Walmart Money Orders Manufactured Spending

My week in manufactured spending: The dreaded shutdown

February 10, 2020

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After a 10-day trip to Turkey, I was happy to be home and getting back into my manufactured spending routine. Before I left, I liquidated most of my $1,000 Simon Mall Visa gift cards and scheduled all of my credit card payments through the first week of February. When I got back, I had to watch my nieces and nephew during the day, leaving me little time for gift card churning.

I did take my 3 year-old nephew on a single MS run and he was a total champ about it. No crying, tantrums or annoyance when the money order machine broke down and we had to spend ten minutes in line. In other words, he handled it better than I did. 😉

In total, I bought $30,000 worth of Simon Mall gift cards last week. My sister liquidated about half of them for me. Partly because I was home with the kids and partly because I finally got banned from buying money orders Walmart. That’s right: I made the Moneygram banned list, meaning I can’t buy money orders over $999 anymore.

I’m surprised it lasted this long, but it’s to be expected. I do have some back-up options for liquidating gift cards, so all is not lost.

If you’re in a similar boat, I suggest you read my post about what to do if Walmart stops accepting gift cards for money orders. The scenario is different but the same solutions apply.

Total earnings

I charged $15,059.25 to my Discover It Miles Card, which earns 1.5% cash back. $2,000 went on my Fidelity Rewards cash, which earns 2% cash back.

In terms of points-earning credit cards, $5,000 went towards the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the remaining $8,059.25 was charged to my mom’s Citi Premier Card, which I’m an authorized user on.

Below is a breakdown of my earnings:

$265 cash back
5,000 Ultimate Rewards points
8,059 Citi ThankYou points

Total cost

Buying $30,000 worth of Simon Mall Visa gift cards cost $118.50. Factoring in the $265 cash back rewards brings my profit to $146.50. Not bad for 13,000+ points but there are cheaper Visa gift card options that would have increased this profit.

Simon Mall Visa gift cards are more convenient, since you can liquidate them $4,000 per transaction as opposed to $2,000 with GiftCardMall Visas.

How I choose which credit cards to use

A lot of times I get questions about why I chose specific cards for gift card transactions. Why did I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred when the Chase Freedom earns 1.5 points per $1?

When I’m deciding on which credit cards to use for a specific gift card churn, I consult my credit card tracking table. It’s a basic document I use to not only keep track of credit card spending requirements, but also statement closing and due dates.

So if it’s the first week of the month and I know the Chase Freedom closes on the 5th, it’s probably not a good idea to max that card out on a gift card run. I don’t want a high utilization rate getting reported and dragging down my credit score.

So I opt for a different credit card that has a later statement closing date. That way, I have plenty of time to liquidate the gift cards, deposit money orders and ensure they clear in time to make the payment well before the statement closing date.

You never know what might happen. You could get banned from buying money orders. If that happens, you’ll be glad to have plenty of extra time to liquidate your gift cards before the payment is due.

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19 responses to “My week in manufactured spending: The dreaded shutdown”

John

February 10, 2020

Ariana, Another good article.

1. Knowing that cutoff on your spend cycle with a card is very, very important. I find it takes anywhere from 7-12 days between my gift card order and receiving that order, add to that the time to flush those cards and you are looking at around 2 weeks before funds are back in my account for paying the bill. And, you have to give the bank at least a day to process the deposits.

2. My WM now charges $1.00 for a money order. My money orders are now 998.99. I show that amount to the WM person since saying those numbers is easy to get a number transposed. It happened to me. I am at WM several times a week for groceries and supplies so doing a few money orders is not a problem.

3. I quit doing more than 998.99. I only have 1 WM close and do not want on a banned list. In a crunch to do more, I then drive to a town 45 minutes away and flush $2000 at a Kroger and hit 3 WM’s. This Kroger is consistently good about doing $2000, plus gives a slight discount for using my Kroger card.

