[Originally posted 11/2/17. Reposting 11/3/17 since it’s now hard-coded, at least is some areas, maybe everywhere. Seems to have happened overnight since yesterday 11/2 people were still having success. See data points in this Reddit thread.]
Milesperday just posted a memo which was sent out (regionally?) indicating that prepaid gift debit cards are not a valid debit card to buy money orders at the USPS. The memo also states that it will be hard-coded soon into the registers not to accept prepaid cards for money orders.Â
The memo also gives tips to the cashiers so they can recognize someone who is using a gift card:
- If a customer has a stack of debit cards, preloaded for $500 or $250 each, and they want to buy money orders with them, they are almost certainly not linked to the customer’s account.
- Gift cards do not normally have the chip embedded in them.
- Gift cards do not have the customer’s name on them.
- Gift cards will of then say so on the front of the card.
For now, it could still be possible to buy money orders at USPS depending on the cashier, but keep this in mind before you load up on gift cards, and ensure you have a backup plan.
USPS money orders are the favored method of most heavy MSers for the past year or two. This is partially due to the fact that Walmart got more difficult to deal with, not all cards work anymore at Walmart, and additionally, Amex stopped allowing MS on Bluebird/Serve cards. Another factor is that at some point in the past few years the USPS system was updated and in the process began allowing many more prepaid debit cards as payment methods than had been previously allowed.
