There’s a tendency in this hobby to proclaim everything “the death of” whatever isn’t going well at the moment. I remember back in 2011, I came across a FlyerTalk thread where a long-time gamer announced that he was quitting points and miles because the game was “dead”.
What followed were eight years of the most incredible earning opportunities: 100,000 point credit card sign-up bonuses, Vanilla Reloads, Bluebird, Redbird, 5x at office supply stores, the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
And yet every time some avenue of earning points is cut off, people are quick to declare the game“dead.”
Just because Moneygram is banning people from buying money orders, that doesn’t mean manufactured spending is dead. It just means we all have to get more creative, explore new avenues and be discerning about who we share fragile deals with. Rick recently covered how he’s handling the possibility of Amex no longer paying out points on Visa gift card purchases at grocery stores. It’s about adapting.
What to do if Walmart stops accepting gift cards
Five years ago I wrote a post called “What to do if Walmart stops accepting gift cards for money order purchases.” Yeah, even back then people were worried that Walmart would cut us off and we’d all be stuck with bags full of $500 Visa gift cards we couldn’t liquidate.
Some of the back-up methods I outlined in that post are no longer available (RIP Redbird, Amazon Payments and Evolve). However, there will be other methods of gift card liquidation. You just have to look harder for them.
You can still buy money orders at places like Kroeger’s, Circle K, Quick Stop/Kwik Stop gas stations, Kmart and other places. If none of these options are available, stop by your local no-name liquor stores and gas stations. They may sell money orders and if they accept debit cards, you can liquidate your Visa gift cards that way.
If the rumor that Walmart will start requiring ID’s for money order purchases over $100 is substantiated, then we’ll all need another source anyway. Especially if Moneygram continues banning gift card churners.
Always have a back-up liquidation source
My advice is what it’s always been: Liquidate your Visa gift cards ASAP. Don’t let them sit around and collect dust, because everything could fall apart fast. More importantly, have a back-up liquidation source lined up. Say you show up at the Walmart money center tomorrow and discover that you can’t even buy a $100 money order any more. What happens to your stash of $1,000 Visa gift cards?
Some options include spending down balances, selling gift cards to friends and family at a discount, or retail arbitrage (i.e. reselling). Start thinking about these options. Not just as a back-up method for liquidating Visa gift cards you currently have in your possession, but for ways to keep earning points and miles in the future.
Plan B
If all other avenues fail and liquidating Visa gift cards through money orders is no longer an option, that’s when you throw in the towel. Start exploring other options. You may land on a cash cow that is better than the Walmart money order route. You won’t know until you start exploring other avenues.
A shut-down might not be bad for us after all – it triggers creativity and innovation. I realize we’re not inventing the iPhone here, but you get my point: There are more manufactured spending opportunities out there to be discovered. Find them and earn what you can, responsibly, while it lasts.
What’s your Plan B in case Walmart shuts us all down tomorrow?
I’ve already shifted 50% or so to Western Unions at grocery. The liquidations cost doubles but it’s still small overall.
Plus there are advantages to Western Union. I’ve never had one print out yet with light ink. Over 1/2 the WM MGs are so light I can’t Mobile deposit.
Reselling sounds too painful.
If all MO routes dry up, time to move on to a new obsession. I have enough points to last years now. If the points devalue significantly I’ll simply fly coach and stay in lower end chain hotels (or shift more stays thru hotels.com) in the future.
I think I read someone’s post (maybe you) of doing this from habit or obsession. I can relate. It’s hard d to pass a WM now and not stop only for the money center. Crazy stuff!
Publix. $2500 at a time.
“If the rumor that Walmart will start requiring ID’s for money order purchases over $100 is substantiated…” I guess I missed the post on that! I’m off and running to 8 WMT’s today because I did a $25,000 SM run yesterday.
I’m afraid I will be limited to buying $200 VGC’s at Staples during fee free weeks and loading them on GoBank until that gets shut down. Maybe much smaller SM purchases to use at a couple of grocery stores around here, but even those are severely limiting MO purchase now. I’m afraid the big time (for me) MS’ing will be dead for me.
