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Buying Money Orders at Walmart (2019 - 2022)

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Old Jan 2, 2019, 9:51 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: danpeake
As of Nov 11, 2020, Meta gebits are getting declined when used for MO/BP purchases at MC/SD. New limit appears to be $99 per swipe with some metas at some stores. READ the posts below and add a data point with details. USB and GD gift cards do not seem to be affected.

This is the thread for 2019. The previous discussion can be found here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manu...rt-2018-a.html

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.

Note: The policy for allowing gift cards as payment for money orders can be more restrictive with certain stores or certain clerks. Just because an employee says there's a new restrictive policy "for all Walmarts" means nothing. There are plenty of cases where the employee is incorrect and the new policy is only regional or store specific.

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Tested Gebit (gift debit) cards:
1. DO NOT WORK - Any Vanilla product affiliated with InComm or ITC Financial Services will not work for swipes over $49.99.
2. See above on Visas issued by MetaBank. New limit appears to be $99 per swipe with some metas at some stores. Follow the posts below for the latest information.
3. MC issued by US bank OR Metabank MC (Giftcards.com) can work, but you need to change payment type to debit before they enter the amount in the register. See below for details.
4. Gdot/sun work but take about an hour to activate.(VGC issued by Sunrise also limited to $99/swipe, same as Metabank issued cards, and Sunrise was available immediately).
5. USB work
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________
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 $1 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 $1 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 transactions: 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. Kates are a distant and pleasant memory now.

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.

7. SSN/ID entry - Any MO purchases in one transaction at or over $3K requires you to input your SSN. Any MO at or over $1K requires ID input (and ID requirement can also be forced by cashier at any amount).



Debit codes PDF
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/attac...0&d=1461170080

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Buying Money Orders at Walmart (2019 - 2022)

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Old Mar 14, 2019, 5:54 pm
  #346  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 3
First time buy mo in Wmt, went to the money center, csr is good and said nothing about my go but the machine print out a very small stick note and fail. Wondering what was the problem, I’m using a $200 Metabank vgc to buy $200 mo. Anyone know what’s wrong?
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Old Mar 14, 2019, 6:04 pm
  #347  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 77
Originally Posted by Angchen Song
First time buy mo in Wmt, went to the money center, csr is good and said nothing about my go but the machine print out a very small stick note and fail. Wondering what was the problem, I’m using a $200 Metabank vgc to buy $200 mo. Anyone know what’s wrong?
What was the amount showing on the POS screen? $200.88 by chance?
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Old Mar 14, 2019, 6:09 pm
  #348  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 3
Shooooooooot! I should think of that! It is 200.88. Damn it
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Old Mar 14, 2019, 9:56 pm
  #349  
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by Angchen Song
Shooooooooot! I should think of that! It is 200.88. Damn it
next time bring $1 and tell them you will pay the fee in cash
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Old Mar 15, 2019, 5:28 am
  #350  
soy
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Posts: 3,689
Originally Posted by richardbb85
next time bring $1 and tell them you will pay the fee in cash
...or just get a $199 MO. Cash+Card is frowned on at some WM
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Old Mar 15, 2019, 9:04 pm
  #351  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by logs90210
For the past several weeks, I tried several Walmart stores in NJ - Edison, North Brunswick, West Windsor, East Brunswick, Princeton, Hamilton, Burlington and Freehold. None of them are accepting VGCs (from Simon mall) to swipe. It is completely to do with the management decision and nothing to do with the system. I did have some friendly employees at a couple of the Walmarts who let me do a few bill pays @ 1998.50 to get rid of my existing VGCs but they did say that they will NOT let anyone do BillPay or Money Order using these Visa Gift Cards going forward. They said they will only lets us swipe with a debit card that have a name printed on the card that matches an ID.

We need a thread that list which walmarts work and which don't.
Thanks for the info. I think they probably got an instruction from the regional manager to stop taking prepaid cards.

Last edited by Ericfw; Mar 15, 2019 at 9:12 pm
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Old Mar 15, 2019, 9:12 pm
  #352  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by craz
If it helps any only 'Hamilton' is a new one for me with the others having shut down a long time ago (with the exception of NB, where they didnt care if you just brought the card and opened it up smack in front of them, MG took care of that. Dont waste your time heading North of Edison either as its been dead up that way with an exception every blue moon
...
The East Windsor store is also one of the stores which stop taking prepaid cards recently. Basically, none of the stores in this region works.
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Old Mar 16, 2019, 3:27 am
  #353  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 970
Originally Posted by Ericfw
The East Windsor store is also one of the stores which stop taking prepaid cards recently. Basically, none of the stores in this region works.
Consider yourself lucky if they've waited so long to stop accepting gcs - many WMs stopped accepting them several years ago.
farwest101 is offline  
Old Mar 16, 2019, 1:46 pm
  #354  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,050
This afternoon I tried to buy a money order of $998.12 with two $500 VGCs at a WM store. The friendly cs agent tried a few times of split payment but the POS did not work. Eventually I bought two $499.12 MOs separately. I am curious whether the system has something new.
BTW, I also saw a sign that only two debit cards are allowed for each transaction.

Last edited by Nelumbo; Mar 16, 2019 at 6:34 pm
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Old Mar 16, 2019, 5:55 pm
  #355  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 143
Originally Posted by Nelumbo
This afternoon I tried to buy an money order of $998.12 with two $500 VGCs at a WM store. The friendly cs agent tried a few times of split payment but the POS did not work. Eventually I bought two $499.12 MOs separately. I am curious whether the system has something new.
BTW, I also saw an sign that only two debit cards are allowed for each transaction.
Is this store in MA, north of Boston? If so, I was in the same store yesterday. Splits still work but employee was new and had to ask a manager to help. The two debit cards per transaction is a new rule set by store management but nobody seems to care if those debits are VGC.

Last edited by Insder; Mar 16, 2019 at 6:06 pm
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Old Mar 16, 2019, 6:34 pm
  #356  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,050
Originally Posted by Insder


Is this store in MA, north of Boston? If so, I was in the same store yesterday. Splits still work but employee was new and had to ask a manager to help. The two debit cards per transaction is a new rule set by store management but nobody seems to care if those debits are VGC.
Thank you for the information! I will try another day.
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Old Mar 16, 2019, 8:53 pm
  #357  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
Originally Posted by Ericfw
The East Windsor store is also one of the stores which stop taking prepaid cards recently. Basically, none of the stores in this region works.
Crossed that place off my list a long time ago, either it was o/o/o or they wanted to see my card

the best was NB where they didnt care if you opened the pkg smack in front of them.I never did but constantly saw people do that and have a handfiul of cards out when swiping
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Old Mar 16, 2019, 9:43 pm
  #358  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by craz
Crossed that place off my list a long time ago, either it was o/o/o or they wanted to see my card

the best was NB where they didnt care if you opened the pkg smack in front of them.I never did but constantly saw people do that and have a handfiul of cards out when swiping
That's interesting. I was able to do it without any problem in the EW store until less than one month ago. For the NB store, is it still working with unopened packages recently? I only stop by that store occasionally.
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Old Mar 18, 2019, 7:56 am
  #359  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: NJ
Programs: World of Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Premier Platinum
Posts: 462
NB store is not working anymore. I struggle to find any WM in central NJ which still allow MO purchase with VGC.
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Old Mar 18, 2019, 1:41 pm
  #360  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Hopkinton, MA
Posts: 232
$999.12 Saturday at a metrowest Wal Mart. Unusual for me as they asked for my ID. Not Framingham. Not Northborough.
Car Jack is offline  


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