Old Jan 1, 2018, 10:53 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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
Print Wikipost

Buying Money Orders at Walmart (2018)

Old Sep 27, 2018, 9:42 am
  #1561  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DFW
Posts: 682
That stinks, but give it a few months and check back in, and keep checking in every few months. I had one store where the manager put the clampdown on VGC's, but he transferred to another store 6 months or a year later and then it was back to BAU.
jtav559 likes this.
knopfler is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2018, 3:24 pm
  #1562  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DFW
Posts: 682
Not sure if this has been posted yet or not, but my local Walmart had their official MO policy out on the counter. If you can't read the text in the pic, this is what it says:

1. All money orders should be sold in one transaction using the Financial Services tab on the register. The daily limit for money order transactions per customer is $10,000.
2. Any cash transactions at or above $3,000 will prompt you to collect customer information and ID verification.
>>If the customer refused to provide the information, you cannot proceed with the transaction.
3. When an associate knows that a customer has been in the store several times a day/week, with frequent purchases reaching $3,000 or more
>>Always capture the customers information through the eMSAR Option #1 regardless of the form of payment.
>>If you know the customer is structuring (breaking larger transactions into smaller ones to avoid providing customer information) report via the eMSAR.
Remember the the MOTR and MSAR forms are no longer being used and eMSAR in the Financial Services tab on the register should be used instead during the transaction.

Nothing really new here, but if every store would at least follow this procedure that would be great. No rogue stores filing eMSAR's for $1k or $2k purchases!

tuphat and Prometheus77 like this.
knopfler is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2018, 4:03 pm
  #1563  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 506
Originally Posted by knopfler
Not sure if this has been posted yet or not, but my local Walmart had their official MO policy out on the counter. If you can't read the text in the pic, this is what it says:

1. All money orders should be sold in one transaction using the Financial Services tab on the register. The daily limit for money order transactions per customer is $10,000.
2. Any cash transactions at or above $3,000 will prompt you to collect customer information and ID verification.
>>If the customer refused to provide the information, you cannot proceed with the transaction.
3. When an associate knows that a customer has been in the store several times a day/week, with frequent purchases reaching $3,000 or more
>>Always capture the customers information through the eMSAR Option #1 regardless of the form of payment.
>>If you know the customer is structuring (breaking larger transactions into smaller ones to avoid providing customer information) report via the eMSAR.
Remember the the MOTR and MSAR forms are no longer being used and eMSAR in the Financial Services tab on the register should be used instead during the transaction.

Nothing really new here, but if every store would at least follow this procedure that would be great. No rogue stores filing eMSAR's for $1k or $2k purchases!
if they have to put those guidelines on a flyer that means it is not hard coded in their payment processing system. It is only on paper that many CSR won't read. Therefore many stores and CSRs within same store implement their own policies anyway.
cashcyclone is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2018, 9:28 pm
  #1564  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Went for my daily WM run, I'm told that management decided this WM won't sell MOs anymore to my wife and I specifically. We're 2 x 999.18 regulars daily each.

Sounds like we're 'suspicious' and that's why we were cut off.

My wife and I are planning to talk to the store manager tomorrow and put all the cards on the table, explain we buy prepaid debit cards with our credit cards to get miles and points, then buy MOs with the prepaid GCs and deposit the MOs into our checking account with which we pay off our credit card bills, with the goal to travel with our family to Europe / India using the miles. At this point I don't have anything to lose, so I figure I should just go for broke and explain how we're 100% legit and not doing money laundering.

FWIW, my wife and I are the only MSers in town.

Any input on this plan? I have backup WMs but they're about an hour away, so not feasible for daily runs, but enough to liquidate remaining GC stock.
wyogold is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 3:31 am
  #1565  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 483
Originally Posted by wyogold
Went for my daily WM run, I'm told that management decided this WM won't sell MOs anymore to my wife and I specifically. We're 2 x 999.18 regulars daily each.

Sounds like we're 'suspicious' and that's why we were cut off.

