I’ve been doing this gift card thing for a long time now. So long, in fact, I remember buying money orders directly with my rewards credit card. That’s right. Buy the money order with my credit card. No gift cards needed.
Now that I’ve dated myself, I’ll tell you about my peril and see if any of you can relate. A week or so ago, during the last fee-free Mastercard gift card week at Staples, I made a purchase of 10-$200 gift cards. Well, really two purchases of five, as my Staples doesn’t like transactions over $1000.
I immediately head home with frozen groceries I had in the car and my gift cards – I hate having them in my presence as I’m well aware of the cost of misplacing them. I put the packaged gift cards on the counter and start opening them and removing the gluey stuff off the back.
Then I clip them all together (or so I thought) and head off to my “other” local grocery store to convert to money orders. I can comfortably do six in one visit.
A moment of panic
As I’m running through the transaction I can only find nine (9) cards? Panic and peril set in. This has happened before and I don’t like the feeling. I retrace my steps back to the car, search the car head to toe and no luck.
I gotta go home to the pile of packages I left on the kitchen counter. And I know, I counted 10 cards.
The issue with this game is one lost gift card completely wipes out your profit for the day and in some cases several days. Thank God it was only a $200 gift card.
The missing card was in the pile of packages at home and it reminded me of my other gift card/ money order mishaps.
My previous gift card mishap
I was going to Kroger one day and I bought multiple $800 money orders. When I separated the bottom halves of the money orders from the actual money order, somehow I had turned one around and deposited a valid $800 money order into the trash container in front of Kroger.
Of course, I didn’t realize my error until I tried to deposit the bottom half of the money order (the receipt portion) at a bank on the far end of the island. More panic and peril.
I rushed back to Kroger and headed to the trash container planning on “diving” for my money order. While I was gone, some employee emptied the container and took it to the dumpster in back of the store.
I went to the Customer Service center and explained my tale of woe and they said: “Oh I think the trash has just been picked up.” $800.00.
I snuck around to the back of the store and found one of those commercial dumpsters filled to the brim with garbage. A kindly guy in the back got me a ladder and up I went into the dumpster. Thank goodness the trash bags were clear and after a few minutes in the dumpster, I saw my money order and saved it from the ultimate peril.
Those are just a couple of my mishaps. Several months ago I found a wrinkled, stained old money order between my car seats. It had been there a while and I have no idea other than Divine Providence how and why it showed up. I called Western Union and they confirmed the money order was still valid and had not been cashed.
Bottom line
So the point of all this is to reiterate that even one mistake that you can’t fix is serious business if we are not careful. My latest adventure at Staples was going to produce 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points that I value at about $150. But the lost gift card value was $200. Glad I finally found it.
So now that I’ve bared my soul to you all, has this stuff ever happened to you? Care to share your “OOPS” in the comment section? Or maybe, what precautions do you take to minimize your risk of error?
My woes have been more recent since kicking up to higher volumes. Last week I mistook my Staples $300 cards bought on line with the $200 ones I bought in store. I cashed them out at $200 and then tossed the cards in my garbage container. I realized a few days later what I’d done. Luckily I didn’t have to do a big dumpster dive like you to recover the $100 balances as they were in my bathroom trash receptacle.
This week I accidentally tossed a $200 one away but remembered and recovered from my home garbage.
I made only one known blunder and it was big. Last year I deposited a $999.12 MO via mobile deposit only to find out months later it had been rejected (WM needs more ink in their printers!). Yes I know I should have known more immediately but I had a large balance at the time. I had already tossed the MO and stub. Expensive lesson to learn always keep the old MOs via mobile deposit along with the stubs. Now I keep everything including the cashed out gift cards.
This was my only known unrecoverable blunder. What I worry about is the unknown stuff I may have done.
It’s the cost of doing this “business” I suppose.
I think Ive seen that most banks say to hold on to mobile deposited items for 2 weeks and then destroy them. At least I know that to be the case for the one I use to mobile deposit MO’s. if my bank came back a month later and said they had reversed it, I’d be furious, especially if I had disposed of it per their instructions.
