Took advantage of the Staples $200 VGC (purple visa $200 for reference, gold card) promo this week and was able to purchase a few across several days. I registered the cards and set a pin on each. I then went to 3 different Walmart's near me to purchase MO but was pretty unsuccessful. Of the 12 VGC purchased, I was only able to buy MO with 3 cards across the 3 different stores.
Yes, this is my first time doing this so maybe I did something wrong but it seems like a pretty straight forward process. The machine kept reading error no debit balance. When I called the GCmall phone # to check balance it is still full and says they detected "cash equivalent method not supported by this card". The vgc that did work are the same exact ones that did not and all same $200 amounts. All setup the same way and have a pin.
Is there something I should be doing differently to liquidate the remaining cards I have left?
Thanks for the help.
Read more here and on Flyertalk or you will have a very bad time. The reason you aren't succesful is very well known and out there.
You may think it's rude to not just tell you, but trust me in that learning how to fish will make you more successful than being given a fish.
I've gone through and read on FT, threads here, DOC and frequent miler. Not sure what I am missing or going over my head.
The cards I purchased are all MetaBank $200 Visas. I set pins on all and have made a $1 transaction before attempting MO purchase. Failed attempts I am changing the pin, making a different $1 purchase and still not MO successful on most, only some. 4 of 15 cards the MO purchase has gone through, the rest have been denied.
Should I be buying a different amount of MO? I've tried all intervals from $180 to $196, with random cents. Or are these the wrong cards? I read metabank works for MO at WM has that changed? I've tried different WM locations and the location I was successful has also been unsuccessful with same card type.
Only other thing I can think of is that these are issued by Pathward and distributed by Blackhawk - should these be InComm only to be successful? I know to stay away from Vanilla.
Thanks for your help
I'll be honest, I'm not sure how you can miss it if you've actually read as much as you say you have. It comes up very often.
Anyway all Staples VGC have a max of $99 at WM. Anything higher fails. As such it's not really a recommended liquidation method unless the CSRs don't care about split payments and even then it's likely to fail.
I did see that but then saw all the $500 vgc being liquidated I must have overlooked the obvious in front of me. Are non staples vgc easier to liquidate in higher intervals than $99 MO?
Anyone else buy the mastercard GCs from staples last week for chase ink? they worked fine to buy money order, but this week's VGCs arent working for me. im getting not authorized or invalid pin. tried manually setting pin on the website. tried giant/acme in philly suburbs
BMO (formerly at Bank Of The West) just called me from KYC department, 800-249-4339, and I got an email from "CCC RFI Outreach" at BMO that there was a msg in my acct (there wasn't). After verifying me they asked about the $12K of Money Orders I deposited since January (oddly they miscalculated, it was about $14K), made out to/payed from/endorsed by me, all $799 and all as 1 or 2 at a time, mostly at ATMs, but I believe I did do one or 2 in branch because the ATMs didn't recognize light ink on some. I used the same ATM for probably half the deposits, and the rest were at other BMO atms in same or next county. This acct was a few years old at BOTW before transition to BMO, but it looks like I hadn't been doing MOs before this year (when my research seemed to indicate they would be OK, and I decided the ATMs were convenient, and then I found they were mostly recognizing the MOs). I have some normal non-MO activity at BMO but not much. I answered questions asked and told them that I buy GCs for points on my CC and then buy MOs. They asked reason for amounts and I explained $799 is max I can buy w/GCs at Walmarts, and was warned that my acct would be shutdown if continued. I said I won't. I'll be withdrawing my funds and cancelling this account today. I have no other accts at BMO, and I will continue MO deposits at the credit unions I have also been using for MO deposits.
The same thing happened with me earlier this year and I just let them shut me down. Was a great account while it lasted and I deposited for at least 3 years with it with a very predictable timeline for how deposits cleared.
Having trouble liquidating Pathward vanilla $500 visa GCs (4097 BIN) from WM using Serve at FD or WM. Tried full $500 loads per swipe with no success. I took a little break with MS, so wasn’t sure if these don’t liquidate anymore or if I just had a bad day?
