A couple of weeks ago I wrote about whether you can buy money orders with a Metabank MasterCard gift card. Giftcards.com offers a higher cash back rate (1.25%) on MasterCard gift cards than Visa gift cards (1%). Buying MasterCard gift card works out $6.25 cheaper per $2500 than Visa gift cards. That’s a $250 saving on $100,000 worth of gift cards (enough for a roundtrip business class award ticket to Asia using Alaska miles).
The problem with MasterCard gift cards is actually using them to pay for Walmart money orders. It’s kind of tricky, but thanks to some reader feedback and trial-and-error, I was able to figure it out. UPDATE: As of 7/29 this trick works on all four swipes.
Using MasterCard gift cards for money orders
The issue with MasterCard gift cards is that they initially get processed like credit cards. That’s problematic because Walmart registers are hard-coded to reject credit cards for money order purchases. The work-around has always been to hit the “cancel/change payment” and then select the “debit option.”
I’ve done this successfully at Walmart stores in the past which, unfortunately, are no longer MS-friendly. It hasn’t worked at my local Walmart. I kept hitting the “cancel” button and the transaction would simply cancel or sometimes a “card could not be processed” message would pop up right after the signature screen appeared.
Last swipe trick
Reader Ricardo left a comment on my original post, saying I should try using the MasterCard gift card on the fourth (and last) swipe. That’s because when the cashier has to specify a payment amount rather than letting the register automatically run the charge for the amount due, the cancel/change payment trick doesn’t work.
On a $2,000 money order purchase, the cashier doesn’t have to specify the amount on the last swipe because the remaining amount due is $500. So I took Ricardo’s advice and used three Visa gift cards, swiping the MasterCard last. I hit the cancel button on the screen and sure enough, I was presented with the debit option. I selected debit, declined cash back and the card was accepted!
Save money on gift card fees
While I didn’t have too many MasterCard gift cards and could have easily liquidated them through other means, the fact that this experiment worked is a relief. Now I have an easy liquidation option and I can save money on gift card fees going forward. I wanted to provide this update in case you’re having a similar issue.
I haven’t used MasterCard gift cards in years, so getting this tip from a reader was incredibly helpful. And it goes to show the learning process goes both ways.
Have you had this issue while liquidating MasterCard gift cards? Have you tried the above tip to work around it?
Nice!
Awesome!
Good to know! Do Masters on GC.com work to pay citi over the phone? I have never tried this but have read about it.
Citi didn’t work for me. They want name of cardholder and address. Didn’t work for me
They worked for me when they were issued by Bancorp and I think it was sometime July 2017 when all GCs from GCcom and GCM started to be issued by Metabank and it no longer worked for debit payments to C1t1.
Would it be even easier to just take it slower and buy $500 money order at a time? I’m assuming the $500 is the highest amount on a MC gift card, correct?
That’s really time-consuming (and would probably bug the cashiers) so I wouldn’t go this route.
Ariana you seem very knowledgeable. How do you go about making the most of your time. What is the most fluent way you’ve used visa debit gift cards to transfer to money orders?
We no longer have a Walmart near us that will allow $2K. One completely shut down Visa gift cards for MOs, another limits the purchase to $1K and the other $750. Sigh….
Same limit at EVERY Walmart I’ve tried over the years — 1k. Isn’t that actually the norm? What Walmart locations are actually still permitting more than 1k money orders? Or have I missed something.
Here in Maine you can still do 2k. Has to be one transaction though. I rarely handle 500s but it’s mighty convenient when I do! Much like USPS RIP.
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What is the timing to hit the cancel button when you do this?
Like, right away. You only get a couple of seconds to do it.
right after swiping card, I count 1001, 1002 and press the red cancel button. this has worked for me all the time to make the green debit come up instead of the signature screen.
Interesting! Thanks for explaining!
Is this on the old system or new? On the old system you need the cashier to specify the amount before completing the transaction. I’ve heard on the new system it’s the opposite. Apparently we swipe and then they specify the amount to pull. It sounds pretty bizarre but might fix the MC problem. Or kill the work around!
Thankfully I’ve never had problems liquidating MCs. Would suck if I had to buy 3 Visas for every MC lol!
Thanks for the HT. Also works if you only buy 1 money order for $499.30 using only the MC.
That would be super time-consuming for me on a $10k purchase!
Does this work for Vanilla Mastercard Gift Cards? Or, can even liquidate a Vanilla MC GC?
I stopped buying those MC’s since they weren’t tracking at 1.25% anyway. Has TCB or anyone else fixed that yet?
This worked for me the last batch of $2465.25 MCGCs from GCcom:
$465.25 loaded to reloadable prepaid – one swipe doing cancel trick.
Each of the four $500 was paired with two $200 BBY GCs for total of $899.30 MO. The MCGC was swiped last with the cancel trick and all were approved.
I only buy the MCGCs when some portals offer extra bonus; otherwise, I stick to the Visas. I got yazing to track it for 1.25% after opening a ticket. I saved a screenshot in case I need it to prove later that they offered 1.25% at the time of click-thru.
What is a BBY giftcard?
BestBuy $200 VGCs
Nice!
I’ve panicked after walking out of the supermarket with a MC when I thought I bought a Visa! I had to us Venmo to liquidate that time. Now knowing this trick works I don’t have to stress over it. – thanks @Ricardo for the tip – thank you @Ariana for testing!
I do wonder, does this problem only affect (possibly a subset of) $500 MCs? Has anyone been unable to change pymt on the $200 USB from Staples? If so, people (including myself) are gonna freak after the next rebate!