My wife and I are planning to talk to the store manager tomorrow and put all the cards on the table, explain we buy prepaid debit cards with our credit cards to get miles and points, then buy MOs with the prepaid GCs and deposit the MOs into our checking account with which we pay off our credit card bills, with the goal to travel with our family to Europe / India using the miles. At this point I don't have anything to lose, so I figure I should just go for broke and explain how we're 100% legit and not doing money laundering.

FWIW, my wife and I are the only MSers in town.

Any input on this plan? I have backup WMs but they're about an hour away, so not feasible for daily runs, but enough to liquidate remaining GC stock.
I would try it also. I talked to 2 managers recently and one store wanted nothing to do with it and the other told me to call MoneyGram to try to get the 4 swipe policy back.
Travelz is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 6:23 am
  #1566  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
Originally Posted by wyogold
Any input on this plan? I have backup WMs but they're about an hour away, so not feasible for daily runs, but enough to liquidate remaining GC stock.
If it was me, I'd go to the front end manager first (the one who manages MC or CS if there's no MC) and work my way up instead of going straight to the store manager. If the front end manager is sympathetic to my case, I'd do a transaction right then in his/her presence just in case the cashier refuses to sell to me. IME, SMs are difficult to find and if, by chance I see them, they don't have much time to talk; they often refer to their subordinates to settle issues at their store. TBH, cases like yours that have no major impact for the store may not be given much weight by the store manager, but hopefully, you get to present your case.

If you still have some GCs to drain, if I were you, I'd drain them all first at the next WM before talking to management and not buy more until I'm sure I can continue with MS. I have read a reply in a blogger's article where the OP found out the vindictive SM called other stores within 50 mile radius to "warn" them about her and advice not to sell to her because of "suspicious fraudulent activities". If, talks aren't favorable and this SM does the same thing, at least you have already drained all your GCs.

Your other option is just chill out for a while (3 or 4 months?), sometimes when there's 'changing of the guards' everything is forgiven and forgotten (hopefully). X your fingers the directive didn't come from MG because you mentioned in the past, they asked for your DL each time you bought MOs? Even if you may have mental lapse in entering your SSN, there's enough personal info on your DL that if they submit this info several days/weeks/months, it may have an impact on your record if a human looked into it. For me, I don't mind the occasional ID/SSN input but as much as possible, when I sense it coming I try to ease out of the transaction so it won't go through; I'm fine leaving empty handed.

Good luck!
Mamibear is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 6:47 am
  #1567  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 1,322
Using the wife didn't do anything for your case, optically. Related party, same trip, etc. pretty reasonably construed as structuring around WM reporting requirement. Good luck (really).
tuphat is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 9:07 am
  #1568  
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,374
I would second Mamibear's advice and avoid making an issue out of this. If I were to use your approach, I would simply go to the manager responsible for the MOs and explain your position. My personal take is that this is a losing gambit.
I would rather just blow off the store for a certain period of time (at least several months) and then tentatively do some small amounts of MO purchase (single swipe, less that $500) to see if things are back up and running. Right now you are a marked man/woman but with high turnover, in several months you may just be another Joe Customer.
jtav559 and Prometheus77 like this.
radonc1 is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 10:15 am
  #1569  
Marriott Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, HH DIA, Hertz PC, GE + Pre✓, Amazon Super Special Prime
Posts: 1,007
Originally Posted by radonc1
I would second Mamibear's advice and avoid making an issue out of this. If I were to use your approach, I would simply go to the manager responsible for the MOs and explain your position. My personal take is that this is a losing gambit.
I would rather just blow off the store for a certain period of time (at least several months) and then tentatively do some small amounts of MO purchase (single swipe, less that $500) to see if things are back up and running. Right now you are a marked man/woman but with high turnover, in several months you may just be another Joe Customer.
2nd this - I had a similar experience with my favorite fishing hole. Let it cool off for 4-5 weeks, tested the waters with a small $50 mo, then built it back up and now back to normal. I still watch out for the CSR that started the issue, but she doesn't seem to work the MC any more so I'm not too worried.

