I thought Pathward and BHN were the same.

LOL. Read a lot more. Pathward is a bank. The other main bank is Sutton. You'll see Metabank sometimes, but they changed their name to Pathward literally because Zuckerburg paid them to do it when he changed Facebook to Meta. There's a few other banks seen here and there including Sunrise and USBank that back these gift cards.

BHN is processor. They handle the network, not the banking. The other processor is Incomm. Generally the bank matters a lot less than the processor, but Incomm/Sutton has been the least problematic. Still, other things matter including the channel where the card is distributed. e.g. I have yet to see a single DP of an Incomm bought online locking up, but Incomm's bought at brick and morter have been problematic since the 2023 Holiday season. As for BHN, there are differences between the "plain" VGC and MCGC bought at ODOM vs. Staples. Search for posts from me with the word "experiments" in the title to see what I uncovered. Beyond that, there are differences between the "plain" vgc vs the 5Backs and Everywheres.

Read up and learn my friend.

Auto drain small amounts at WM?
 

Just started having issues in my area with $200 MGC - mostly work if I buy MO under $190. Haven’t found exact limit yet. In any case I’m left with a bunch of cards with about $10 each. My recollection is that WM SCO doesn’t auto drain. And even if I’m able to input exact amount there’s likely a swipe limit (4 cards?).

Looking for any advice or DPs.

And the reason I’m thinking WM is I figure that’s it’s a location where I:

1) regularly shop
2) don’t have any CC that give me a multiplier like a 3x grocery - other than a 2% card
3) can’t buy highly discounted GCs to shop there as I can for many other retailers

I have noticed that at SCO, WM now autodrains your card for partial balances. I suspect that the usual rules apply with max of 4 swipes, but have never tried more than two cards to accomplish full payment..

Unfortunately, some DPs still indicate a no go on partial drain unless you know the exact balance of the card being used :(

So your DP will be helpful

You can use 8 debit cards with the partial payment method in the self checkout. If you have a balance remaining, you have to use a credit card to pay the final amount.

Interesting new behavior I encountered for Vanillas. They now auto-flag themselves for replacement if you swipe too many times and fail, which means easy replacement and outsourced brain dead phone rep in India doesn’t attempt to stop you. SecureSpend however is same as before, they want to send it to some ........ “backend team” (why does any firm think it makes one iota of difference how their internal structure is setup? Especially when they use it as excuse against you?)

I've found the limit to be 6 in my local WM

In LAS, bought several Vanilla/SecureSpend, not going through at Walmart/Neighborhood Markets. Called up InComm and they suggested waiting 2 hrs after purchase to use. Is this new? Not just 1 he anymore?

The automated system will tell you when cards will be active. Two hours would be new, but it has always been store (and maybe region?) depended.

In the end, after visiting 8 WMs of various types, nothing has worked no matter how many hours it’s been. Then I remembered reading regionally many WMs in Vegas are hard coded like this, it’s a disturbing glimpse into the future when WM may decide to implement this across the country.

What bothered me was how some stores show a straight decline that you can see on the InComm website, others the card auto-rejects like the way MCGCs are sometimes auto-rejected with no opportunity to input anything. Now I have to lug all these VGCs home…

I could definitely think of better things to do in Vegas than visit 8 different WMs :o

Different strokes for different folks :)

Three cards got hung up at WM this week and were placed on "hold" by PW/Incomm. Three in one week was a first for me. All three were from separate purchases and subsequent transactions. All three need to be replaced. Good grief!

Pathward/InComm Vanilla from grocery store that did not go through with either Pay1040 or ACI. Last year they did. Called the number on back, was able to get to the refund portion of the conversation rather quickly for what I was expecting. They did not ask me to email in front and back of cards with receipts as they have for others in past. They simply took down my mailing info and said 3 weeks turn time. We shall see how this goes.

I would be very very surprised if you get anything back in 3 weeks or 3 years :eek:
Classic blow off tactic of the rep.

If you want your money faster, I would call back and "check" on your refund.
"Oh! We're sorry Mr, Delta Neutral28. We don't have any record of a refund request for you" :rolleyes:

Radon, what is the wait time after Kroger Pathward Visa purchase before purchasing a MO?

I should be good. This is the third time I've called in in the past 12 months, prior two went fine. Once you repeatedly ask for a refund the process speeds up. They try to get you to make the charge over the phone so they can monitor which I know in advance, so I have it tee'd up, then it obviously declines and then I ask for refund once they see it didn't go through from my good faith effort. I have a case number and the cards are showing as closed to charges online, so this is exactly what happened the prior two times when they mailed a check. I feel like we need a thread specifically dedicated to $500 gift cards (Visa/MC), all of the banks, all of the servicers, and where they all work and don't work both in store and online. And then in what amounts. The soup de jour from InComm reps over the phone (obviously none of them have any idea what they are talking about) is that "you need to make sure the places online you shop are allowing you to enter the 3 digit security code." I haven't purchased onlie where it didn't force you to enter the 3 digit code in years. I also got hit with "disconnect from your wifi and use your mobile data to make the charge this will help" which was comical.