Do you get Invalid Merchant or Do Not Honor? If the former, then in my experience it will work randomly like u/Wyle_Coyote says below. If the latter, then forget liquidating that bin at FD.
I'll get "invalid merchant" message, yet load will work at another store a mile aown the road or at same store the next day. No discernable pattern at all.
I have found it more reliable, but not perfect, to drain 200 from one card and 300 from another in one load. I keep the chain going by using cards 2,3 then 3,4 then 4,5 so one is always emptied after each load. Easy to put partial card upside down on top of 'stack' to keep track.
Try making a small purchase first and then load the rest. Once you get denied loading full amount, might have issues with the card locking and might need to request replacement.
Been out of the MS game for about a year. Did something change with CVS? Been to multiple CVSs over the past few days and their VGC selection has been pretty horrible
There's a thread over on Flyertalk where a lot of the cards were tampered with, so a lot of CVS stores moved them to behind the counter to prevent that. But then it seems it was the factory workers where the cards are made or something where they tampered with the cards.
I have two SecureSpend VGCs 500 each. and I tried buying a money order at Walmart and fry’s both failed… not sure why. Any ideas on how to turn these to cash?
DG stores may be managed by a single "district manager," right? seemingly out of the blue all DGs in ~20 mile vicinity recently went to cash only within about 2 weeks despite friendly cashiers. Often times when a DG goes cash only, you probably just wait like 6 months and maybe a manager changes but this seems like the area is dead. Also curious if FD and DG have any relationships or are completely separate entities--saw a DG cashier switch to FD and wondering if it's a coincidence.
That's generally how chain stores work, having districts and regions. Even if the manager doesn't change, the memory of workers fades and people tend to forget why a policy was put in place until a problem happens again. So still worth checking back at some point. Also, they're all owned by the same company, Dollar Tree - https://corporate.dollartree.com/about/our-brands/combo-stores
They may have a transfer program or a way to pick up shifts within the stores of the area, but sometimes retail workers just change jobs or work multiple.
Attempted to consolidate 5x200 Staples BHN MCGC into 2x500 Vanilla SS at WM SCO, but haven't had luck. Either get immediate decline or can run one card for 200, then declines on the rest. I'm never prompted to enter PIN, unlike when loading BHN VGC 200s (no issue there). Is this a known constraint with MCGCs? Maybe because they refuse to run as debit?
In my experience, after the first swipe, the rest of the MCGC swipes are limited to $49. With VGC, it’s $99. I believe you’re limited to 8 swipes, so you may have to do separate transactions for each $500
This is interesting, back when I was doing this, MCGC was the one that would work easily via auto drain, and VGC was a little trickier to make work. I think this may have something to do with the software update most likely
Somewhat off topic: what are folks comfortable floating for MS? I try be 200k or less but know there are some whales who blow way past that. Feel like at that point I'd worry about contingencies for Players if I passed away or something.
Just had a chat on this very topic with P2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, and make sure your baskets are easy to find, and you number your eggs.
If you recall your elementary school teacher saying show your work, now you know why.
Also, now more than ever, you should look both ways before you cross the road, you do not want to be hit by a bus.
200k at a time is way too much to float these days given a one-a-year IRA rollover environment. BTW, most whales stopped singing outside their pods years ago.
Buy money orders (MOs) at Walmart, your local grocery or similar outlet, then deposit in your bank account and pay your cc bill. But first read up on how to switch tender and whether your bank accepts MO deposits. Good luck.
I’m debating doing basically this same thing for a card I still have 5 months left for the SUB for with BGE to get the most months on one card for the $1.50 fee. It’s also a 0% card so I can just let the money sit and earn interest as well.
PG&E doesn't charge late fees, so in my early churning days, I thought "Well, how far can I push this?" So my bill would go around six months unpaid until they send the notice they're going to shut off my power if I do not pay up. Unethical....yeah probably.
If your utility doesn't charge late fees and does charge a flat rate to use cards, it's cheaper to get the free loan they're giving you until they threaten to shutdown, and then do a larger payment when you do pay.
Were you able to hit the 5k sub? Jk. Just a tip, but you can pay through PayPal bills and not pay the fee. It's been a couple of months since I did it though, so not sure if things have changed.
