Update 11/2/18: As of 11/1/18 the new rules are now being enforced. Nationwide, apparently. Interestingly, the $.88 fee counts in the $1,000 limit so if you hit $1k exactly with the fee included, you WILL have to give in your ID. Note, this $1k ID requirement only includes your driver’s license/ID number, not your SSN. That’s different than a SAR which requires your SSN.
Original Post from 10/14/18:
I heard a rumor a few days ago about changes coming to the Walmart MoneyCenter on Tuesday, October 8, and now there’s a blog post from Millionmileguy with the details and pictures of the memo.
Here are the changes:
- If you buy $1,000+ in money orders, the system will ask for identity verifications. Previously, the threshold was $3,000.
- Total money order purchases will be limited to $8,000 per customer, per day. Previous limit was $10,000.
- Bill-pay is now limited to $8,000 per rolling 30 days. Previously the limit was probably $10,000 per day.
Here are images from Millionmileguy:
Not sure how many people still use the Walmart BillPay option for manufacturing spend since many credit card issuers are sensitive to that. The $10k to $8k change doesn’t seem like a big deal for most people either.
The big change here is the $3k to $1k for money orders: people regularly buy $1,998.40 in money orders and pay with four $500 Visa prepaid cards. Such a purchase will now trigger identity verification which is obviously time consuming and intrusive. Should still be possible to drain two $500s by purchasing a $999.30 money order without requiring identity verification. Not sure if loading $1,000 to a prepaid card will also trigger ID verification or if the ID requirements are for money orders only. I’d guess prepaid loads will require verification at $1,000 threshold as well.
Surely this is an MS hit, though one can argue that it could have been worse.
View Comments (130)
7-12-23
My bank card was compromised. Usually my paramour just transfers money directly to my card to pay monthly bills while he is out of town. Due to my card being compromised, and waiting for a new one, he purchased two, $1,000. Money orders for me to cash as needed to pay bills, so that I wasn't carrying large sums of cash with me.
I cashed one money order (purchased and cashed at Walmart) absomutely no problem.
Had to put my SSN and DL into system, but cashed just fine.
Days later, tried cashing the 2nd one. Couldnt cash it. This was the SAME Walmart that it was purchased from and the SAME Walmart which cashed the 1st one.
A little slip of paper shot out of the machine, telling me to contact a number. So I did. Recorded message saying that it couldnt be cashed due to date being too far in advance.
I explained this to customer service person and she tried running it again. Same thing.
(I used to work with these people at Walmart so I know them, and they know me)
So the "coach" came to help and couldnt figure out why it wasnt cashing and told me to come back tomorrow and try. Another customer service person said that maybe because I had recently cashed one, that the system was making me wait.
They suggested that I add my paramours name after mine with the word OR in between, and like a check, then he would be able to cash it. So I told him about this and he took off work and went to Walmart to cash this money order.
He had to use his drivers license and SSN.
It still wouldnt cash. He showed them the stub off the money order, and the receipt with the bank card when he purchased it.
They said that they didnt have a number to reach a live person, and suggested that we try again the next day.
Again, he takes off work and I drive to meet him at walmart. Still, neither of us can cash it.
The other "coach" is very snotty when we ask what we are supposed to do. She said now that its filled out, she cannot touch it to refund the money back. I said, but we cant cash it, so what are we supposed to do? She replied , "hold on to it". I said- and do what with it? We cant cash it, we cant return it...
I asked her, being Walmart sells Western Union money orders, can she call and find out what's going on?
She said Im not going to call them, you will have to.
So we went out and sat in the car and called WU. There was NO REASON on Western Unions end that it cant be cashed. No flags, no holds and not been cashed...according to them there was no reason, or limit on how many money orders I could cash.
It is definitely something to do with Walmart. Now, the only way to get the money back is pay 15 dollars along with a form filled out and sent to Western Union and 30 days later we will get the money back.
Thanks Walmart in Mansfield PA for costing us multiple trips to Walmart, the wasted gasoline, time taken away from work two days in a row and an extra 15 dollars to get the money refunded back to us 30 days later.
Bought a $3,000 money order at Walmart. Asked for social security #. Is that normal?