That said, it’s a good reminder to put some sort of account alert in place if that type of transaction occurs. I have one account that is pretty much only used for this activity, so it’d be easy to set up alerts for that.
Ouch I have been worried about rejection with all my mobile deposits. More so depositing mutiple of MO for the same amount they all look the same minus a lightly printed serial #. I better start saving all of my MO and maybe I’ll even call my bank to see if they have a time frame to be 100% cleared. Im also always worried my card will be stolen or broken into before I liquidated the GC or MO. It would a hard fight on a police report or to insurance that I had $25,000 worth of GC stolen, ya right sure you did….
Thanks for sharing
UPDATE: On this current Staples fee free offer I actually suffered my first loss (that I know of). Lost a $199 money order that I’m almost positive I threw in a trash can. I threw away the receipt as well as the card in my haste to clean up the car and mess of empty packages and cards. I’ve been chatting with other MS’ers this week and find my system is not a safe one. Part of my problem is the money order outlets print with such light ink that I can’t walk to my car and mobile deposit right away to my bank. Lessons learned and hopefully this discussion will help lead me to a safer MS method
I do not mean to sound critical, only curious. Why do you buy a $199 MO? With such a low return margin in this “business” the MO fees become more significant. $0.88 on $199 is 0.44% as compared to 0.11% on a $800 MO (4 x $200 cards). When dealing with thin appr 1.5% margins this becomes significant, yes?
I am guessing your answer might be your margins are much higher on those Staples $200 transactions that are fee free? At $.015 per UR point the return jumps to 7.5% and so the 0.33% delta is insignificant?
Fee free staples have led to a big UR balance for future Hyatt stays and UA flights
I misplaced $1,500 in cards once and was sick about it. I found them and all was better again. I was mad about it because I try to be extra careful locking them in the glovebox even if I’m going directly home.
I empathize with your money order scare but if you had the bottom half why didn’t you have the money order voided and reissued?
I’ve been throwing out the bottom half along with the card when I leave the grocery store.
The only lost I had was my Grocery store membership card where I usually buy GCs to get Gas points, however, I have the app and works perfectly at the pump to get the discounts. That being said, I am now going to be more careful after reading this post, I will keep my MOs stubs and my used GCs in a binder for a month just in case. Thank you Rick, good thing to know.
I have been pretty lucky. Only time really had a problem was the first time out with a handful of the $200 Staples NoFee Visa Cards with my Amex Serve – didn’t realize Serve only takes 500 dollars – or 2.5 cards. And I had like 15 GCs to offload on to Serve Than was going to another place to offload some others – since it was my first time, didn’t want to do too many at the WMT – I lost my Serve. So basically that first day was shot to heck. As for losing them, I try to keep track of them – on a spreadsheet and bundle them in a file with receipts, both store and money order. So far, knock on wood – working well. Granted, I do not do large inventory. I don’t want that much “cash” at risk” out there. Thats why am thankful for SimonMall – one big card, fewer swipes and MO costs.
I don’t understand what y’all are doing. Is this like, a way to make money?
Yes, we are printing and selling gift cards for our own brands. You should try it. Works well for promoting your Instagram!
Lol! It’s a way to earn miles…and sometimes money. See “my week in manufactured spending” posts.
Rick, buy a bag of rubber bands and some 1-2 gallon zip-lock bags. Wrap all gcs with MO stub and receipt, along with gc purchase receipts. Write the date on each bundle, wrap with rubber bands on a daily basis. And then store for a year. A few times a year I find I need to go back and dig thru old purchases – when you’re doing millions of MS a year, it’s inevitable something goes wrong.
Worst near-miss was days of Vanilla Reload cards – accidentally left a Reload card in the plastic bag from CVS – cards were so light, didn’t realize there was still a Reload card still in it when I put in the trash bin. Just happened to realize the card was missing – looking for it everywhere but it was trash day and I can hear the garbage truck two houses away. Rush out, tip over the garbage bin and sure enough, find the Reload card inside the plastic bag from CVS. Finished picking up the last of the garbage off the driveway as the truck pulls up. A minute later and it would have been too late.
Lesson learned – never put any gcs in plastic bags again…
Great story, happy ending and thanks for the storage tips.
