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)
Jun 10, 2018, 7:47 pm
#1111
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: S Cal
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat, United Silver, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,142
I keep reading how easy it is to use MCGCs, but I'm not having any luck at my favorite store. If someone can tell the pancakeman and I what we're doing wrong, I'd be much obliged. I'm feeling like an MS failure.
Most of the cashiers in my area don't like to do, or don't know how to do, split loads. I'm starting to think that I may have to go to the Money Center instead, ask to do a split load (and hope that the CSR doesn't turn me down - my stores often frown on split loads), then run a VGC first followed by a MCGC. Maybe that would work?
Jun 10, 2018, 7:48 pm
#1112
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: S Cal
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat, United Silver, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,142
I had major issues a few weeks back with mcgc, but turned out that this hobby is even more ymmv than I realized. It was ymmv even from terminal to terminal. One terminal refused my mcgc but the terminal next to it worked. Went back a week later and turns out that specific terminal that didn’t work before required the mcgc to be swiped the opposite way from what I was used to doing. Worked like a charm.
Jun 10, 2018, 9:59 pm
#1114
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SAN
Programs: Delta Gold. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Explorist.
Posts: 1,672
I created a new thread for some posts that were not about buying MO at Walmart:
Unloading VGC/MCGC without Walmart
Unloading VGC/MCGC without Walmart
Jun 10, 2018, 10:27 pm
#1115
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
All that the swipe does is allow the terminal to read the information on the magnetic strip. There are magnetic heads on both sides for that purpose. Directionality truly shouldn't matter. If you're correct, that would be truly remarkable.
Jun 11, 2018, 4:51 am
#1116
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 65
All I know is meta Visas and USbank Visas truly work like a charm. I typically never buy MGVC due to the trickery involved in getting it to work. I'm afraid I really burnt my location by trying so much and making the CSR suspicious... Hopefully next week when I go in there with pure VGCs and everything is smooth I won't get blacklisted at that location.
Jun 11, 2018, 6:48 am
#1117
Join Date: Oct 2017
Programs: Lots
Posts: 320
I thought it was the weirdest thing too. My wife and I would actively avoid any CSRs on that terminal because it wouldn’t work. We’d watch other MSers try on that terminal without success. Then one day, we forgot about it, and it didn’t work again, but the CSR said try turning the card around and swipe the other way, and it worked like a charm. They did say it was a brand new terminal though replacing the previous one, so not sure if that made a difference.
Jun 11, 2018, 8:08 am
#1118
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 780
Getting my MOs this morning and another MSer was fumbling with his gc.com cards doing billpay. Had them all laid out on the shelf. Good thing it was a money center, so the CSR couldn't get a good look at what was going on. Not sure if the CSR really cared. Got my MOs and went shopping. Got done shopping and was walking by the money center on the way out and that MSer was still there fumbling with his cards. People like that are going to burn any working location that are left. Get your act together, go in and do one or two transaction and get the hell out. Don't make your visit a memorable visit to the CSR.
Jun 11, 2018, 8:20 am
#1119
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,837
I appreciate you posting this. I was starting to think that I was the only dummy who is having trouble getting MCGCs to work at WM. I am trying to do a single load to a prepaid card (no fancy split loads for me), and the cashiers are allowing me to swipe first. I then hit the Cancel button on the keypad, and then press debit on the screen before the cashier enters the amount. After the cashier inputs the amount, I expect that the next thing to show up should be to OK the load amount, but it doesn't. Even if I wait, the only thing I see is the screen instructing me to swipe my debit card. But if I reswipe the MC debit card, the transaction blows up.
I keep reading how easy it is to use MCGCs, but I'm not having any luck at my favorite store. If someone can tell the pancakeman and I what we're doing wrong, I'd be much obliged. I'm feeling like an MS failure.
Most of the cashiers in my area don't like to do, or don't know how to do, split loads. I'm starting to think that I may have to go to the Money Center instead, ask to do a split load (and hope that the CSR doesn't turn me down - my stores often frown on split loads), then run a VGC first followed by a MCGC. Maybe that would work?
I keep reading how easy it is to use MCGCs, but I'm not having any luck at my favorite store. If someone can tell the pancakeman and I what we're doing wrong, I'd be much obliged. I'm feeling like an MS failure.