Apologies if this is a duplicate post. The first one didn’t look like it posted.
I too have a plan in place. I do not move forward with the next round of MS until I have liquidated either through MO or paying bills (groceries, utility, going to the movies, etc) with my Visa GC. This week Staples and Office Depot/Max have their $200 VGC deals – so I am not doubling down with Simon Mall until next week. I agree – always have a plan and always know what you need to do to eat those gift cards if the money orders stop. This week, I used Amex Serve at WMT – worked fine for the $200 VGC. Than hit Safeway for MO and was able to move the VGCs.
Bob, for the first time I took advantage of the office depot VGC deal. Having never liquidated these VGC before I have a couple of questions. do I need to register them before I MS into money orders or do they work just like the gift card mall VGC with no registration needed and the pin is the last 4 digits of the card.
TIA Kathie
Kathie – the VGC’s at Staples or Office Depot are activated at checkout. You only need to “register” them if you want to use them online. You can also go to the website and change the pins to a number of your choice if you want.
Thank you Ed!
Always a smart move to liquidate before buying more. You just never know these days.
My plan is going to Giant and keep trying in WMs. Any of you guys have other options in the D.C. Area? I’m trying to research how to maximize the strategy in this region. It has become harder every time.
DC IMO has pretty much been shut down for quite awhile. Methods available for MOs the past few years are such low profit for the cost of living/avg salary in the area I’ve found that its not worth leaving the house for.
Well my backup plan died with the Simon Mall 1000 dollar card, I’ll explain for more than 3 years I purchased 2, 1000 dollars western union MO per day at a local grocery store without any issues then when I got my hands on the 1000 dollars SM VGC I started to purchasing 4, 1000 MOs per visit, it dint last long the manager at the store, decided that it was to risky for them and banned me from purchasing MO. Now I’m working on discovering another small grocery or liquor store that is willing to sell me western union MO using visa gift-cards, the stores willing to sell the MO with gift-cards are out there we just need to get out of the beaten path and work a little harder to find them. Good Luck!
Well that sucks! But keep at it. You’ll come across another source.
No place in the Dallas, Texas are will sell money orders with PIN-enabled gift cards. So, my only way is to pay all monthly bills far in advance. I get it back from no monthly payments for many months.
I have to disagree. Where are you trying? 90% of the places I go still accept them.
He’s just trying to throw everyone off his scent.
LOL I should have seen that from a mile away. He’s right…Texas is drier than the Sahara.
I am in the Dallas area and finding limited sources for money orders. I would love to cHat with you regarding functionality locally. I am retired doing this for a hobby.
Would love to help share and help however I can.
Hi Nathan and thanks for sharing. Finishing up a run for Ex Plat with my son sitting in Qatar Lounge at the moment. Would love to share personal contact info with you so we can speak on a local level about the hobby in Dallas. How do we go about sharing that?
I might have to fly down there and investigate the drought. 🙂
I read this article and broke out into a nervous sweat. I just made a Simon Mall run yesterday and bought $24,500 worth. I managed to liquidate $8,000 of them on the drive home yesterday, but still had $16,500 to get rid of! Fortunately, because where I live i is Wal-Mart saturated country, I was able to get the rest liquidated in less than 3 1/2 hours at Wal-Mart and 3 grocery stores.
I was planning on making another SM run before the end of the month, but I don’t know now. I may just keep to the smaller giftcardmall and Giftcards.com purchases, along with Staples and Office Depot for GoBank loads.
3 1/2 hours! Yikes! I hope you’re earning an awful lot of points to spend that much time on this hobby.
Enough that last year my wife and I took an around the world trip in first class and biz class, so…..
That’s great that you were able to take several weeks for a luxury vacation. Well done!
@CJ: Why you care how much time he takes? I think he did well for that many gcs while diversifying risk of s/d by any one MO place.
Who cares if you can “beat him”? Very small of you to make such a comment.
Everyone values their time differently. Rick wrote an article not too long ago on time versus value.