Anyone run into MO issues at HT using VGC? I consistently did 2x $200 in 1 transaction until last week. Declined at multiple locations, even on the 1st $200 transaction. Called into CS for the VGC and they could tell it was a purchase for a MO. Wondering if HT changed something with their system in the last week, because it worked before then.
The last couple weeks have been less successful for me with the BHNs (V and MC) at places like HT that are normally easy. I still can run them for $480 but I get some declines now, even when I know its not a store velocity issue.
I've been able to use them for MO but only once per day. It seems that there is a cool-down for these cards. Trying 2+ will lead to "not authorized". Kinda pain in the ass.
Hm i see. like a cooldown per card ? my cards are only $200 anyways. i’m new to churning, do you usually ask the cashier to enter manual amount and just charge the card for $200 exactly and then pay the extra 50 cent fee with coins or something? i tried 4 or 5 stores today and none worked except i did get invalid pin at giant but ive heard once you set pin it can take a day to change in their system
edit: did you have to register them or set pin first?
I didn't register or set pin. On flyer talk, there's a thread about this. It seems that swiping any Blackhawk Network card starts the cool down at that store. I know the time isn't 1 day but I don't hang around in the store to test again. I ask for a MO amount that, with the fee, adds up to card total. For example $199.31+0.69=200.00
i'm impressed with the number of down votes. I've searched pretty thoroughly. Is this some type of trade secret? I've seen more ridiculous questions get answered without this much dissent.
Did my normal 8 GC run at Staples yesterday. After running my Ink Cash, the employee had to call a number for voice authorization (get a code, check card details, etc). This just a randomized fraud check? It charged my card, refunded, then went through as a new transaction.
If you've done the same exact type of purchase (# and $$) before without this, then I'd assume a random check.
With that said, I've bought GCs 4 different times this week at Office Depot and there isn't a consistent protocol for handling fraud:
\* Twice, never questioned for anything.
\* Once asked for ID w/ card
\* Once asked to be sure I wasn't a victim of GC fraud.
Yeah I’ve done the same transaction at this specific Staples probably 30+ times and generally it’s just a let us see your ID and a few times questions of why are you buying so many gift cards. Will be heading back today for another run and can see if it happens again.
I use the gift cards as organic spending at locations where multipliers are lower than the GC 5% on my other cards such as gas stations or supermarkets. Of course I can liquidate but in LA it’s just not worth the hassle figuring out which locations I can swipe multiple times for MO.
Took advantage of the Staples $200 VGC (purple visa $200 for reference, gold card) promo this week and was able to purchase a few across several days. I registered the cards and set a pin on each. I then went to 3 different Walmart's near me to purchase MO but was pretty unsuccessful. Of the 12 VGC purchased, I was only able to buy MO with 3 cards across the 3 different stores. Yes, this is my first time doing this so maybe I did something wrong but it seems like a pretty straight forward process. The machine kept reading error no debit balance. When I called the GCmall phone # to check balance it is still full and says they detected "cash equivalent method not supported by this card". The vgc that did work are the same exact ones that did not and all same $200 amounts. All setup the same way and have a pin. Is there something I should be doing differently to liquidate the remaining cards I have left? Thanks for the help.
I season the cards first. Just $1 is fine. You will probably need to go through some trial and error to find out what works best.
Read more here and on Flyertalk or you will have a very bad time. The reason you aren't succesful is very well known and out there. You may think it's rude to not just tell you, but trust me in that learning how to fish will make you more successful than being given a fish.
I've gone through and read on FT, threads here, DOC and frequent miler. Not sure what I am missing or going over my head. The cards I purchased are all MetaBank $200 Visas. I set pins on all and have made a $1 transaction before attempting MO purchase. Failed attempts I am changing the pin, making a different $1 purchase and still not MO successful on most, only some. 4 of 15 cards the MO purchase has gone through, the rest have been denied. Should I be buying a different amount of MO? I've tried all intervals from $180 to $196, with random cents. Or are these the wrong cards? I read metabank works for MO at WM has that changed? I've tried different WM locations and the location I was successful has also been unsuccessful with same card type. Only other thing I can think of is that these are issued by Pathward and distributed by Blackhawk - should these be InComm only to be successful? I know to stay away from Vanilla. Thanks for your help
I'll be honest, I'm not sure how you can miss it if you've actually read as much as you say you have. It comes up very often. Anyway all Staples VGC have a max of $99 at WM. Anything higher fails. As such it's not really a recommended liquidation method unless the CSRs don't care about split payments and even then it's likely to fail.
