split payment at Home Depot self checkout?
 

The other week I discovered that you can buy gift cards at Home Depot's self checkout kiosks. I was flipping one of those new Blackhawk "Happy" gift cards that I got at Office Depot on a promo into another GC. But it was an even exchange. What would happen if I wanted to buy a GC for a higher denomination with, say, $50 Happy cards? Would the kiosk simply apply my $50 and ask me for additional payment (when I could then scan more Happy cards).

The reason I ask is that HD does not seem to sell $50 Amazon GCs (which I basically consider to be cash), so my interest in the various ongoing Happy GC promos is limited without a quick and easy way to get rid of them (important because Blackhawk doesn't adequately protect these cards from theft). At Bed Bath & Beyond, you can theoretically buy Visa and MC gift cards with the Happy cards, but you're going to have to do it with a cashier, who's likely to think your transaction is suspicious when you want her to run a wad of Happy cards. So a Home Depot self checkout machine would be useful -- if it works with these.

2 months ago, I did a split transaction in the self checkout. First was either a prepaid card or a HD gc, I forget which. It autodrained. Then I completed with another HD gc. I was buying actual stuff, not other gift cards, but it should still work for you. If you're worried, do a test run at a HD further away than your normal one. Good luck.

I can tell you that when I was directed to use self-checkout when no regular checkout lanes were available and tried to buy $500 of Visa GCs with Happy GCs, it would prompt the cashier at the computer overlooking the self-checkout area to check my ID and compare it to the card swiped for each card swiped. I'm not sure if it would not have prompted with a smaller amount, or with other gift cards instead of Visa gift cards.

This happened to me also. I think the issue is that the happy card does not have a chip. I think they are prompted to OK any swiped card, before it goes thru.