If you don’t put in the time and effort into the hobby you are not going to make that much in rewards. Also imagine if you had $16.5k in VGCs in your possession and you heard your best normal way of liquidiation was closing very soon, wouldn’t you be trying to bust your ass to try to liquidate them ASAP in case something happens. Spending 3.5 hours for 1 day is worth the hassle of trying to manage risk. Its huge pressure to have a ton of VGCs that you are trying to find new ways to spend it.
I always find it funny when people complain about the time you have to commit to MS. Every time I try to talk to my friends about MS, they get turned off based on how “complicated” it is and the time commitment for it. Its like dude don’t complain to me and asking me how I am able to earn so many CC points and get jealous when I was grinding at it to earn those points.
3.5 hours doesn’t sound too bad Ed when you consider how much you liquidated – seriously, well done!! Whereabouts are you located?! I’m in a Walmart saturated area too (OC Cali), but there’s not many willing to liquidated GCs
The literal heart (and brain) of WMT – NW Arkansas. I have 10 WMT Neighborhood Markets and 3 Supercenters within a 5 mile radius of my home. Plus 4 grocery stores that sell Western Union MO’s with 1 being exceptionally friendly to what I do….
Ed, we should connect- I’m in NWA as well and work at the Home Office. What’s your name on reddit?
Bob – I’m not on Reddit, just never signed up.
@Bob & @Ed. C had no idea there were other MSers up in NWA! I was in Fayetteville last year and just moved to Nashville. Would love to discuss/share tips I found last yr. @j_diggs on reddit
Putting Arkansas on my travel list…
Honestly, I’d go with Simon Mall because you can liquidate them faster. I literally get the cards, then drive one block to WM to liquidate them. With GCM you have to wait a week for them to arrive and a lot can happen during that time.
Ariana – are you scaling back on MO purchases until the WMT rumors are confirmed or put to rest? Honestly, the GCM and giftcards.com strategies for me are safer because I have 5 grocery stores (I found another one!)I can liquidate them at. But, I like SM because of the large amount I am allowed to purchase. I would still be able to liquidate them at the grocery stores (until something there changes!), it would just take much longer than I am able to at WMT. I buy $2,450 worth per week at giftcards.com through the AAdvantage eShopping portal for 2X AAdvantage Miles, as we’ve discussed before, and occasionally buy $1,500 at GCM through Rakuten or BeFrugal with my CFU. Should WMT dry up completely, those amounts won’t affect me, but the $25,000 I buy at SM would put me in the doghouse for a while!
I’m scaling back compared to the old days just because of time restrictions. But I did go back to WM last week to test my being-banned theory. Turns out I’m not. I’ve been going back consistently to buy $1k+ without issues.
That said, I like the quick turnaround of Simon Mall gc’s. Especially on the cash back card front. Yes, I earn less profit per batch but because I can liquidate them faster (and don’t have to wait a week for them to arrive), I can make more cash back doing it. But when it comes to earning other rewards, I’m ok with the longer wait times in favor of cheaper cards.
Thanks, Ariana. That helps a lot. Since I’m not close to a SM and can only do a couple of $25,000 buys per month because of that, I’m focused on earning miles/points. The only issue I have is that I have to file a missing miles report with AAdvantage eShopping every single week. Giftcards.com just doesn’t report the shopping trips for some reason and AAdvantage eShopping has to investigate. I’ve never not received my bonus mikes, but it is frustrating.
Until a couple of months ago, Walmart was my Plan B. I used to buy MOs at Shell gas stations scattered throughout my city. Unfortunately, these stores were converted to Speedway gas stations, which now have a cash-only policy. I now rely on a combination of Walmart and Kroeger for MOs, but would love to find another reliable option. In my area, Circle K and QuikStop have a cash-only policy as well.
Reports of my death have been greatly exagerated. Mark Twain
Hope you are right, Sam!
It may have been worthwhile to do MS.
But if it is too good to be true, then it isn’t or it won’t last.
You know and I know that MS is in a way manipulating the system and it is not sustainable.
Taking advantage of a loophole may not be illegal but is unethical in a way.
Everybody wants a free lunch but at the end of the day, someone has to pay for it.
If you keep your expectations low and modest, it may be better spending your time and energy for something more productive to increase your income and net worth.