Or, you could try going in at a different time of day. I favor the morning crews, as they don't seem to mind my usual appearance around 9am for a MO. I don't think the days BS has accumulated much at that point and they aren't grumpy yet. Laugh all you want, but the psychology of this is a part of the game.
jtav559 is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 10:53 am
  #1570  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Talked to the store manager about what we do, seems the volume (4K per day between my wife unit and I) and the consistency of the volume, along with getting the max amount / MO set off alarm bells.

Looks like he will be OK with us going on, has to square things with the front end manager so they're on the same page. Discussion went well, honestly, he just wanted to figure out a way to let us do what we do without anyone getting into trouble. I suggested we can do eMSARs every time so they have a record of every txn. He seemed to like that. Will be time consuming, but if it keeps me in business, I can live with it.

He really seemed mostly worried about not getting into trouble. In a way, clearing the issue once and for all (or until something else changes) is maybe not a bad thing. There's simply no way to not appear suspicious when MSing at volume (high 5 - low 6 figs / month), it's so far out of the norm, it's just not possible to blend in with the regular customers.

As for the other options suggested, unfortunately, my store has really low turnover, and I am rally well known by now having done the GC->MO route for years, so waiting it out could well be several years before enough staff has turned over and the institutional memory has dissipated. All staff that mans the MC knows me for all shifts.
cuthroat and randomdude like this.
wyogold is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 2:32 pm
  #1571  
Hilton Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
Originally Posted by wyogold
Talked to the store manager about what we do, seems the volume (4K per day between my wife unit and I) and the consistency of the volume, along with getting the max amount / MO set off alarm bells.

Looks like he will be OK with us going on, has to square things with the front end manager so they're on the same page. Discussion went well, honestly, he just wanted to figure out a way to let us do what we do without anyone getting into trouble. I suggested we can do eMSARs every time so they have a record of every txn. He seemed to like that. Will be time consuming, but if it keeps me in business, I can live with it.

He really seemed mostly worried about not getting into trouble. In a way, clearing the issue once and for all (or until something else changes) is maybe not a bad thing. There's simply no way to not appear suspicious when MSing at volume (high 5 - low 6 figs / month), it's so far out of the norm, it's just not possible to blend in with the regular customers.

As for the other options suggested, unfortunately, my store has really low turnover, and I am rally well known by now having done the GC->MO route for years, so waiting it out could well be several years before enough staff has turned over and the institutional memory has dissipated. All staff that mans the MC knows me for all shifts.

I'm happy for you that it seems to be going positive but you are not necessarily out of the woods. Watch out for the risk management team putting the kabosh on things.

My own experience is very similar.

I have 2 WM in my town. My go to for several years I had worked up to 8k (4 transactions of 999.18). Suddenly, I started getting push back from a couple of CSRs because of 'structuring' I successfully involved the 1st step up managers and then even had a store manage specifically state to the CSRs that I was cleared. Around a month later I was told by yellow vests and manager on duty that that WM was no longer going to do business with me for MO because of a decision by their risk management (or whatever the name was).

I'm fortunate to have a second WM in town as well as a grocery store that sells MO and while I can't do the volume I use to per day, I still have more throughput capable than I utilize.
Carl Christensen is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 3:01 pm
  #1572  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Originally Posted by Carl Christensen
Watch out for the risk management team putting the kabosh on things.
I can only hope that that won't happen. It does bug me that a suspicion borne from ignorance is good enough reason for a shutdown, even if you explain exactly what's going on. At least for now, there's always BP, BB, and other WMs.
wyogold is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 3:48 pm
  #1573  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: DL, Marriott & IHG Platty; HH Diamonte
Posts: 859
Originally Posted by wyogold
and other WMs.
If you have others, why all the stink? Just go someplace else IMHO.
pharmawalk is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 4:07 pm
  #1574  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 889
Originally Posted by pharmawalk
If you have others, why all the stink? Just go someplace else IMHO.
The other are 1h + away and not feasible for regular runs
anonymous99 likes this.
wyogold is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 6:12 pm
  #1575  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: DL, Marriott & IHG Platty; HH Diamonte
Posts: 859
I would chill out on this location personally (sry the hike is so far to the next location). You've been tagged at this point....I don't see anything good coming out of this.
Prometheus77 likes this.
pharmawalk is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.