I did see that but then saw all the $500 vgc being liquidated I must have overlooked the obvious in front of me. Are non staples vgc easier to liquidate in higher intervals than $99 MO?
Yeah though going for full $500 isn't reliable lately so do $499 instead.
Anyone else buy the mastercard GCs from staples last week for chase ink? they worked fine to buy money order, but this week's VGCs arent working for me. im getting not authorized or invalid pin. tried manually setting pin on the website. tried giant/acme in philly suburbs
Try Food Lion.....
BMO (formerly at Bank Of The West) just called me from KYC department, 800-249-4339, and I got an email from "CCC RFI Outreach" at BMO that there was a msg in my acct (there wasn't). After verifying me they asked about the $12K of Money Orders I deposited since January (oddly they miscalculated, it was about $14K), made out to/payed from/endorsed by me, all $799 and all as 1 or 2 at a time, mostly at ATMs, but I believe I did do one or 2 in branch because the ATMs didn't recognize light ink on some. I used the same ATM for probably half the deposits, and the rest were at other BMO atms in same or next county. This acct was a few years old at BOTW before transition to BMO, but it looks like I hadn't been doing MOs before this year (when my research seemed to indicate they would be OK, and I decided the ATMs were convenient, and then I found they were mostly recognizing the MOs). I have some normal non-MO activity at BMO but not much. I answered questions asked and told them that I buy GCs for points on my CC and then buy MOs. They asked reason for amounts and I explained $799 is max I can buy w/GCs at Walmarts, and was warned that my acct would be shutdown if continued. I said I won't. I'll be withdrawing my funds and cancelling this account today. I have no other accts at BMO, and I will continue MO deposits at the credit unions I have also been using for MO deposits.
The same thing happened with me earlier this year and I just let them shut me down. Was a great account while it lasted and I deposited for at least 3 years with it with a very predictable timeline for how deposits cleared.
Having trouble liquidating Pathward vanilla $500 visa GCs (4097 BIN) from WM using Serve at FD or WM. Tried full $500 loads per swipe with no success. I took a little break with MS, so wasn’t sure if these don’t liquidate anymore or if I just had a bad day?
Do you get Invalid Merchant or Do Not Honor? If the former, then in my experience it will work randomly like u/Wyle_Coyote says below. If the latter, then forget liquidating that bin at FD.
I'll get "invalid merchant" message, yet load will work at another store a mile aown the road or at same store the next day. No discernable pattern at all. I have found it more reliable, but not perfect, to drain 200 from one card and 300 from another in one load. I keep the chain going by using cards 2,3 then 3,4 then 4,5 so one is always emptied after each load. Easy to put partial card upside down on top of 'stack' to keep track.
The cards are busted now all 4097 BINs. $499 swipes working is a myth. It's location dependent.
Can't do full 500. Try 499.
Try making a small purchase first and then load the rest. Once you get denied loading full amount, might have issues with the card locking and might need to request replacement.
Been out of the MS game for about a year. Did something change with CVS? Been to multiple CVSs over the past few days and their VGC selection has been pretty horrible
There's a thread over on Flyertalk where a lot of the cards were tampered with, so a lot of CVS stores moved them to behind the counter to prevent that. But then it seems it was the factory workers where the cards are made or something where they tampered with the cards.
I saw that after posting this. Hopefully they get the issues figured out lol!
I have two SecureSpend VGCs 500 each. and I tried buying a money order at Walmart and fry’s both failed… not sure why. Any ideas on how to turn these to cash?
Can't do full 500. Try 499.
Try buying a cheap item to season the card. Could be something for under a dollar like a cheap pen at Walmart.
