I’ve received a scattering of reports of people having issues purchasing money orders at Walmart using a gift card. Reader Chris was unable to do so in Bethesda Md and Northern VA area and reader Justin reports that last week there was a non-regular staff member observing transactions and this week they are refusing to process these transactions. I realize this has been YMMV for some time and not all areas are affected, but I thought it was worth mentioning. As always make sure you don’t buy more gift cards than you can spend down and always have multiple back up liquidation methods.
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Ouch, never heard that before.
Yeah. Started with 1 store. Now 2 stores confirmed. Seems to have rolled out latter half of last week.
The Walmart in Fairfax, VA refused to allow me to do Billpay or buy any MO with VGC . Does anybody know any other Walmart in VA that allows Billpay with VGC ?
hit 7 Walmarts today. 4 good, 1 m.o machine out of order, 2 gift card rejected
Did you notice WM are not allow CC to buy VGC in store now, Bill?
I just bought a VGC at Walmart this morning with my Chase Ink card. Maybe it’s regional? I’m in Illinois.
It appears that WM is updating their system software store by store and not allowing VGC purchases with CC. Two days before I purchased a couple of WM VGCs with CC with no issues and yesterday it would not go through at 3 WMs. Time to search for new methods!
I was shot down by CSR+manager about a month ago. Didn’t even get to try.
DP:
Success TODAY (7/21/2018) in Central FL:
3x $300 Visa GC’s (Metabank/Blackhawk) for a $899.xx MO (+ MO fee to total $900).
In Charleston, SC area, Walmarts had a register upgrade last March. Before that I could use visa gift cards to purchase $1,000 MOs. Since then, the register rejects the same types of cards (Meta, Blackhawk, etc) that worked before. Now, I go to local grocery stores to purchase WU MOs at $500 a pop. Inconvenient, but still works at the relatively low rate I do them.
In Chino, CA area there are some funny changes happening. I went to 4 different Walmarts in the area… 1 Walmart straight up is ONLY accepting cash to reload cards (Serve card) and they made signs for it and put it on every cashier. However that same Walmart happily accepted debit cards for money orders. Another Walmart accepts debit card serve reloads but started asking to see debit card/ID with money order purchases (I showed her my Chase Debit). She mentioned there was a new rule they’re enforcing, which is only one money order purchase per day. A third Walmart I went to I was able to purchase multiple money orders just fine. The fourth one is finicky, depends on the lady at the money center. Sometimes I don’t have issues, sometimes it’s cash only, sometimes they enter the wrong thing in their system and it messes up…..meh…Walmart is a mess here. A change that has been happening within the past month or two over here is that everyone started pointing me to the Money Center for Serve card reloads. It used to be I could reload them at any cash register (so I would reload my max by just going to different cashiers) now I can’t do that. I’ve tried different days/different people and gotten the same responses. If I go to a Walmart without a money center I can still max out my reloads (I always only reload with one ‘debit’ card in line, two if i’m the only one in line). When traveling to different cities (to see my relatives) for instance San Jose, I don’t have any issues but it’s such an overpopulated city that it’s not optimal. For the record, I’ve been doing this for years only once or twice a month (very casually) mostly Serve reloads for all of my family’s car payments and money orders since I’m already there. I call my VGCs debit cards when asked if paying cash or debit, if asked to see the debit I show my Chase or Wells Fargo (rarely happens). When doing Serve reloads I’ll generally only reload 1 VGC per cashier (and go to different cashiers) when doing money orders I’ll generally only split payment if I feel like the cashier knows what they’re doing/isn’t a suspicious person (I’ve never split payment with more than 2 cards) otherwise I’ll only do a $499 money order, eat the 1$ charge and will generally ask to purchase 2 separate ones. Never gotten asked why I want 2 separate ones but if asked I’d probably just say I need to make 2-3 monthly payments for something I bought online. If I get any push back I won’t ever push it, I just say ‘oh okay thanks I didn’t know’and walk away (this does happen occasionally) for instance if the cashier enters in the card reload incorrectly there are times it won’t go through. Or it’s cash only or any other reason they give. The past few weeks I… Read more »
Interestingly test course…
If you read my post above on how this has been changing and how I’ve tested it my way of money orders at Walmarts, you’ll see how each Walmart has been adjusting to this. I definitely agree with some folks on this site, including Chuck. People abuse the method at times. Worse part is that those same people are the ones that attract the attention to issues by arguing to cashiers. This of course ruin the technique for everyone else.