4. For whatever reason, my WF ATM does not read the WM money orders well. It will often ask me the amount on a money order. If they are all 998.99 then not a problem, but if they vary in amounts, I write them down before depositing.

5. Slow and steady seems to be working best for me.

Reply
1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  It’s got its challenges. That long wait is why I don’t really order gift cards online anymore unless it’s in small quantities.
  
  Reply
Ed. C

February 10, 2020

Because of where I live, I’ve been able to liquidate my $25,000 monthly SM run in 2 days, and half of that on the drive home from SM. Rarely did amounts that required ID or SS#. Lately, I’ve been getting braver and doing a couple at $4,000. Think I’ll stop doing that!

Reply
Phil

February 10, 2020

Was finally in a town with a Simon Mall over the weekend. Unfortunately for me, I could not find the $1000 gift cards so had to settle for $500 increments.

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1. Ed. C
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  You have to go to the mall office and ask for them. They just use variable load cards to put $1,000 on them.
  
  Reply
  1. Phil
    
    February 10, 2020
    
    Thanks for the tip…I mentioned something to the person checking me out about $1000 gcs at checkout and he didn’t say anything about having them.
    
    Reply
Caroline Jean

February 10, 2020

Hi. I just read that article and it’s the first time I am learning about that stuff. What is it about?

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1. Ed. C
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  I would advise clicking on the various links in the article. You’ll learn much by reading them.
  
  Reply
jhl

February 10, 2020

Here in Northern CA, I have tried multiple WM stores and none are allowing us to us Visa Debit GCs to buy money orders. Not many places, grocery stores, etc. even sell MOs. Does anybody have any alternatives?

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1. Elmer
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  I use cash. Works like a charm.
  
  Reply
  1. Mariusz Szweda
    
    February 25, 2020
    
    Good for you. Are you in MS business?
    
    Reply
jhl

February 10, 2020

Elmer, maybe i did make myself clear…If i had cash I would not need a money order. I need a money order to deposit to my checking account. Do you use Visa Debit Gift cards to buy money orders? Where do you buy them other than Walmart?? Thanks.

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1. BW
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  Maybe Elmer meant to use cash to bribe the clerks, jhl
  
  Reply
Trent R

February 11, 2020

I’m surprised that you could even buy a money order for more than $1K. At all the Walmarts I have been to, the most you can buy a money order for is $950. Because the lines are too long at Walmart, and you can only buy up to $5000 worth of money orders per day, and I’m only allowed to swipe 3 cards per trip, I switched to Kroger.

Reply
1. Ed. C
  
  February 11, 2020
  
  What part of the country do you live in? At all the WMTs I’ve bought MOs at (about 15 different ones), the 24 hour limit is $8,000. I have bought $4,000 at a time (3 – $1,000 and one for $996.48) twice in a 24 hour period with no problem.
  
  I plan to change my strategy somewhat now given Ariana’s situation.
  
  Reply
2. Miles
  
  February 11, 2020
  
  Are you in Arizona? I’ve heard there’s a law there causing that limitation.
  
  Reply
3. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  February 11, 2020
  
  They’re $1k per MO, but you can buy four in one transaction.
  
  Reply
John

February 16, 2020

I was wondering, once Walmart/Moneygram bans you from buying more than $999 worth of MOs do they ever un ban you? Or is the ban for life? Also, until this month the USPS was accepting the SM $1000 debit cards for money order purchase, but this month they increased the price of the money orders to $1.75 and must have changed how the debit cards are coded for purchase. they won’t work anymore. now i have to figure out another way to liquidate my SM debit cards!

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Sudhir Krishnan

February 21, 2020

Ariana, sorry to hear about this! If you’ve been presenting Walmart with your drivers license, you other ids such as passports will still work – until they get around to blocking them as well – which usually seem to happen in 3 months cycles. Apart from getting MO from some another location such as a grocery store, what other backup liquidation options do you guys have?

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