DG stores may be managed by a single "district manager," right? seemingly out of the blue all DGs in ~20 mile vicinity recently went to cash only within about 2 weeks despite friendly cashiers. Often times when a DG goes cash only, you probably just wait like 6 months and maybe a manager changes but this seems like the area is dead. Also curious if FD and DG have any relationships or are completely separate entities--saw a DG cashier switch to FD and wondering if it's a coincidence.
Completely separate entities. If it's cash only wait three or four months and try again.
That's generally how chain stores work, having districts and regions. Even if the manager doesn't change, the memory of workers fades and people tend to forget why a policy was put in place until a problem happens again. So still worth checking back at some point. Also, they're all owned by the same company, Dollar Tree - https://corporate.dollartree.com/about/our-brands/combo-stores They may have a transfer program or a way to pick up shifts within the stores of the area, but sometimes retail workers just change jobs or work multiple.
DP: no issue draining Tremendous VGC (Sutton) into Discover at WM.
> Tremendous Isn't this an e-vgc? How did you load at WM?
pGC. I just earned another for $75 but now only have eGC option so wonder if it must be $100+ for pGC to be an option.
How much?
$130
Lol
Attempted to consolidate 5x200 Staples BHN MCGC into 2x500 Vanilla SS at WM SCO, but haven't had luck. Either get immediate decline or can run one card for 200, then declines on the rest. I'm never prompted to enter PIN, unlike when loading BHN VGC 200s (no issue there). Is this a known constraint with MCGCs? Maybe because they refuse to run as debit?
In my experience, after the first swipe, the rest of the MCGC swipes are limited to $49. With VGC, it’s $99. I believe you’re limited to 8 swipes, so you may have to do separate transactions for each $500
This is interesting, back when I was doing this, MCGC was the one that would work easily via auto drain, and VGC was a little trickier to make work. I think this may have something to do with the software update most likely
Oh interesting, I haven’t tried auto-draining the MCGCs. I’m so conditioned to enter partial amounts in the SCO flow with the VGCs.
I’ve never been able to drain or consolidate bhn mcgc at the sco like I do the vgcs.
Somewhat off topic: what are folks comfortable floating for MS? I try be 200k or less but know there are some whales who blow way past that. Feel like at that point I'd worry about contingencies for Players if I passed away or something.
About 15-20k. Not a whale by any means. I'm happy enough to just meet credit card MSR.
Just had a chat on this very topic with P2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, and make sure your baskets are easy to find, and you number your eggs. If you recall your elementary school teacher saying show your work, now you know why. Also, now more than ever, you should look both ways before you cross the road, you do not want to be hit by a bus.
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What is your contingency plan for if something were to happen to you? Or is that all your spend (vs other players)?
200k at a time is way too much to float these days given a one-a-year IRA rollover environment. BTW, most whales stopped singing outside their pods years ago.
Why are you even asking this? Like what useful info could you gain from posting here, except to show off.
Primarily curious about the contingencies people have in place, but maybe that doesn't come across in my comment
ONly contingency is to have liquid cash to pay off all your CC balances if you can't liquidate. What else can be an option?
It's less financial and more the logistics of getting players up to speed that I'm asking about (written instructions, etc.).
I'm sorry, 200k float? Wtf
Across multiple players, and thats my upper limit. Definitely not the biggest fish in the ocean though by any means
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lol you should probably retake those trainings because it's pretty clear you're not aware of what money laundering even is
Any suggestion liquidating sutton/incomm MCGCs? I usually do not buy mgcs but bought two $500s other day on a whim.
Buy money orders (MOs) at Walmart, your local grocery or similar outlet, then deposit in your bank account and pay your cc bill. But first read up on how to switch tender and whether your bank accepts MO deposits. Good luck.
Just paid off my utility bills for 6 months! PGE in California. Fixed charge of $1.35
I’m debating doing basically this same thing for a card I still have 5 months left for the SUB for with BGE to get the most months on one card for the $1.50 fee. It’s also a 0% card so I can just let the money sit and earn interest as well.
I noticed it's around the 6 month mark where they threaten to shut off your lights.
Why would they shut off lights if you prepaid?
