity, what is Walmart's actual incentive to disallow MOs bought with gift cards? Is this really a transaction ripe with fraud that is somehow costing Walmart money? Maybe I'm naive, but I would think the "flyertalk crowd" is a main component of this trade, and there's nothing we're doing that's remotely illegal. Honestly, I would think that Walmart would be one of the few businesses that makes money when people play this game.
As far as fraud goes, it is my understanding that when a PIN number is used for a debit transaction the merchant is not on the hook for the amount of the transaction if the transaction eventually gets reported as fraud, but I'm not sure if this applies to VGCs and MCGCs or not. If this merchant protection does applies to VGCs and MCGS then I don't know why this type of fraud would be a problem for WM from a financial standpoint.
Apr 16, 2018, 9:47 pm
#645
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: SPG Plat, SWA Companion Pass, United Silver
Posts: 186
Got the same notice at one of my usual WMs last week, when they shut me down cold. Said that a corporate memo had been sent to the store manager limiting me to a single swipe of a debit card and only once a day.
I was cashing in $200 VGCs and went to another WM which did not have the restriction. I will have to try my other locations to see if things are getting dicey.
I would sell Metabank stock (if such a thing exists) right now if the rumors are true.
I was cashing in $200 VGCs and went to another WM which did not have the restriction. I will have to try my other locations to see if things are getting dicey.
I would sell Metabank stock (if such a thing exists) right now if the rumors are true.
BAU at my local northern LAX WMNM; I’ve never asked my cashiers about VGCs, so until the possibly lockdown on the use of Gebits is resolved I’ll likely stick with 1x $500 variable from Vons for the time being, as I haven’t been able to find another reliable recycling center (Ralph’s is a no-go and no Albertsons nearby).