Someone on Twitter once called me the Grim Reaper of manufactured spending – I really hope that’s not the case here. Gloria from Southern California sent me an email a few days ago saying her local Walmart discontinued split payments on bill pay transactions.
They informed her they’d changed their system and splitting payments would no longer be a possibility. Thankfully, she’s still able to split payments on money order purchases, but my concern is that this policy will spill over to money orders and make its way into other stores.
This is all pure speculation on my part. But considering how things have been going downhill and the other times I predicted a downfall and it happened (despite others saying I was exaggerating, it was impossible, etc.), it could happen.
Nonetheless, I’m bringing it to your attention. You never know when a manufactured spending method will crash and burn, so it’s important to be prepared. That entails liquidating your gift cards rapidly and having a backup plan just in case.
I’m in Cabo through the end of the week and can’t test it out myself. But I’d love to get your ongoing feedback. If you encounter any problems with bill pay or money order purchases at Walmart, please share it in the comment section.
Just got back from Walmart trying to do a $1K money order which is usually a friendly Walmart. Cashier says they no longer accept gift cards as a form of tender. Since I was the only one there (since it was so early), I didn’t have the guts to try out KATE for GoBank either.
May just be an overzealous cashier but…..
Thanks for sharing, Kira.
Split a $1k @ WM no problem this morning
Good to know!
Since this is a publicly viewable website, I recommend against everyone sharing such explicit details about what they’ve tried and where…Just try something for yourself, as YMMV greatly from any retail location to another based on who that store manager on duty is (or the individual employee) that you are dealing with. I really enjoy reading this blog, but I also think that regularly detailing how you liquidate $40,000 worth of gift cards is very damaging to the hobby as a whole, as most people don’t have the discipline to do things carefully and become entitled, which sets off lots of concerns at all MS venues and brings unnecessary attention to the activities, which of course negatively affects people that are trying to (nice and quietly) earn reasonable amounts of points under the radar…
I’m not really detailing it anymore – I’ve been writing in much more general tones, since I do agree with you to a certain extent. Too much detailing/circle and arrows is damaging to this hobby.
Split payment with VGCs for MOs twice this week no problem.
The Walmarts around me never would split a payment for money orders (quite annoying!). They would just tell you to swipe the card, when it failed they’d get mad at you and if you swiped the card three times (failing obviouisly) it would lock up their computer system.
Hit a WM that only allowed split payment twice Max this week after the system update
Good to know. Thanks for sharing!
How in the world do you have the time to accumulate 40,000 dollars in money orders? You would have to buy 80 gift cards. That is crazy. You would have to go to several different stores to buy them with your credit cards. Then, you would have to go to several different stores to buy the money orders. After that, to several different banks, whether it was you or your relatives. You might seriously want to lay off for a while.
It’s not that hard. I can personally buy around $12,000 worth of gift cards per day (sometimes I get family members involved to generate higher numbers). Liquidating them doesn’t have to require going to multiple places. WM doesn’t have a maximum number of mo’s you can buy per day. These days, I buy $4k – $8k per store, depending on the cashier I’m dealing with, how long the line is, etc.