Using an Amex card to buy money orders
 

I was at the grocery store today and walked passed this enormous rack of gift cards and asked one of the ladies behind the customer service desk if I could buy money orders with their grocery brand gift card, and she told me that they normally only use pinned based transactions or cash. She asked why I would use a gift card, and I explained that I only had my American Express card on me and that I needed to buy one.

So she said well I will let you use your Amex card this time but next time try to bring in cash. So I bought several for one $3 charge. I called Amex and they told me I only have $400 in cash advance. Do you think these will be charged as a regular purchase since they signature and not pin based?

your title says you purchased Money Orders with your CC, yet your post is talking about Gift Cards 2 different things, which is it???

GCs can be purchased with a CC all the time, no big deal. About the only good thing is being able too use an Amex to purchase GCs for Sams Club which dont accept Amex, at a Walmart

Now being able to get ca$h out of a GC would be something else but that was going on a couple of yrs ago before it was Closed down. If you cant get most of the value ca$hed out of it, I dont see a reason to get them.

I think Astrophsx asked the clerk if he could use an American Express card to buy a store giftcard, then use that giftcard to buy money orders. The clerk said that giftcards could not be used to buy money orders, but instead permitted the money orders to be purchased with the American Express card on an exception basis. Now, Astrophsx wants to know if the transaction will post as a cash advance rather than a purchase.

Got it, I was thrown by the 'called Amex and was told I have a $400 cash adv', I took that to mean they got Amex GCs and was only able to withdraw $400 max from the GCs say at an ATM