Should you use Walmart bill pay for manufactured spending?

This past weekend I held three webinars where I addressed people’s manufactured spending questions. It was fun and something I hope to repeat on a monthly basis (once I find a better meeting platform). Anyway, a topic that came up quite a bit during all three sessions was Walmart Bill Pay. People wanted to know what it was, whether I’ve used it, which credit cards can be paid with it, and whether they should even bother with it.

I think a lot of readers are curious about it, so I want to go ahead and address it here: Stay away from Walmart Bill Pay.

Walmart Bill Pay Shut Downs

Remember how Barclay shut down all of my credit cards? It happened weeks after I used the service to pay off my Barclay card balances using Visa gift cards.I had been using the Barclay Arrival card for heavy duty manufactured spending for several years. I didn’t get shut down until I started paying off my balance with Walmart Bill Pay.

A few people who had their accounts shut down had warned me about it. I knew better. I think I may have even warned readers not to do this. So when I got shut down, I wasn’t entirely surprised – just mad at myself for being irresponsible.

Walmart Bill Pay for Manufactured Spending

I used Walmart Bill Pay to pay off my Discover It Miles Card for a year without incident. I put about $100,000 worth of manufactured spending on that card and I probably used Bill Pay at least 80% of the time. It was a very quick way to liquidate Visa gift cards during my Walmart runs.

It also made it possible to MS more efficiently in the limited time period I had to take advantage of the 3% cash back offer. Does that mean you should go out and do the same? No. Just because I didn’t get shut down, that doesn’t mean you won’t.

A year ago I knew people who were spending $40,000+ per month to earn 5% cash back on the Wells Fargo card without any problems. My card was shut down a month after I got it. I had spend less than $5,000 on it! This happened after several people assured me they were able to manufacture spend with that card without any issues.

These people made their recommendations based on their experiences, and mine turned out to be different. Discover might decide tomorrow that they don’t like people using the service and shut down your account.

Final Thoughts

My recommendation? Steer clear of Walmart Bill Pay. It’s not worth losing a valuable card account, especially not if you have other options (i.e. buying money orders).

I want to hear from you all: Are you using Walmart Bill Pay as part of your manufactured spending strategy? Which credit cards are you paying off through the service?