Last week, I made a routine stop at my MS-friendly Walmart. I’ve been going to this location for years. I know the manager, staff and even trained a few cashiers on how to deal with “gamers.”
[UPDATE 8/15/19: I returned to the Walmart location this morning and was informed the new rule was implemented by a new manager. The staff explained the situation to during a team meeting and the manager approved the reversal of the new policy on a case-by-case basis. Basically, it’s now up to the cashiers whether they want to sell you money order or not. Get your Krispy Kreme stamp card out!]
I walked in, greeted one of my favorite cashiers and when I told her I wanted four money orders for $999.12 each, she looked at me, surprised. “You don’t know about the new rules?” I hadn’t been there in about a week.
She explained that the store manager had implemented a new rule: Only one transaction per customer, per day. The worst part? Purchase amounts are limited to $2,000. That’s crazy, considering every other (non-MS friendly) Walmart will still allow four swipes, i.e. $4,000 per transaction. I verified that this applies to everyone.
The said unfortunately it does. I asked her what brought this new rule about. After all, the points and miles customers routinely fill out customer service surveys, which greatly help the store. And generally, we’re all very good about letting customers ahead of us when there’s a long line. I think there were a few issues that lead to this shut-down:
1. Fraud
Recently, a regular gamer got banned for what I’m told was using a fake ID and false personal information while buying money orders. That’s really serious, considering Walmart reports this information to the IRS.
The fact that this person lied on what is essentially the FinCen form created a huge compliance issue for this Walmart store. This is the second customer I’m aware of who got banned for this reason.
2. Long lines
I’ve always made it a habit of letting other customers go ahead of me in between transactions. To keep the line moving and avoid complaints from customers. But I noticed not everyone else did the same.
About a month ago, I was told that since lines were such a problem, the store had implemented a new policy: Gamers had to get in the back of the line in between transactions.
I visited this store in the mornings on my way to work, so lines weren’t an issue for me. But clearly, it was getting out of hand. Which brings me to my next point:
3. Surveys
One of the redeeming qualities of gamers was that the store could count on us to fill out customer service surveys. These are really important. Too many negative reviews and the store gets penalized. One cashier told me she got promoted off all the surveys I completed for her.
The incentives were so high that the store rewarded its employees with a $5 lunch credit for every positive survey that mentioned their name.
I’m sure not everyone took time to complete the surveys. On more than one occasion when I walked into this store after a long hiatus, I was greeted enthusiastically and asked, “Can you please help us with surveys? We got several negative results and need at least 10 to offset each one.”
I think the long lines, which ticked off customers, had something to do with that. And when gamers didn’t fill out the surveys, the store lost its incentive to accommodate us.
I think the demise of this MS cash cow was really due to a perfect storm of things going wrong. Ultimately, selling money orders isn’t hugely profitable for Walmart and when it involves gamers, there is some risk. When people weren’t following the rules and creating more trouble than they were worth, the store manager put his foot down.
The importance of having a back-up plan
I’ll wait for the dust to settle before I check in with the manager. But this is why it’s so important to have a back-up plan. I have access to at least four other Walmart stores where I can buy money orders, though the maximum transaction amount is one.
That’s not too bad when $1,000 Visa gift cards from Simon Mall are involved. It is, however, problematic when using lower denomination gift cards from cheaper sources.
Next steps
Getting shut down by my MS-friendly Walmart is disappointing but ultimately it’s a blessing in disguise. I’m leaving my job at the end of the month, which means I can’t drop by this location on my way to work anymore.
Driving out there for just a money order run isn’t worth it, even at $8,000. That’s why I usually brought along people to help me liquidate Visa gift cards in bulk. Regardless, MS’ing at that particular location was going to be a bit of a hassle going forward. At the very least, I can liquidate $2,000 – $4,000 worth of gift cards per day at two other stores close to home.
I know a few of my readers visit the same store I referenced. Has this thrown a wrench into your manufactured spending routine? What would you do if Walmart stopped accepting gift cards for money order purchases?
Same thing happened to me. My favorite Walmart politely told me not to split transactions anymore and no gift cards. Also, she started typing for a long time on the screen and took my ID info even when MO was under 1000. Is that normal?
