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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 Sep 5, 2019, 7:35 pm
  #1081  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
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Originally Posted by Joonydell
can happy cards be redeemed for MO at walmart?
no
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Old Sep 5, 2019, 7:58 pm
  #1082  
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 463
Originally Posted by Joonydell
can happy cards be redeemed for MO at walmart?
No, for two reasons.
1) Each happy card works at the 6 stores listed on the card. None of them list Walmart.
2) Happy cards have to be run as credit. To buy an MO you want to use debit.

The usual trick is to buy Happy Lady or one of the cards that work at BBB. Use the happy card to buy a vgc. Then liquidate as usual. Buy happy and BBB are cracking down on this, so be sure not to buy more than you can handle if you can't trade for a vgc. Also, not all BBB sell vgc.
Good luck!
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 10:41 pm
  #1083  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 845
I am totally new to MS, and started it off today by buying 7x$200 Visa gift cards with waived activation fees. Then went to a local WM in the LA area and did 2 transactions ($600 + $800) for money order. Everything went absolutely smooth, no questions asked. Quite exciting!

Can one deposit MOs at ATMs like regular checks? Something I have to think about?
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 11:20 pm
  #1084  
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
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Originally Posted by B747forever
I am totally new to MS, and started it off today by buying 7x$200 Visa gift cards with waived activation fees. Then went to a local WM in the LA area and did 2 transactions ($600 + $800) for money order. Everything went absolutely smooth, no questions asked. Quite exciting!

Can one deposit MOs at ATMs like regular checks? Something I have to think about?
I would recommend getting a new fee-free checking account solely for depositing MOs. You can try ATMs but if they don't work, you can always deposit through a teller.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 11:48 pm
  #1085  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 845
Originally Posted by ToastedSi
I would recommend getting a new fee-free checking account solely for depositing MOs. You can try ATMs but if they don't work, you can always deposit through a teller.
Please don't flame me for asking, but why is it better with a new account solely for MOs?
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Old Sep 7, 2019, 12:35 am
  #1086  
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
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Posts: 88
Originally Posted by B747forever
Please don't flame me for asking, but why is it better with a new account solely for MOs?
Hey, no worries about flame at all. We all started somewhere.

I would recommend with a new account because if your main account gets locked due to "Too many MO deposits" (as seen by some data points) you would not want to have your money tied up when you still need to pay or receive money for rent/mortgage, loans, utilities, direct deposit, etc.

Also helps to keep track of MS. And there are other reasons as well.

Best of luck
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Old Sep 7, 2019, 1:19 am
  #1087  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Originally Posted by ToastedSi
Hey, no worries about flame at all. We all started somewhere.

I would recommend with a new account because if your main account gets locked due to "Too many MO deposits" (as seen by some data points) you would not want to have your money tied up when you still need to pay or receive money for rent/mortgage, loans, utilities, direct deposit, etc.

Also helps to keep track of MS. And there are other reasons as well.

Best of luck
That makes sense. Better to keep ones private account and MO accounts separate. Will look into it! Thanks for the advice.
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Old Sep 8, 2019, 10:23 am
  #1088  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 1,322
Personally I would NOT recommend using a single new unseasoned account for large number of MO deposits. You will have no track record with that bank other than allegedly suspicious deposits, almost an invitation for a shutdown If you don’t already have wmultiple seasoned accounts, around which to spread and mix MO and organic activity, try to create such.
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Old Sep 8, 2019, 3:31 pm
  #1089  
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
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I recently moved from Richmond, VA to a suburb slightly north of Detroit, MI, and wow, manufactured spending is tougher here. It's weird because I did some research a little before moving, and I could swear I saw plenty of people doing Walmart MOs in SE Michigan. Was there some sweeping change around here that made it impossible to do the usual Walmart VGC to MO? I've been to a bunch of Walmarts around here, some multiple times, and with no luck.
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Old Sep 8, 2019, 3:33 pm
  #1090  
 
Join Date: May 2008
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Originally Posted by tuphat
Personally I would NOT recommend using a single new unseasoned account for large number of MO deposits. You will have no track record with that bank other than allegedly suspicious deposits, almost an invitation for a shutdown If you don’t already have wmultiple seasoned accounts, around which to spread and mix MO and organic activity, try to create such.
I agree, but I wouldn't call two MO's for $1400 total a "large number." However, I would try to make sure you have at least some non-MO deposits. The OP also gave no indication of what their future anticipated activity is like. I've had three checking accounts shut down in the past six years for too many MO's.
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Old Sep 8, 2019, 7:02 pm
  #1091  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 595
Originally Posted by makoraine
I recently moved from Richmond, VA to a suburb slightly north of Detroit, MI, and wow, manufactured spending is tougher here. It's weird because I did some research a little before moving, and I could swear I saw plenty of people doing Walmart MOs in SE Michigan. Was there some sweeping change around here that made it impossible to do the usual Walmart VGC to MO? I've been to a bunch of Walmarts around here, some multiple times, and with no luck.

I guess that depends on your suburb, I live in a 'burb probably just a little further north of Detroit than slightly, and I have very little problem MSing around here. Sure, I've had the occasional CSR that pulled a "structuring" or wanted to see the card(s), but for the most part, it's been pretty simple. There are several others on this forum that live in the area (although they are a little more to the west, I'm an east-sider) and they are mostly successful as well.

Keep trying and looking for new spots.
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 11:23 am
  #1092  
 
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Originally Posted by redtop43
I agree, but I wouldn't call two MO's for $1400 total a "large number." However, I would try to make sure you have at least some non-MO deposits. The OP also gave no indication of what their future anticipated activity is like. I've had three checking accounts shut down in the past six years for too many MO's.
does one loose the money in the account when its shut down?
Joonydell is offline  
Old Sep 9, 2019, 11:43 am
  #1093  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,508
Originally Posted by Joonydell
does one loose the money in the account when its shut down?
You don't "lose" the money in the account if it gets shut down especially when they find out that the money is NOT fraudaulent. Either they will let you ACH the money out or send you a check for the account balance.
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Old Sep 10, 2019, 4:21 pm
  #1094  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
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I understand that the limit on MO is $8k per 24 hours, but does that include the fees? I know I can do 8 for $999.12 in 24 hours without getting blocked, but what if I do 8 x $1000 (which would total about $8007 including fees).
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Old Sep 10, 2019, 5:27 pm
  #1095  
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Originally Posted by ChrisFlyer66
I understand that the limit on MO is $8k per 24 hours, but does that include the fees? I know I can do 8 for $999.12 in 24 hours without getting blocked, but what if I do 8 x $1000 (which would total about $8007 including fees).
Whip out a dollar bill and pay cash for each MO. The fee for the MO is separate from the MO amount. If your card allows it, you can run as much as you want like the $8007. The reason people (like me) pay the MO fee separately is because I want a round number on the MO like $200, $500. Not $192.12 or whatever. If I have a $200 gebit I want to end up with a $200 MO.
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