Thank you oh wise one! Of course! How did we not see that? After studying your wise words I must of course cease this practice immediately! Please guide me in my next endeavor with your wisdom.
Seriously, we take what the banks give. They know how to protect they’re bottom line better than anyone can manipulate them. There’s nothing unethical playing by their rules.
Your moral high ground is likely sinking sand.
Kirk – Well said.
I don’t see this being unethical. WM profits from it, the gift card merchants profit from it and even the banks do. As long as you’re not using MS for nefarious purposes, who are you hurting?
Got carded today at WM for a $999 MO and then rejected. Feel like I am 17 again and trying to buy beer at the store. Never know when they might id anymore. Next time they ask I’m just going to walk out. No sense waiting 2 minutes to enter data then slap me in the face.
Went to another WM and got a $999 MO. No id required.
I can live with whatever rules, just be consistent!
Got carded today too at Walmart for the first time for a 999.11 MO. The clerk said the computer was asking for it. After reading your post I thought Uh-Oh, it’s going to reject me and I was gettin prepared to walk out, but the transaction went thru. This WM is my primary MS place, so now I’m worried the next time I go in if it’ll reject me, or do what happened today. It’s a crap shoot.
Lol! Sorry to hear it Kirk. I hear you RE consistency. It’s frustrating when you don’t know what to expect.
Pretty odd commentary considering Ariana threw a hissy fit a few months ago when WM started requiring ID – she said she was going to slow way down. But the notion things are little different today than 3-5-7 years ago is laughable nonsense. At least several dozen methods have died and few have opened. Now many (if not most) are reliant on WM. And if that dies, huge proportion of people’s MS will disappear.
Be the DP you want to see in the world.
As of now I’m on Walmart’s Ban list for $1000.01 or more money orders, so for WM I just do $999.12. It’s hard because in my area (Midwest) in the last month 3 WM Money Centers have shut down due to rampant fraud. Apparently cashiers were doing shady things according to the cashiers at my local WM.
Another cracked down and no longer allows VGC for MO (even $999.12) but does allow VGC for Bill Pay and loading reloadable cards which seems very strange to me.
Does anyone know if Hy-Vee is MS friendly?
I am about to give up on Simon Mall GC’s. When I started, I had a WM a mile away that was so simple to liquidate at. Right after I bought $18K in GC’s a month ago, they shut me down, even CS that I had never seen before. So, then I was stuck driving a 20 mile loop to process 3 each time, but one of those, then another shut me down. Now I am down to just one WMNM and today my favorite CS person asked me if I was using a gift card or a debit card.
Unless I can find other liquidation places, I am done. I am brainstorming where else I can try (Bay Area, CA) in January. If I can come up with a long enough list, even if it takes me 3 hours, I am willing to dive back in to get the Southwest Companion Pass. I often accompany my spouse on business trips, I could imagine going to a rich MS location for a week and spending my days buying and liquidating Simon MO’s to reach the CP goal. Then I would quit.
Keep trying – WM has high turnover. Go back to that location in a couple of months and you might get the greenlight once again.
where are you in the Bay Area? I’m in San Mateo and walmart is so far away
I am in the south bay, but even here the Walmarts are few and far between. I have 2 that aren’t too far, but the one at 600 Showers Dr, Mountain View is not MS friendly. I don’t even bother going to that one any more. My research since I posted in October indicates that MS in the Bay Area is just not possible, at least not without more work than it is worth, and with a big gamble that I would end up stuck with a bunch of VGC that I couldn’t liquidate. Interesting that Stanford Mall says people come in and buy big quantities of SMGC. I have actually thought about going over there, buying myself a Starbucks, and sitting outside the mall office and striking up a conversation with anybody who buys a big stack of SMGC to ask how they liquidate them.
Hi this might be a newbie question, but are there any ways to liquidate VGCs online? I am now traveling and will be outside the US for the next few months, but want to continue MS’ing, but just cannot go in store (I have a Virtual Mail Box)
It’s tricky. You can’t do it via money order but you can try using it at Plastiq (register the card first) or use it to buy discounted merchant cards and sell online.