No. She’s reporting you for suspicious activity.
In your experience Ariana, what’s the implications of that happening? This happened to me about 10 days ago after my 2nd $999 MO in 2 days…this morning when I went to pay a few MO’s into my bank I got a message on screen saying that one of the checks needed further scrutiny before funds would be available. Can’t be certain, but it’s the same MO.
That actually happens to me a lot at WF. I think it has to do with the ATM not being able to pick up the ink on the money orders. It usually clears the next day.
Yes this was a WF that I was using for the deposit. Thank you Ariana, that’s made me feel better.
So is the damage already done or should I just stop going to that WM forever for MO? This is just ridiculous. I in fact filled out very many surveys at that center.
Always worth trying in a couple of months.
I’m pretty sure when they type a lot and take your ID under $1000 they are filling out an MSAR (Money Order Suspicious Transaction Report) which covers their butt if you turn out to be a money launderer. At one WM I go to, one CS lead always fills this out under $1k while none of the remaining staff do. YMMV, as they say.
More and more Walmarts are either lowering transactions or one really friendly WM in San Diego totally forbids any transactions with VGC’s now. 🙁
That sucks! But that’s why people should have a back-up plan.
The closest Walmart to me does not allow gift cards at all anymore… It seems like the registers are hardcoded now, as I’ve gone multiple times and worked with multiple cashiers.
I wonder if WM noticed a huge jump with the Simon Mall $1k cards?
They actually liked the easier transactions (two instead of four) per customer. Mine was subject to repeated gamer fraud.
I was going to make another Simon Mall run this week, but this has me spooked. Even my local grocery store that I could always count on letting me swipe as many cards as I need to has now set a limit of only 1 money order per day.
We gotta start thinking beyond money orders.
My local WMs (DC Metro Area, including VA and MD) shut down using VGCs a year ago. I have been pitching about looking for an alternative since. I’d like to see an in-depth UPDATED post on Plan Bs and Cs. I’m sure a lot of us would appreciate it very much!
As of Saturday – I did a Simon/WMT combo and it worked very well. At lunch , I did another Simon run – but cannot make it to WMT until Tuesday after work – so will have to see if I am shut down or not. I was talking to an associate at my local Simon and she mentioned how it would be very convenient if they had a money order operation. She said it was being discussed. I replied – they could probably charge a bit more than WMT or Grocery stores for the convenience factor. So, I hope my local WMT is still fine.
BS on the fraud. Heard it a thousand times. It’s just an excuse to cut back on the lines. They see us regularly and see us as scammers so are happy to add ridiculous restrictions. But gamers aren’t the ones who take forever – it’s the disorganized nimrods returning 8 items on 6 different crumpled receipts, coupled with badly-trained cashiers who can’t do more than a few transactions without needing an override from a CSM.
They know we’re not scammers. But when people from the group falsified information on the Fincen form, it created compliance problems for them.
Start getting 1K money orders at unfriendly locations. As long they are the Simon ones that don’t require a split, it has been successful for me.
Tried that today and they asked to see the cards. This is getting harder by the day.
Given that it is dead now, can you tell us which Walmart it was?
I am on vacation in New Orleans and Florida, in all Walmarts I’ve been to I was able to get MOs. One by one got the Cashier to hand me over a MO, however they didn’t know I was using GCs as a method of payment. In two locations they were asking me about my payment method once I started to ask for more than one MO in different transactions, so they refused to sell me one. I guess the issue now is that people who are doing high quantities are messing up with the game or we could say that we are more vulnerable to get “caught” using GCs.
Try the WMT on Williams in Kenner. The WMTs in NOLA city limits are not GC friendly.
I’m seriously thinking of going out of town for a while to do some MS’ing.
I remember Kroger’s started wanting to see your name printed on the cards. Has anyone tried ordering cards from gift card mall that have your name on them?
for what it’s worth I’ve done money orders before at my Walmart but typically I just load my GoBank accounts. I’ve always been able to do 6 to 8 transactions in one visit but was recently told that they started limiting it to 2 transactions. I explained that I had 2 accounts so they allowed me to do 2 transactions for each (4 total) but that’s still annoying as I was able to liquidate two $1500 gift card mall orders in one visit and now I can’t do that.