Most of the cashiers in my area don't like to do, or don't know how to do, split loads. I'm starting to think that I may have to go to the Money Center instead, ask to do a split load (and hope that the CSR doesn't turn me down - my stores often frown on split loads), then run a VGC first followed by a MCGC. Maybe that would work?
In your example above, you swipe reloadable card, you need to confirm amount, then you swipe your MCGC. If it was multiple MCGCs, you need to swipe first before CSR hits enter. The step I'm not sure is if it's a single swipe.
My last swipe of MCGC, the CSR does not enter anything, (at least the amount), I'm not sure if CSR needs to hit enter, maybe that's the step CSR is doing before you swipe. Sometimes, I have to swipe twice on my last one and remind them I need to swipe first.
Jun 11, 2018, 8:29 am
#1120
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
All I know is meta Visas and USbank Visas truly work like a charm. I typically never buy MGVC due to the trickery involved in getting it to work. I'm afraid I really burnt my location by trying so much and making the CSR suspicious... Hopefully next week when I go in there with pure VGCs and everything is smooth I won't get blacklisted at that location.
Jun 11, 2018, 1:22 pm
#1121
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 692
Getting my MOs this morning and another MSer was fumbling with his gc.com cards doing billpay. Had them all laid out on the shelf. Good thing it was a money center, so the CSR couldn't get a good look at what was going on. Not sure if the CSR really cared. Got my MOs and went shopping. Got done shopping and was walking by the money center on the way out and that MSer was still there fumbling with his cards. People like that are going to burn any working location that are left. Get your act together, go in and do one or two transaction and get the hell out. Don't make your visit a memorable visit to the CSR.
Jun 11, 2018, 3:27 pm
#1122
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: NY
Posts: 523
I appreciate you posting this. I was starting to think that I was the only dummy who is having trouble getting MCGCs to work at WM. I am trying to do a single load to a prepaid card (no fancy split loads for me), and the cashiers are allowing me to swipe first. I then hit the Cancel button on the keypad, and then press debit on the screen before the cashier enters the amount. After the cashier inputs the amount, I expect that the next thing to show up should be to OK the load amount, but it doesn't. Even if I wait, the only thing I see is the screen instructing me to swipe my debit card. But if I reswipe the MC debit card, the transaction blows up.
I keep reading how easy it is to use MCGCs, but I'm not having any luck at my favorite store. If someone can tell the pancakeman and I what we're doing wrong, I'd be much obliged. I'm feeling like an MS failure.
Most of the cashiers in my area don't like to do, or don't know how to do, split loads. I'm starting to think that I may have to go to the Money Center instead, ask to do a split load (and hope that the CSR doesn't turn me down - my stores often frown on split loads), then run a VGC first followed by a MCGC. Maybe that would work?
I keep reading how easy it is to use MCGCs, but I'm not having any luck at my favorite store. If someone can tell the pancakeman and I what we're doing wrong, I'd be much obliged. I'm feeling like an MS failure.
Most of the cashiers in my area don't like to do, or don't know how to do, split loads. I'm starting to think that I may have to go to the Money Center instead, ask to do a split load (and hope that the CSR doesn't turn me down - my stores often frown on split loads), then run a VGC first followed by a MCGC. Maybe that would work?
Jun 11, 2018, 4:00 pm
#1123
Join Date: Oct 2017
Programs: Lots
Posts: 320
that’s odd you would say that it has nothing to do with which side you swipe. I’ve never had issues with single swipe transactions with mcgcs, except for the aforementioned terminal. One WM near my house allows for 1 BP and a single swipe MO, and I have no trouble liquidating 5 cards each visit, so it’s clearly very much ymmv.
Jun 11, 2018, 5:21 pm
#1124
Flyertalk Evangelist and Moderator: Coupon Connection and Travel Products
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Milton, GA USA
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum Elite, Hyatt Discoverist, Radisson Elite
Posts: 19,040
Believe me, I was the whale. 
Jun 11, 2018, 9:05 pm
#1125
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Andover, MA, 01810
Posts: 1,971
I did a couple of Mastercards on a single order recently. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. The trick is to ask to cashier not to do anything at all. Then you swipe your MC. You do not have to hurry to hit the Cancel button. The system will wait for you. Then you click Cancel and Debit, and enter your pin. Then the cashier enters in the amount. If you have another card, again ask the cashier not to do anything for the 2nd card. You swipe, repeat.