yeah, if it’s the same employee, usually means trouble, because they’ll get suspicious, unless of course if you knew that person very well

I don't do this if the line is long. I only do this with a few very friendly employees on days when it's slow. I just tell them I'll be back in 10 once my card limit resets, and they don't seem to care. They're a lot more chill at MCs about card loads / bill-pays compared to MOs.

Depends on the gift card. If it's a Visa I usually do $498. For Mastercard, the full $500 usually works for me.

Interesting DP, how often is "usually" ? Do you still get fraud blocks a few times?

It's been a while since I've had a $500 MC lock up. I guess I said "usually" because I wasn't 100% sure. But I've done many full $500 loads on MC and can't recall needing to do a lesser amount. I have had them decline, usually when I try to do more than 3 in 10-15 minutes or possibly trying to load soon after another customer loaded. OTOH I've never had luck doing a full $500 load on a VISA, though I've heard positive DPs from others So I always do $498 on Visas to be safe.

hmmm. Guess I'll try the full $500 on the MCGC next time and see. Probably be two more weeks or so.

Been a while since I've done this, is Discover debit loading still YMMV at Walmart or do all of them pretty much allow it? I stopped going a while ago when cashier made a stink. But I find myself sitting on about $5000 of Incomm Mastercard GCs. Going to WM is not very convenient for me.

AFAIK, they all allow, at the MC/CS desk. I haven't tried recently, but I used to be able to load (this is with the stupid Vanillas issued by BHN) for $60 or less at *some* registers, but that was highly YMMV (not all the cashiers knew about action code 70 or whatever). But I've yet to have one turn me away (ie: "no we don't load here") at the MC/CS.

This is Upstate NY/Vermont area, BTW.

I did a load yesterday. One swipe only.

Waited 5-10 minutes for the one employee behind the counter to open the shipping box then the Lenovoo laptop box
of a return being made by a destitute senior citizen.
Realized this is why "open box" electronics exist.
It was clear that the laptop box was unopened but that is Walmart's policy.

The visa issued by Sutton bank works in full $500 swipe. But they are hard to find now (cvs has them but the fee is $8.95”)

10 minutes? You had it easy 😄
I once had a person in front of me sending a western union to someone and not know any of their information, proceed to call them on the phone, and it took 25 minutes

I was thinking what is this senior citizen doing buying a Lenovo 17" FHD laptop.
If I was Walmart, I would be pi$$sed since I can't sell it as brand new anymore.

After a while you get to know who the WU Transfer people are. You see them in the parking lot and know you got to get to the MC before them because they will take an age to get anything done. IME the typical WU Money Transfer takes 10mins ( I am certain there is all sorts of nonsense in the process) but every so often you get a guy/gal who has no ID or no English and then the games really begin.
Rather than serving the next customer, I have seen CSRs wait while people leave for 15mins to get an ID so they can do their transaction!!

At least with a combined MC/Service Center there is a good chance people are doing returns which rarely take more than 5mins. The other bugbear is 4 terminals but never more than one open.

The only saving grace is they continue to let me buy MO's with GC's. The staff at the other more efficient WM in my area have made it their mission in life to stop MS. For them finding an MS'er is like finding a missing kid on a milk carton

Sutton/Incomm cards work most of the time (MC and V)
I think the main cause of failure is time between Purchase-Activation-Liquidation
I find if you try to liquidate a card same day, there is way higher odds of failure.
YMMV

:D