GundamWing01

appreciate the DP, but you should already know that every bank is unique and has it own risk tolerance levels. some are more aggressive than others. your DP for cap1 vs other banks like chase makes a huge difference. people abuse cap1 plenty and there are many DPs of shutdowns for cap1. so you shouldnt have been surprised by your own shutdown because cap1 is known to be crazy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusine...k_visa_account
https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusine...ed_both_credit

this is why we collect DPs. of course nothing is certain and everything is YMMV, but we can hypothesize with high certainty of how certain banks react to certain transactions. your comment "I wish people here would stop pretending to know what cannot be known", is partially misguided. of course we would never know the exact risk tolerance rules set by a bank, but certain rules and behaviors can be identified with many DPs.

ogg

But the rules and behavior change--and what you think is a bank policy may be some random action by someone who has eyes on your account--an action that others who look at your account would not take. Risk tolerances are constantly adjusted. Marketing departments boost sales by relaxing requirements. Compliance departments kill volume by increasing security supervision. It's an ever-changing battle.

And it's much, much harder to make a buck doing MS now than it was a few years ago.

radonc1

Would you rather be cold-cocked each time a financial institution makes a change in policy without publishing it beforehand?

The purpose of DPs is to give some forewarning of detrimental changes so that corrective action can be initiated.

Ignoring history only permits you to replicate mistakes others have already made

craz

So very true, I got an email a few months back that my bank wanted to talk to me and couldnt reach me. Which didnt make sense so I thuoght it was a phishing thing. Called my personal banker could reach him, called the Elite Line and they confirmed the email was real

Turns out the computer saw some strange activity on my acct (True but justified) and they simply wanted to know what was up, so why wait 2 months after it occurred to ask me??

Anyways explained everything and he was satisfied all is good and just before hanging up he says 1 more thing,Yep he wanted to know what was up with the MO deposits from 2 days the week before. Once the Eyes were on my checking acct thats that. I explained what I was able to how Im owed money and with Covid who am I to tell someone who owes me money how they must pay me and the amount. I will accept anything and any amount, even said Id take it in nickels and dimes if need be as thats alot better then getting nothing at all

Been waiting for the SOL letter TG it hasnt come.

I dont MS much on their CC and when I did/do its in person no online orders

But once they need to look at your acct All bets are off, so you can be Shutdown from MSing when they werent even noticing it to begin with and were interested in something completely unrelated

ogg

But if you don't really know the causes for AA, you limit yourself by following supposed rules that are imaginary, which provide no protection whatever from AA. It's not like the people posting DPs have special knowledge of why they got AA--they're usually just guessing. The notion that cycling CLs is very dangerous, for example, is contradicted by many, many DPs of people who have done that for years without any AA. There are waves of AA which catch lots of people who are just continuing to do what never caused problems before. Navy FCU and Pentagon FCU killed a lot of cards in the past year of people who hadn't changed behavior that was apparently acceptable for years before the AA....just to give more examples.

wmy2008

Hi, did you solve your issue yet? Finally, it happen to me. Bought 13 card, one got drain out 1k entirely. I called BHN, and had an dispute case open. Also wondering, should I talk to Simon people as well?
Activated on 9/5, and one get drain out on 9/6. Thing look so scary now.

bearchugger

I've been reading that Simon GC's will require an in store purchase but does it apply if I just buy one or two $500 cards online at a time? I do low volume, just to meet MS. I've been doing GCM purchases but they have recently lowered the max amount.

Also, can I liquidate the same as with the GCM purchases? I've been doing MO's at WM.

bodansky

I bought a couple of $500 Simon, order was approved. The instore purchase requirement is for the 1k GC.

Yes, liquidated same as GCM.

ericdabbs

If you are already vetted before (ex: purchased from them several times before with no chargebacks or reported stolen CCs) and are on the special approved list which I am at my local Simon mall, you get to fill out a more simplified form which doesn't ask you to refill in this information. But if you are green and have never purchased from them before they will usually ask for this information to put you in the system. You probably are not used to this anymore since you have bought from them so many times and are given the simplified form. Maybe this is a YMMV but I highly doubt that Simon would leave themselves exposed without capturing this KYC information especially if you are a first time user for such a large amount.

I would love to hear from people who are new to buy Simon VGCs and can share their experience if they had to provide SSN and DL information when purchasing for the first time.

GundamWing01

well, you are free to play this game however you wish. nobody is here trying to convince you of anything. if you want to be skeptical of all the DPs and classify AA warnings as baseless imaginary random "guesses" then thats 100% your own choice. good luck. all your examples are simply supporting that this game is YMMV. that doesnt mean the rules do not exist. however, the rules are not applied consistently. thats all. even with the AA train nuke, some are still alive after abusing mailers. i cant explain that besides YMMV.

youre also not the only one to be skeptical of various restrictions. plenty of people love to argue how certain rules dont exist like WMBP, cycling, and MO payments. again, feel free to play this game at your own risk tolerance level. even when i recommend liquidating simon GCs ASAP vs letting it sit for weeks because theres clearly a breach of some kind, nobody cares until their GCs are hacked. its amusing.

RedSun

Agree with a lot said above. To me, Simon is probably one of the most obvious MS activity CC banks are aware of. I'd just use common sense and a lot of precautions.

1. Limit $ and volumes.
2. Rotate CCs.
3. Vary purchase amount (add one more other variable card etc).
4. Never deposit MOs at the same bank.
5. Do not use CCs with authorized users.
6. Read, and avoid the CC banks who are known to be unfriendly to Simon.

radonc1

The rules are anything but imaginary. They are very real which is why people get shut down. Your issue is that we, the shuttees, don't know the rules, which is very true.

However, that does not mean that we shouldn't try and discern what they are from DPs that are available to us. This is how we infer what the rules are. Are we 100% correct. Of course not, but inference needn't be absolute to yield valuable data on future outcomes from present behavior.

One can always proceed with their head in the sand, but they shouldn't complain about their outcomes because they behaved that way

nall

I don't really think this is the case; plenty of us who haven't had it happen to us are quite concerned but it didn't seem worth a post just to say that.

XtraPerks

Rep advised me that purchase limit of $25,000 no longer includes fees. Bought 25 1K in person today.

danpeake

Nice. Hope that's online too!