This is my storage message as well. Rubber bands and storage bags! I also double check to make sure every card has a balance on it or not. Just to double check the balance is zero. When done with a card, I mark on the cards like “WMT MO” so I can know I did a money order at Walmart for that card. I keep all receipts for the original purchase of the gift card as well as the money order. Side hustle does need a bit of organization ! 🙂
Gosh! You guys are not messing around.
You are so lucky being able to buy money orders with pin-enabled gift cards. No place in Dallas, Texas area will let you do it. None.
Check other Walmart’s. I have been to a few that will not accept them, some only allow 2 swipes, and some allow 4 swipes. But I can assure you there are places in the metroplex that can let u redeem them for MO
@ Jerry, agreed. Are you liquidating other ways than normal spend? Thx
Would someone plz explain what u guys are talking about??? Never heard of anything like this and I can’t understand what is going on on here… Plz and thank u in advance for anyone who has time to explain or tell me what it is called so I can do some research…
Purchase a $200 Visa Gift Card at an office supply store such as Staples, Office Max or Office Depot. The merchant offers sales all the time like Staples offering currently fee-free VGC. So a $200 gift card costs $200.
The key is purchasing the card with a credit card that offers a large category bonus such as the Chase Ink Cash.
It offers 5X per dollar. So the 200 gift card earned you 1000 UR points.
You can turn your pin enabled gift card into a MO at Walmart. Deposit Walmart MO into bank. Pay your credit card bill from your account. Rinse/ repeat. There are a lot of dos and fonts so do plenty of researching before adventuring out. Happy MS’ing
There is a handy little link at the top of the page called “Beginner’s Guide.” That sure sounds like a good place to start, although it does require reading.
OMG! Yes I used to throw out used GC on my way out the door at WM but not anymore. I keep everything! Cards, receipts, packaging, etc.
I’ve had a few incidents over the years but nothing to crazy. Recently, I “lost” 500 while loading at DG bc their fraud system kicks in after it takes the money off the card. Couldn’t put it back on obviously (didn’t have a debit handy) and they didn’t believe me. Now I try to remember to bring a debit card.
Btw I finally got my money back. Apparently 2 emails to CSR and 1 to CEO don’t do anything. Have to CC general counsel. All’s well that ends well.
So glad to hear it!
I mark each card with a sharpie to indicate amount remaining upon purchase and drain, quickly comparing last 4 card digits with MO receipts. I dump all the fully drained cards and paperwork in a folder when I get home. I empty that folder every six months or so. I keep all unused cards bound with elastic bands and only walk around with the amount I can optimistically expect to use up on a trip. (If a certain cashier is at WM I can only use one $1k card – others will let me drain a few $200s or multiple $1k.) When back in the car after purchase or drain, everything goes into the glovebox.
On the way home I go to the drive-thru ATM to deposit MOs. I also track all of this in Quicken and compare the number of physical cards/MOs on hand with the balance. So far so good – just an occasional lapse when I leave a card in my pocket and it falls out beside the car seat, and the frequent existential question of whether I am spending too much of my life on this (and at WM in particular).
“…, I am spending too much of my life on this…..”
Think of all the other obsessions it’s keeping you from (maybe?):
Drinking
Drugs
Prostituutes
Gluttony
Gambling
Hoarding
Look at this obsession like it is a good thing.
Or I could think of all the important things I could be doing with your life instead of standing at line at WM, like:
Spending more time with family.
Getting some exercise.
Cleaning up my basement.
Fixing up the yard.
Getting ahead at work.
Volunteering.
Catching up with an old friend.
etc.
I don’t have a basement so my list is shorter.
I guess I could do drugs with an old friend while in line at WM. Problem solved.
A few years ago I bought several $500 gift cards at Simon Mall. I removed the cards from their little envelopes, set the PINs and liquidated them at Walmart. For some reason the next afternoon I had a feeling something was off. I looked at my cc statement on-line and found there was one extra card that I purchased but didn’t have. I went through the trash in my home and found it still tucked into its little envelope amongst all the other empty envelopes.