A fourth card was placed on hold this morning within a week. I'm on a roll. It seems that FedEx is no longer an option for replacements. They all seem to come via USPS.

My 2 in the past 12 months have both been USPS

Mine had generally been FedEx, with an occasional USPS, but now they all seem to be USPS. It generally only takes a couple of days longer, so not a big deal, but is interesting that they cut back, given the $7.95 fees they now charge for the cards.

Express shipping is offered sometimes, but rarely these days. They actually charge $8.95 in some stores like tom thumb/market street.

Any sign of tampering?

I think the new design is utterly stupid. It did nothing to prevent a bad guy to check balance after some time when it is already activated.

IME, yes

A few days ago I had a $500 Pathward/InComm BIN 409758 purchased at Safeway fail at one of my usual Sacramento area WMs for a $240 swipe. The register slip didn't show an error code, just the message "DEBIT NOT APPROVED CALL AUTHORIZER", and the CSR told me I couldn't use a gift card without seeing my card. A couple of days later I tried again and the same thing happened, this time the CSR asked me if I was using a credit card and then told me I couldn't use a gift card, again without seeing the card. The same card later worked at another WM and then at a WMNM. So, it appears that this particular WM is coded to reject gebits and the CSR can see that it's a gebit from their side, but it isn't a systemwide update at least yet.

​​​​​​​The CS can’t see that you are using a VGC on their screen. The decline is happening from the card issuer. When it is declined, a small slip of paper spits out from the register with the code number, try to get that or ask what the code number is, this is necessary to figure out why it failed. It could be no/low funds, incorrect pin, or most likely in this case, code 93 which is the issuer declining for purchasing for like-cash products like money orders or a load of a discover card. This error can cause the card to stay blocked for a little while. The card can be used for any other type purchase right away.
Some Walmart CS agents have been instructed by management to check the card for gift cards or are a singe rouge employee.​​
Here is a site that lists a bunch of those codes for future reference. Credit-Debit card declination reasons

Do you know what code 56 actually means?

Umm, did you read my post? Or are you a bot just algorithmically reacting to keywords?

What makes you think I’m a bot? Just a user trying to help out another user. I didn’t see that code 56 is not listed on the link I included in my post.

Your response is often why people are reluctant to assist others in this hobby

A simple google search of code 56 credit card decline:

• Possible Causes:
  • The card number might be incorrect or invalid.
  • The card number has been reported as lost or stolen.
  • There might be a temporary glitch in the bank's system.

• Code 56 signifies that the issuing bank's system cannot find a record of the credit card number used for the transaction.

Me: You: :rolleyes:

Me: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

To be more obvious, I'm reporting that based on my experience, something has changed for the worse at that WM and may be a sign of things to come. I'll try a TGCS card when my order gets here to see if the issue is limited to B&M-bought cards

Thank you trying for to help though.

I called the 800 number to check on the card and the rep said the system is down due to technical reasons, I wonder if their system is down while we are in the store liquidating the card, whether it would given error and then it locks up.

Just as a DP, I did receive a 56 code after doing a second swipe with a SE card at a WM cashier loading a One card
I just cancelled the load and repeated it the next day without issue.
I had never seen a 56 code before, but chalked it up to some IT issue with either the underlying bank or BH. It is interesting that there is another DP out there with the same issue.

BH has put velocity control on the Everywhere cards. The consecutive second swipe failed several times in the last month.

Cannot find a record?
A temporary "glitch"? How coincidental that there was a "glitch" at WM when I was there, but no "glitch" at another store.
Amazing how BHN decided to have a "glitch".
I was able to use that card in-store at different store to make a purchase about an hour later.

Several DPs seem to indicate the BHN is blocking the second consecutive swipe. I reported such an incident several post up. While I was able to use the SE card at the same location the next day, it certainly is possible the the block lasts for less time. You were able to use the card one or two hours later.

On another point: Had a SE card fail to load at FD to BB. Will try again next week at another FD that has always worked in the past.

I've been hitting that issue with Pathward/InComms - one swipe per MC for B&M-purchased cards, even if the second swipe is in a second transaction. I don't know the time limit. Doesn't seem to affect cards bought online or replacements for locked cards.

Regarding the 56 error, it may not be accurate, it's whatever is programmed on the back end. I once had an Adobe programmer swear up and down that I couldn't possibly get a particular error message from what I was doing, until they found an error in their source code that would produce it just like I claimed. :rolleyes:

So I did need to craft the email to the premium fax with case number, front and back of cards, and receipt. Refunds mailed out in two weeks hopefully. Process is pretty straightforward, ask for refund/case number over the phone, then give info, get case # for email.

I've comfirmed that Pathward/Incomm Visas from Safeway fail and lock on the first swipe for $240 at several WM and WMSCs around me, both at Money Centers and Customer Service. The error code is 57 = Transaction Not Permitted by vendor. As of today they still work okay at WMNMs, and the replacements work for full value at all WMs.