Last week, Miles Per Day shared a US Post Office memo, directing staff to stop accepting Visa gift cards for money order purchases. A few readers have reached out to me since, slightly panicked about this latest dead deal. But…is it really dead? The memo states, “If a clerk is able to confirm that the customer is using gift cards for the purchase of Postal Money Orders, they will need to stop the sale.”
Straightforward enough, right? Except, some post office clerks won’t bother checking cards. They may not even hear about this memo or will outright forget/ignore it. The only way I’d be really worried was if they hard-coded the registers, which they haven’t. Yet.
But even if they did, there would be plenty of alternatives for folks worried about losing a valuable gift card liquidating source.
Update: As of 11/3 UPS Stores have hard-coded their registers to reject Visa gift cards for money order purchases.
1. Go elsewhere
There are plenty of places to buy money orders with a gift card. The post office isn’t even the cheapest option. Not everyone has an MS-friendly Walmart nearby—I get that—but there are tons of other places where you can buy money orders.
There’s K-Mart, Kroger’s, and Quick Stop gas stations (sometimes called Kwiq Stop). I realize a lot of folks were using the US post office to liquidate Vanilla Visa gift cards, which don’t work at Walmart. There are even more alternatives if that’s the case.
2. Buy Metabank Visa gift cards
If going to the post office to liquidate Vanilla Visa gift cards isn’t an option, then consider switching to Metabank Visa gift cards. These can be liquidated virtually anywhere, at a cheaper cost. You can buy Metabank Visa gift cards at giftcards.com and local malls, to name a few.
If you buy Metabank Visa gift cards from giftcards.com using a cash back portal, you can even eliminate a significant portion of the cost. Liquidating them is also simple. I go to Walmart. Some of you might favor grocery stores or K-Mart.
If all you have is the post office, then you might still get away with buying money orders with a Metabank Visa gift card. How? You can add your name to the ones issued by giftcards.com. Post office clerks might look at the name on the card and decide that’s all they need to approve the sale.
3. Churn merchant gift cards
If you have no other options for buying money orders, consider merchant gift card churning instead. It’s the perfect time to start since the holidays are just around the corner, and many merchants will be offering gift cards at a significant discount.
You can buy gift cards online, provide the card number to The Plastic Merchant or whoever else you choose to sell to, and then have the funds deposited into your bank account. It’s much easier than running around town, buying gift cards or money orders, depositing them, and then worrying about account shut-downs.
Final thoughts
That’s my take on the US Post Office money order news. It’s unfortunate for people who depend on this for their gift card churning routine, but there are other options available. In fact, I’m not convinced this is truly over.
The US Post Office is, after all, a government institution, and we all know how well it runs. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if post office clerks were slow to implement this, or not at all. Either way, there’s nothing we can do about it except move forward and find another way.
Does the Post Office’s new policy on rejecting gift cards for money order purchases affect you at all? How do you plan to cope with this new policy?
Had been successful at 3 local uspo in my area out of 5. Last one I went to showed the directive and refused after seeing ‘gift card’ on it. Will try again with different clerk and at other 2 uspo locations. Will try with one small card first. This causes loss of CVS which is easy and close to all. Does anyone know if it’s hard coded already?
Yep. See https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-usps-memo-gift-cards-are-not-accepted-to-buy-money-orders/.
I manage to fade out the words “gift card” with a black and gray Sharpie. Although I only bother when trying a new MO source, for the first time.
Most of mine come with my name on them.
PO is hard coded not to accept metabank, name on it or not.
Ariana, Can you do a more detailed post on buying;selling GCs online? Thanks!
I did one a while ago. Let me know if this is helpful: https://www.pointchaser.com/guide/plastic-merchant-tips-reselling-gift-cards-successfully/
Thanks!
USPS is hardcoded not to accept any GC with or without name as of 11/3/17.
As always, wonderful advice.
Thanks Allison!
VGCs from GiftCards.com haven’t worked at the post office for nearly a year.
Thanks Tonei. UPS was never my racket, so I appreciate the update.
They did indeed hardcode the registers. Please update post, thank you.
Done. Thanks!
Hi, your newbie guide to MS is out of date. What are the best cash back card to use for MS if you’re after cash back? What are the best cards to buy? Would you be willing to write about your current strategy including gift cards you buy and credit cards you use to buy them? TIA!
I like the Discover It Miles card (3% cash back the first year), Fidelity, Citi Double Cash, and Barclay Arrival. Current strategy is to buy Metabank Visas’s on giftcards.com. These work out fairly cheap and arrive by mail. This post pretty much sums up which cards I’m using (minus the Arrival): https://www.pointchaser.com/report/credit-cards-im-using-for-manufactured-spending/
Thank you, Ariana. It sounds like the fees can add up and it’s not all that lucrative, also time consuming. Can you give us an idea of how much you are making per transaction and how much time it is taking?
Actually, the fees can be eliminated if you play your cards right. Post coming up!
Also, are you using a cashback portal for the GC purchases? If so, which one?
I use Yazing for giftcards.com orders.
Quick Q, what about GCM? Read a few posts, you never really talk about it. Just curious if you could do a post about that. And what portals you’d recommend.
I don’t talk about it much since I haven’t been able to get an order processed with them in several years. I hear a lot of the same feedback from some of my readers. GC.com, on the other hand, works for pretty much everyone.
You mean Quik Stop and not Quick Stop? Kwik stop stores are in Nebraska and Colorado.
As for Quik Stop gas stations, beware that some of them might have skimmers and they could deny a transaction then steal your visa gift card #.