Pretty sure you can just not have the associate hit “enter”. So, swipe, change payment button, select debit, put in pin, then have them hit enter. Can do 4 that way.
so TCB tracks at 1.25% or no? seeing mixed DPs
It’s supposed to be 1.25% for MasterCard gift cards. But I have heard from a few folks whose orders were not tracked at that rate.
Ariana, the gift cards from giftcards.com, if they are issued by MetaBank then it’s the same like what we can get at Staples, and the PIN is set with the last 4 digit?
Hey Bob — you’re correct!
Yes, the Staples cards are pretty much the same. PIN = last four digits.
Wonderful trick ariana, I will surely try 😉
I have a “Sunrise” mastercard debit that came with a pin. Does this work same way as this? Today i tried to use it to bill pay at Walmart and wouldn’t take this Mastercard debit.
I have an international MC debit card issued by Axis Bank (India). Will this trick work? I tried to create a $1000 money order just this card but it always comes up as a credit. I’ve tried to press the cancel button after swiping but do not get an option to switch payment to debit.
It does come up as credit, but you have to hit the cancel button on the screen (as opposed to the pin pad).
Hello everyone,
I’m new to the MS game and I recently purchased a 5 back VGC at Office Depot with my ink cash card. I attempted to take the card to Walmart to buy a MO but the cashier said they don’t take GCs and it required a PIN # that I didn’t have. Can I circumvent this process or am I stuck trying to spend the VGC? If I can, how do I do it?
Don’t say you’re using gift cards. “Debit.” It’s always debit.
the pin is the last 4 of the card. I always call the number on the back and change the pin after buying the VGCs.
Thank you Mike and Ariana. I lost my money order virginity and it was amazing!
LMAO!
Are the Simon Mall VGC’s PIN code the last 4 digits of the card too? Has anyone used it for MO at post office?
Today, I tried to buy MO at the post office, and was denied. I set up the PIN online beforehand, but it didn’t work. I called the toll free number on the back of the card, and they said it would only work for non-financial transactions, like postage.
The post office stop taking these over a year ago bro. There is a convoluted way at Walmart that too much work. Publix works well.
So are you trying to say that you cannot buy Moneyorders with all MC gift cards .?? I have a big bunch of mastercard GCs lying with me and no visa GCs. Please advise what to do to liquidate the MC GCs
It seems you would need to buy $499.22 MO’s separately at WM. Or I suppose it could be $500 MO’s but you would need to pay the fee first in cash, since the MC needs to be the last transaction, where they don’t need to enter an amount. Cashiers have their own way of doing things. Some will do the fee first, others pretty much refuse and want to do the GC’s first, in my experience.
The WM I go to would only allow you to buy one MO a day that way. They all limit me to a single transaction per day. So if I had 4 $500 Visas I can do two $1K MO’s with 4 swipes. But MC would be a single swipe per transaction.
You can. That’s what the post explains. 🙂
One of the WM that i visit will let me liquidate 10000.00 of gift cards per day × 7 days a week. When using MC GC from GC.com, i tell the CSR that i would like 2 MO for 999.12 ea. The total comes to 2000.00 with fees. I then swipe the first 500.00 card and hit the change payment button (wiil stay displayed untill you touch it) hit the debit key and then no for cash back. The CSR then enters the amount (500.00) and processes the card. NO PROBLEM! Repeat with the other 3 cards. Start the next transaction with 4 new cards.
Can you send me that location so I can liquidate faster? 🙂
I tried to buy MO In Walmart for 1k. Told cashier that I Will use 2 debit cards. I used first card ( master card gc) They got a slip saying credit not allowed. I tried again , pressed cancel button immediately, still it was trying to do credit.
Should I do anything different?
Shd I use 1 Visa card for 500(it has pin) and another master card( no pin)?
Any help is appreciated
read wiki of:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending/1885618-buying-money-orders-walmart-2018-a-78.html
Thank you. I will try that option
is it easier to use visa gift cards to purchase money order and if so please tell why i have a few that i would to use. Thanks
Hey could you use visa or master gift card successfully? And in which Walmart store did you try?
I was able to use MC after the Visa GC and it worked with hitting cancel button right after swiping the card. However this morning I tried and it did not work but I notice this time I bought MC GC from Metabank and all other times they were issued by US Bank
Weird. I’ve had success with Metabank. Going back this weekend, so I hope it still works.
Hitting the red cancel button doesn’t work for me. I have to hit the “change payment” button on the screen at my local Walmart money center.
Is anyone having luck with $200 visa gift cards at Walmart? I tried at Walmart money center today and it didn’t work.
You might have an issue with your card – I tried to use two of mine and it turns out they were not activated properly. The second one, I was told, was canceled by Staples. This is the second bad batch of gift cards I’ve received on Visas from Staples/GCM.
I have been able to use the method that Michael Morin described above for all 4 swipes with a Mastercard. Worked at all Walmart stores except one that seemed to have an older POS terminal system.
Of course, as long as your friendly old white lady cashier will not insist on helping you. One took the effort to walk around the counter and hit cancel all the way on the pad because she insisted she has to enter the amount before I press anything!!!
Lol! I find that kind of endearing. I’ve come across older ladies like that before – I think they just take pride in working and want to convey a sense of authority.
Ariana, do you know whether you can purchase money orders at Publix or Food Lion with MasterCard gift cards?
I don’t know about Food Lion, but I believe Publix is still a viable option. Have you tried Kmart? Might be worth checking out.
Ariana is on the west coast 🙂
You can use Mastercards at Publix and Food Lion. Usually you can do up to 6 swipes. Cards will auto drain as well
Thank you very much, Teo. That’s so helpful. Staples with Chase Ink, here I come!
Still can’t get this to work…