My local WM Money center ask to see the card you are using when buying MO long time ago, so I began to load GOBANK at register instead, but last week I was told they also need to see the “debit” card for Go bank loading… Sad
Same happened to me today.
I’m going to start relying on card loads much more. One of my local WM’s today asked to see the card and said gift cards were a no-go.
I just completed a survey. Thanks for the reminder. Since you do so many, do you give your name and contact info at the end?
The name and contact info is only for the giveaway, so I skip that part.
Try Publix if you have them. Competent persons.
No Publix unfortunately, but I’m seriously thinking of taking a trip out of town for a couple of weeks for some heavy ms’ing.
I was shut down twice (diff WMs) this week by clerks telling me I was “structuring” when I tried to get a MO with GCs – they clearly had no idea what the term meant, as I trying to give them my ID. I also would love to know what is beyond MOs, but my guess is that whatever those methods are are not going to talked about widely, in order to preserve them. It’s not 2014 anymore, and there’s no Bowtie to give people the circles and arrows.
Once the Clerk said “GCs are used for money laundry”, I told her I am not doing it, you should educate yourself first and left. There are other clerks and other stores, we can’t get all of them to agree with us in this game.
Facepalm.
That’s some clueless nonsense. And the sad part is I’ve heard this several times before.
Have the banks ever noticed the high volume of deposits? I have done the SM run a four times times this month so every week, I am paying off the card debt with Money Order spend. If not twice per week. Did you have problems with the banks shutting you down? I am thinking of going this weekend for a bit more MS before the offer ends plus I think my credit card cycle ends in a week plus so will get the cash back to cover expenses accrued.
I’m sure they have and it hasn’t been a problem so far. YMMV.
Is your local shut down now, mine have been ok Kroger is hit or miss depending on cashier
I actually went back today and they’ve reinstated me. 🙂
Nope! Got mine back. Though another WM I used to go to for $4k mo’s recently informed me they can only take cards with names on them. No SM, but they will allow GCM cards.
We need to figure a way out to educate these peeps at Walmart or grocery stores to show them were not fraud. Any ideas or thoughts on this? There all worried bout fraud. On another note Everytime I try and go over 1k I am getting questioned. I can easily get 1k approved everytime without name on GC. Trick I use is if they ask for name on gift card have a GCM gift card as a backup. Aslo get a design that doesnt look like a Gift card. Works everytime.
I’m in OC. We need a meetup to go over some MS Haha.
I’m new to this and I’M applying for the Hilton Amex card. Does that card allow me to by VGC and still get points? What is go Bank? And how long will Simon mall be running the 1k gift promotion? Is there a group I can follow for absolute beginners?
Not at Simon Mall. GoBank is a prepaid card that can be loaded with Visa gift cards. Simon Mall is running the promo through the end of August. You can join the PointChaser Facebook group!
I have only ever MS’d in small quantities just in case. No more than $2k. I only had 1 WMT near me in Boston that accepted 4 cards at once (perhaps more, I never pushed it). That WMT now only accepts 2 cards at a time. The other 2 WMT’s nearby have only ever allowed 1-2 cards. I haven’t visited them in quite a while so I don’t know if their policies have changed.
I realize that not everyone had access to a WMT Neighborhood Market, but I’ve found it to be much easier to buy MO’s and load GoBank at a Neighborhood Market than a Supercenter. Try to go the same time of day and day(s) of week to build a relationship with the customer service cashiers and CSM’s. Just making small talk helps, even explaining what it is you’re doing. Talk about the amazing free trips you take if they aren’t busy (Neighborhood Markets rarely are). You will be surprised how friendly they become and actually seem happy to see you when you walk up.
This has worked quite well for me out here in “small” town USA, a.k.a., flyover country.
So true! The lines are shorter and customer service tends to be better.
Has anyone been blocked with getting money orders from Walmart. Saw some recent posts about folks getting blocked after entering their social .
Do you guys it’s make the MO out to yourself and then deposit at your bank?
Yep. That’s how I do it. I even have rubber stamps with my name, my signature, my address, and “For Deposit Only”. Got tired of filling them out by hand!