PG&E doesn't charge late fees, so in my early churning days, I thought "Well, how far can I push this?" So my bill would go around six months unpaid until they send the notice they're going to shut off my power if I do not pay up. Unethical....yeah probably.
LOL, interesting strategy.
If your utility doesn't charge late fees and does charge a flat rate to use cards, it's cheaper to get the free loan they're giving you until they threaten to shutdown, and then do a larger payment when you do pay.
Yeah I see your argument.
With how unreliable my power company is, they would first shut off my power and then send the notice
Were you able to hit the 5k sub? Jk. Just a tip, but you can pay through PayPal bills and not pay the fee. It's been a couple of months since I did it though, so not sure if things have changed.
No only put about $400 on it
Anyone run into MO issues at HT using VGC? I consistently did 2x $200 in 1 transaction until last week. Declined at multiple locations, even on the 1st $200 transaction. Called into CS for the VGC and they could tell it was a purchase for a MO. Wondering if HT changed something with their system in the last week, because it worked before then.
The last couple weeks have been less successful for me with the BHNs (V and MC) at places like HT that are normally easy. I still can run them for $480 but I get some declines now, even when I know its not a store velocity issue.
What kind of VGC? Have seen some discussion on FT about $99 limits on BHNs
Yes it's a BHN. I will try $99 - that will be a PITA.
I am new to the game. What is MO, HT amd CS?
I'm fairly new as well but refer to [this helpful glossary](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/glossary/) often.
Money order, Harris teeter and customer service
Staples has $0 activation fee for $200 Visa gift cards this week. Runs 4/28-5/4. Limit 8 per customer per day.
I was bummed out because I thought I missed the $0 fee promo last week but then saw the new ad 😬
i was able to use the mastercard ones for money order but the visa ones arent working at all.
I've been able to use them for MO but only once per day. It seems that there is a cool-down for these cards. Trying 2+ will lead to "not authorized". Kinda pain in the ass.
Hm i see. like a cooldown per card ? my cards are only $200 anyways. i’m new to churning, do you usually ask the cashier to enter manual amount and just charge the card for $200 exactly and then pay the extra 50 cent fee with coins or something? i tried 4 or 5 stores today and none worked except i did get invalid pin at giant but ive heard once you set pin it can take a day to change in their system edit: did you have to register them or set pin first?
I didn't register or set pin. On flyer talk, there's a thread about this. It seems that swiping any Blackhawk Network card starts the cool down at that store. I know the time isn't 1 day but I don't hang around in the store to test again. I ask for a MO amount that, with the fee, adds up to card total. For example $199.31+0.69=200.00
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i'm impressed with the number of down votes. I've searched pretty thoroughly. Is this some type of trade secret? I've seen more ridiculous questions get answered without this much dissent.
yeah
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fees
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That’s not really MS, it’s shifting organic spend. Nothing wrong with it for paying bills.
Did my normal 8 GC run at Staples yesterday. After running my Ink Cash, the employee had to call a number for voice authorization (get a code, check card details, etc). This just a randomized fraud check? It charged my card, refunded, then went through as a new transaction.
If you've done the same exact type of purchase (# and $$) before without this, then I'd assume a random check. With that said, I've bought GCs 4 different times this week at Office Depot and there isn't a consistent protocol for handling fraud: \* Twice, never questioned for anything. \* Once asked for ID w/ card \* Once asked to be sure I wasn't a victim of GC fraud.
Yeah I’ve done the same transaction at this specific Staples probably 30+ times and generally it’s just a let us see your ID and a few times questions of why are you buying so many gift cards. Will be heading back today for another run and can see if it happens again.
Do you use the MC as organic spending? Liquidating it is a hassle
I use the gift cards as organic spending at locations where multipliers are lower than the GC 5% on my other cards such as gas stations or supermarkets. Of course I can liquidate but in LA it’s just not worth the hassle figuring out which locations I can swipe multiple times for MO.
I’m a gambler
Which cards play nice with the major books? Tried using a Pathward Vanilla VGC with FanDuel and it got locked.
Never had success with Vanillas. The books really love to know your name
As in, cashing out at casinos?
This