I like to put a bend on an empty card after the offload. That provides a quick visual should I be uncertain in the future. Straight ones are still “loaded”. I also group them in ziplock bags to keep the batches separate.
I’ve only been MSing this year. Almost had a heart attack last month when I got a $990 MO at WM and then lost it. I think I was so relieved it went well inside WM that I spaced out on my walk back to the car. When I got to the car, I realized the MO and receipt weren’t in my pocket any more. Retraced my steps repeatedly and couldn’t find anything. Went back to the MC and a helpful CSR printed out another copy of the receipt with the numbers and told me to call Money Gram. Calling was a waste of time, but I was found their website and on there was able to request funds for a lost MO. Fortunately, it wasn’t cashed in yet and all the paperwork eventually went through. In the end, it took a few weeks but I got a replacement MO mailed to me, minus a $18 processing fee. I’m amazed that it worked out.
I can’t count my losses , I’m always sloppy, and paranoid when I have money or IDs on me.now I learned that I need a small bag just like women, and put all my things inside it.this way I don’t need to think maybe I dropped the cell, the bank card, the keys, the cash, sunglasses, my meds.it did drive me crazy to the point where I became phobic thinking did I drop something, how about now, what about now.let me check my pockets again make sure everything is there.
Once my home was burglarized and they found my envelope with gift cards in it in a cabinet under my desk. Of course stole them, along with all my other personal IDs all in original forms. (SSN card, passport, all my old credit cards & IDs, cash, etc). It’s been more than a year and I still makes me sick badly. It was one of the worst nightmares in life, and I still have to fear about identity theft til the day I die.
I’m so sorry to hear that, J.
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Depositing MO’s to your bank account is risky (depending upon $ amount). Just Google “structuring” and read the stories. The “hobby” of MS can look like drug money
Must be an age thing (I’m a boomer). I save every card, money order, check, receipt, whatever. Money orders get a name on them before I leave place of purchase. To each their own, I guess!
Good habits to have! I’m not a boomer, but I keep all the receipts until my card is paid off. Then it all goes into the recycling bin.
I’ve learned so much from these comments. First I’m not the only one messing up and Second there are better ways for me to protect myself. The $199 loss will make me a better MS’er thanks to all your comments and stories. Thank you
Rick I
After a year of bagging, sharpie-ing, rubber-banding, etc. your liquidated gift cards, what do you do with them? My wife is annoyed that our dining room and my car are full of them. Are they recyclable? We have used them to spackle up walls, but that’s such a small fraction of the total. Do they have to live in a landfill?
Dump them in the recycling bin. Though I wish Simon Mall would implement a recycling program of some sort.
Nick
U do this for a living I do this for Fun.I use to take four complex trips a year now only 3 it was getting to be a hassle . I found 2 Hotels.com GC’s and checked my account there I have to spend the 3 Free nites before 5/28 or LOOSE them .
CHEERs
After years of MS’ing, I finally had a disaster. I was running 5 Staples bought Master Cards (no fee special) when the grocery store computer went down in the middle of the transaction of buying $1000 worth of money orders. When it came back up they voided the order and told me, “no worry”, in about a week you will have your money back on the cards. This was my “go to” grocery for flipping cards into money orders for years, with no questions asked. Anyhow, a week passed and no money back on cards and no action pending at giftcard mall either. I then went to the store and let them know what was happening and asked their help. The store manager told me in no uncertain terms, that what I had been doing would no longer be allowed and she did provide me with a receipt for the void action. She said there was nothing more she could do and gave me their corporate number to call. I called them and you deal with only a call center, but I did get a “case number”. A few days later I got a call from someone who was working on the case and told that in a week, by 8/8, the $600 would be returned on my 3 cards, $200 on each. On 8/8 and 8/9, still no money on the cards. I called back each day, had to reopen the case and was told that the same person who had left a message (with a blocked phone number) on my phone is working on it. The giftcard people have told me how to dispute the charges, but this takes months to resolve. I will do so if I don’t get some action next week………clearly the grocery store knows they owe me the money back but they have so far, not been able to get it back on the cards. I may end up having to eat $600 and it is driving me nuts.
Jeff I had something similar happen at WM. Lost just under 1k.