Jan 2, 2019, 9:51 am
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
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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.
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
Buying Money Orders at Walmart (2019 - 2022)
Dec 14, 2020, 8:53 am
#2986
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
Interesting memo. It does not say that they will no longer accept VGC, only that they will no longer do "manufactured spending" transactions, but it doesn't define how to identify such transactions. It says "credit or debit card that earns rewards to buy cash like products", but the CSR has no way of knowing what was used to buy the VGC. I think this memo is vague enough that it will not have much of an impact except if management provides further clarification.
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Furthermore, it now provides ammunition for individual store managers to inform CSRs that whatever checks they deem appropriate to shut down a transaction considered "MSing" is legit and not subject to company sanction.
Dec 14, 2020, 9:06 am
#2987
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: DL, WoH
Posts: 1,253
Memo is fake. Idiots spreading FUD trying to deflect.
Dec 14, 2020, 9:09 am
#2988
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
Dec 14, 2020, 9:15 am
#2989
Join Date: May 2011
Location: CMH
Programs: w/+1: AS MVPG; IHG/Marriott Plat; Hilton/BW Diamond; Hertz Prez; SG Silver
Posts: 1,188
I agree. I worked as a pharmacist for WM on occasion. They were pretty lax as to enforcing state pharmacy requests that were not yet law. I was told that we are not the police.
Dec 14, 2020, 9:41 am
#2990
Join Date: May 2019
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K, Hilton Diamond, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium Elite, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist
Posts: 453
I think in a year like 2020, we're more apt to take every new potential hurdle as the beginning of the end... At the end of the day, this is going to boil down to how well you know your CSR and how much volume you're trying to do...
If you don't know them (or know them well) and you walk up trying to do an 8-swiper or more, YMMV. We all freaked out when the $8K daily MO limit was set towards the end of 2018 and now we're just working the added limitation into our repertoire. This may heat up at the time the memo is being distributed and discussed but the enforcement will not be uniform and will probably taper off in intensity as we move into 2021.
There are also many excuses you can use for why you need to make multiple swipes. You want to split it across your debit cards, etc. No one should be so comfortable (even with CSRs they know well) to blatantly display the GCs when swiping or letting them know what you're doing in the big scheme of things.
This could mean some smaller BB and MO runs for awhile but I don't see it as a show stopper due to the subjective nature factor. Unless they absolutely know what you're doing, they can't make the judgement call that you are a MS'er...
If you don't know them (or know them well) and you walk up trying to do an 8-swiper or more, YMMV. We all freaked out when the $8K daily MO limit was set towards the end of 2018 and now we're just working the added limitation into our repertoire. This may heat up at the time the memo is being distributed and discussed but the enforcement will not be uniform and will probably taper off in intensity as we move into 2021.
There are also many excuses you can use for why you need to make multiple swipes. You want to split it across your debit cards, etc. No one should be so comfortable (even with CSRs they know well) to blatantly display the GCs when swiping or letting them know what you're doing in the big scheme of things.
This could mean some smaller BB and MO runs for awhile but I don't see it as a show stopper due to the subjective nature factor. Unless they absolutely know what you're doing, they can't make the judgement call that you are a MS'er...
Dec 14, 2020, 10:14 am
#2991
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
Amex has shown exquisite sensitivity to "unusual behavior" and shut down people who try to abuse these cards.
Just a warning.
Dec 14, 2020, 10:45 am
#2993
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: Continental Onepass, Hilton, Marriott, USAir and now UA
Posts: 6,440
Dec 14, 2020, 11:44 am
#2994
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: DUB-BOS
Programs: various
Posts: 3,690
I am not convinced either,
- Long long history of 'sky is falling' reports related to WM and MO's
- So far it is the same photo that is appearing in all the reports. One would have expected more copies to have surfaced.
- The date thing is odd,
- The reasoning for not allowing it - taking too much time is strange
- Use of terms such as MS, when before it has always been AML concerns they have raised.
- Future effectivity date, why not effective immediately?
- Finally, and most significantly, they have hobbled Vanilla and Meta with coding, so this is largely redundant. If they were to lock out USB and Greendot bins also, they have a more effective control than any memo
Dec 14, 2020, 11:50 am
#2995
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 129
I am also suspicious. It was last October we were seeing similar suspicious screenshots of a new policy that would require IDs on all MO purchases. Nothing came of that. As has been noted many times now, Walmart has always had policies which would have already prohibited MS activity and we see spotty enforcement.
Dec 14, 2020, 12:45 pm
#2996
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 267
I am not convinced either,
- Long long history of 'sky is falling' reports related to WM and MO's
- So far it is the same photo that is appearing in all the reports. One would have expected more copies to have surfaced.
- The date thing is odd,
- The reasoning for not allowing it - taking too much time is strange
- Use of terms such as MS, when before it has always been AML concerns they have raised.
- Future effectivity date, why not effective immediately?
- Finally, and most significantly, they have hobbled Vanilla and Meta with coding, so this is largely redundant. If they were to lock out USB and Greendot bins also, they have a more effective control than any memo
I would argue the odd date is actually the evidence FOR the actuality of the letter. If the fake "artist" want to make the fake believable, why would they make such an oddity when they know it'll make the authenticity of the letter suspicious? They would make it look real. Regarding the only copy, why would you expect seeing multiple copies, when it's not 19th yet? You know a lot of people with access to this memo and they have an obligation to make it public? Also, despite the "long history of sky falling", many reports did come out to be true, Metabank fiasco being the latest one. Regarding your last point, those events might very well be completely independent. WHile the Meta was being blocked, they (maybe a different department) got reports that CRS spend a lot of time with MSers swiping several times and failing, or whatever. That got escalated and the anti-MS policy, unbeknownst to the events happening on the Meta front, was put in place. They MIGHT be connected, but there's no strong indication they're related.
Dec 14, 2020, 1:55 pm
#2997
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DFW
Posts: 684
Whether the memo is fake or real, there are at least two WM's near me who will be implementing the policy for sure. These are WM's that I have been picking up MO's at for 5+ years. Most of the CSR's are friendly, they know me, they know about my family, I know about them and their families. So even if the memo is fake (I tend to believe it is real since multiple WM's have received the memo), it doesn't matter because these two WM's are now dead for MS. I just hope a few others remain friendly options.
Dec 14, 2020, 2:02 pm
#2998
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: DL, WoH
Posts: 1,253
Whether the memo is fake or real, there are at least two WM's near me who will be implementing the policy for sure. These are WM's that I have been picking up MO's at for 5+ years. Most of the CSR's are friendly, they know me, they know about my family, I know about them and their families. So even if the memo is fake (I tend to believe it is real since multiple WM's have received the memo), it doesn't matter because these two WM's are now dead for MS. I just hope a few others remain friendly options.
Dec 14, 2020, 3:43 pm
#2999
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Marriott/SPG Platinum
Posts: 496
one WM customer service associate showed me the memo last evening, so unless he showed me the fake memo.
Dec 14, 2020, 4:46 pm
#3000
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,507
Honestly I doubt it is fake. But like most people they don't believe it until it happens to their favorite WM stores and then they capitulate and agree. I am sure this same sentiment occurred when MB VGCs were starting to report issues of it not working starting Nov 11th and now I think most people have come to realize including myself that it is reality. You just hope that it may not happen to your stores initially but I would not be going hardcore at this moment assuming things are all BAU after 12/19.