I was at Walmart two days ago and some fool had no common sense. He brought 10 gift cards to the counter still in their sleeves. Got all the Gcards on the counter and proceeded to unwrap them all in front of everyone. He didn’t care about the long line. Then, he argued with the cashier why it was not working as he has done this before and it had worked for him. He not only was trying to pass the $1000 limit but he argued that he was going to lose money as some cards were being rejected. After screams and arguments the tired chashier asked for help and the stupid client got his money order, somehow and my miracle. I was curious how this case developved in front of my eyes since I usually play it low when buying MOs. I usually ask a question if the system is down or if a transaction doesn’t work with a bank card but that guy was abnoxious and it looked like he was totally milking his resources blantly. I know, he got the money order but it marked the Walmart to a red flag.
Wow i’ve never seen that in person before but that is really upsetting to know. all it takes is one person and it ruins it for the rest of us. i’ve always wondered why people are reluctant to share their experiences/tips and tricks but i guess that would be why. thanks for sharing your experiences and tests.
Glad to know the IE is still good with WMs selling money orders. The SGV turned into a wasteland once Kates died years ago and I haven’t tried since other than for unloading Nationwide Buxx when that was around, although that was a legit debit card. I may as I am starting a Mango card and need to buy MO regularly, which will also be good as a test.
I just went to 5 WM in Northern VA after I had trouble with the Germantown WM in Maryland. Three out of 5 WM would only allow one swipe and 2 WM rejected all Debit gift cards. I think this may be the end of the MS road for VISA/MC gift cards.
Which ones allowed one swipe?
Chantilly and Fair Lakes and Fairfax on Rust Rd
Have you tried the one in Sterling, VA? I have not used since this post was created.
No
My three normal Walmarts in Northern VA which in the past never gave me issues converting VGC to MOs. all refused me today.
What time of gift card did you have? Visa, MasterCard?
Amount you wanted to the MO for?
Where you including the fee in the MO?
Visa, but it did not matter as the cashier all three store ask to see the card before swipe. This was cashier restriction, not POS.
$600
Yes.
No, it’s a POS restriction at the back end but it can be overridden. Corporations are trying to keep their fees/losses to a minimum.
Merchants get charged a different “interchange” FEE when a card transaction is a Gift card. The “interlink network” whacks merchants taking a GIFT CARD transaction a whopping 1.15% + $0.15 percent of the entire transaction whereas a DEBIT card transaction has a FLAT $0.30 the “supermarket” gets charged due to limits imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act.
Brian — When you say you didn’t have issues in the “past,” when was that? Nova has been basically dead for a while. Tysons was the go-to spot and has been dead for at least several months. The other stores have either been dead for a while or imposed limits (one card or one transaction with four cards) that made it not very worthwhile unless you were very close to the store.
By past, I mean two weeks ago. I have been converting VGCs in NOVA for the past few years. Best stores were Dulles, Manassas and Fair Lakes.
From experience, these are some of the reasons getting a MO represents a challenge at times. Again, this based on experience and not a true fact. 1. The gift card brand and type: A Mastercard is easier to process than a Visa by the Walmart system. What company extended the Gift card. 2. The Value of the gift card is also a reason. A $50 gift card will process farter than a higher value. ( I know nobody will M. spend with that amount but I’m a TESTA!) 3. The cashier helping you does not know how to use or process the transaction. (I have had several encounters with young people who do not know how to use the system -even if they tell you they do. It takes double the time and it gets declined more times. While more experience cashiers would know exactly when to tell you to swipe. (Some will tell you to wait before you put the “debit card” in and others would not even say a think before they hit their buttons on their screen.) The complication gets extended when their first attempt gets stuck and they have to wait for a manager to come fix it before they proceed to try a different way. 4. How updated the system is at a specific Walmart. I’ve seen that some have stayed with the old POS system and some have updated them even in the same city. (Some stores, have old systems so it’d take more time for them to update it.) 5. Swiping a gift card is prompts different things on the gift card than putting in a chip card. The system will assume is a debit card but the rep might hit the old button where it will be considered either a credit of debit card. The trick here is to know when to cancel the transaction before it is considered a credit card (Look up what people have done/ do when they are prompted to put in the pin number in.) 6. Also, it maters also how you pay for the fee charges for the service. 0.88 cents now? If you ask for the fee to be added on the card or if you ask for the fee to be paid in cash instead, the cashier will get all confused or challenged as they might not know what or how to do it to be processed. This happens a lot! 7. The Walmart System has glitches some days. I’ve tried getting MOs different days of the week as their lines are crazy on their weekends. Trying in the middle of the week is a lot easier but the system might be down at certain times. or have glitches as they update systems at night or (Sunday night) as opposed to trying on an early Saturday whey they know the system will busy during the day. 8. How old or new the gift card is. Some gift card batches have numbers that have been… Read more »
ok…