3k or more they ask for SSN.
Just do 3 for 999 = 3k total with fees. No SSN required.
Too late for that now. I feel unsecured about entering social security number when there's a line behind me. I'll do 999$ x3.
Would 1000,1000,and 997 work as well?
Yes, That'll work. 2999.99 will work, anything under 3k.
Just yesterday my normal Walmart started asking for ID for a $399 MO. They only allow two swipes. I've never had to give ID before. The clerks are annoyed and said all sorts of system updates are rolling out.
I just experienced this for the first time. I am uncomfortable with this. They make it seem like hackers and identity theft is so rampid because of internet security. It’s Rampid because we are giving out our information for random everyday things. It’s unnecessary. Stupid rules like this make it easy to find out information on a server because we had to give it over to get a money order! I will either get 900 money order or I will not use Walmart at all.
I recently purchased a money order from local walmart couple days ago. At the end of transaction, the receipt was not printed immediately after the money order print out. The associate said the system was frozen, then after some clicking, the regular receipt was printed out but not the small receipt. I checked its status online when I got home, and it said "This item requires further research; please fill out this form for submission". Then I returned to the store today, they tried cashing it but failed, so they asked me to contact moneygram and fill the form and pay the fee to get refund from moneygram. I think I will do that. However it looks like the refund from moneygram is not guaranteed. So I am wondering what is my best option if moneygram is not going to refund me. Any suggestion? Thanks!
>>Then I returned to the store today, they tried cashing it but failed>>
when you said IT failed, was the store trying to cash out the MO from the "failed" transaction? How did you pay for the MO ~ VGC, bank DC, cash?
If it was me, I'd ask for a supervisor if I am asked to pay another fee to get a refund when it wasn't my fault. I always had good experience talking to the cash department manager in issues like this and I didn't have to pay more fees.
I paid with VGC. The funds were withdrew. They tried cashing the money order and refunding me $4 fee, but the attempt to cashing couldn't go through. I talked to the supervisor, and was told that after the failed cashing, nothing they could do now and asked me to contact moneygram.
Some other Jerry-not Jerry Mandel.
Isn't the fee $3 to cash out MO bought at WM? I'm not sure if the cash dept manager would tell you the same thing since the fault is on their end so I'm pretty sure they can do something IF they want to help you get back your funds if the MO you bought is no good. Too bad, they're pushing you to MG to fix the issue on their end. I know from reading reports on FT that dealing with MG is very challenging but I hope yours will be easier. Good luck!
It is $4 fee for upto $1000 now. Right now, they said nothing they could do. When I asked if moneygram wouldn't refund me what I should do, one of them said I could sue moneygram. Maybe I have to sue walmart instead. But I really don't want to go that way.
So I have an interesting quesiton. Say, i've done $7,800 in bill pay for the last 25 days. Could I attempt to pay another bill for $1,500 within the 30 day rolling period? That'll bring my total over 8k, but it appears to work in the app - would there be any reason I'd be declined
The motto is "Be the DP you want to see" and give it a shot then report back to us.
I was told at Walmart yesterday now only one card is allowed per day. I have 5 visa cards in 100$ each, but could only get 100$ money order yesterday.
I was told that any mo over 500 requires ID. Took the cashier quite some time to manually type in my info.
Did you have to type in your social security # at some point as well? If so, they were likely filing an eMSAR on you
Anyone recently having issues purchasing money orders at Walmart? Yesterday I went to my local store to purchase a $995 money order, the cashier looked at the register, went and spoke with the manager and then told me that they couldn't process the transaction for me since they've noticed that I "purchase a lot of money orders there." I am at that store pretty regularly so a lot of the staff do know me. I think that I'm going to just layoff that particular store for a while and reduce my purchase amount to somewhere around $800 instead of being so close to $1000. Just wondering if anyone else was having similar issues with employees becoming overzealous
Yeah I've been running into the same issue with my go-to store recently. Has yours relaxed over the past couple months or still being uptight?
Tried to buy a $999 MO today in NJ near NYC and I was still asked for ID...... Then I said: OK, I'll just do $xxxx (greater than 1000). Since I was required to show my ID anyway, then why not just buy some more for this time LOL