The Albertson/Safeway chain sent out a corporate memo indicating that money orders can no longer be purchased with debit gift cards. Only cash or bank-issued debit cards will be acceptable payment, beginning May 1st. They also will not allow splitting a money order purchase between multiple bank debit cards.
The change is coming from Western Union, so it might end up affecting any other WU locations too (if there are).
Reader Brian sent this in a few days ago with the above image, and today Milesperday posted the same as well, along with the verbiage of the corporate memo which is interesting. It states that they are stopping to allow gift cards in order…
to stop “Point Chasers.” Point Chasers are identified by WU as “manufactured spending.”
How do you know it came from Western Union?
Confirmed to be hard coded, good luck to you all.
Can confirm the opposite. Bought a money order on 05/20/2023 at Safeway with a gift card. They didn’t see the card.
All of my local Albs had that sign up. It seems like they might be taking it seriously. It certainly must have been stressed to them as important. As to how long it will remain up and enforced is a whole nother matter.
Since when was buying MOs with debit gift cards widely acceptable? I always thought it was up to store discretion.
It is both widely acceptable…..and up to store discretion.
They released a memo like a year and a half ago saying the same thing. I panicked at first and drained all the GCs I was sitting on. Few months later things were all still smooth sailing, started to relax again. Did a couple of staples’ runs and ended up letting them sit around over the holidays b/c I was busy. Finally got my stuff together and went into the first of my usual Acme’s on the way home, card not authorized. Wasn’t sure if I had forgotten to reset to my usual PIN. Tried another one, same deal. Paid with normal debit card just to close out transaction. Sat in the parking lot and pulled card #3 out, checked balance, reset pin, went to usual stop #2. Same thing… Somewhere between the holidays and mid Feb last year all the Acmes in my area had hard coded against visa gebit 🙁
It was a good run.
I’m sure Safeway/Acme had their reasons, but at the same time, IDK if I have bought a single grocery item from them since. Where before I used to just grab stuff while I was there, now there are better places for me to actually shop if thats all I’m going to be doing.
Are you sure that was an Acme/Safeway change, or just the same Blackhawk network issue we’ve all run into? (seems like about $490 is the new max with no multiple swipes starting around February)
This is definitely a Blackhawk thing right now. Other gift cards work at the Albertsons stores. We obviously don’t know what will happen next month.
tried $50 on a $200 visa from staples at the second stop just to be sure. I think its regional. Had the same issue when I moved to MD (DC metro 5-6 years ago). Then moved to Philly metro and could hit 6 acme’s on the way home from work. Haven’t tried well outside of the metro area, but the mainline/philly area seems to be locked down to visa gc. Haven’t tried MC or GOC. Life has gotten busier, and now have a P2 to churn sign up bonuses with, so the 6000UR trips home have been getting cut in favor of other activities.
Blackhawk network?
Shaw’s has a sign that says these cards are not allowed as well as multiple swipes. But seldom (only once for me) enforced). I still use them and swipe twice.
That random Capitalization makes it Seem So official! We’re Watching you, Point Chasers!
I was thinking if I can make a set of 2 debit sized stickers I can sell to you all, that makes the gift card look like a real bank card with your name and everything. I don’t think it would be illegal? Or is that fraud? I mean the cards are yours you bought them but I just thought it would be a great idea, if I can figure out how I can do it I’ll let you guys know. Or is there anything like this out there already?
Don’t think it’s fraud per se, but what will you do about the words “Gift Card” printed on the card? Makes it pretty clear it’s not a bank issued debit card.
making fake debit cards is definitely not fraud, lol
I bought a card cloner for just this reason. It was ~$100 but the piece of mind knowing that if questioned the card I was using had my name on it. Got asked for the card probably a dozen times in 3-4 years. They’d look at it, then hand it back. If asked why I was trying to swipe I just told them I sat on it and broke the chip or something b/c it doesn’t work any more. Was a good way to make use of all those bank account bonus debit cards.
Was it fraud…. ? IDK…. Was it my card, Yes. Was it my money, also yes. Was it a technically legal transaction, yes again. Did the transaction violate the T&C of the card, store, and WU. still yes. Was I mis-representing a financial instrument, probably yes. Were the funds coming from a source other then what was represented by the account number on the card, absolutely. Did I want to have to explain any of this to a store manager or a legal authority, absolutely not… Did I have to, Thankfully no. Would I continue to use it if stores around me still to gebit. mostly likely yes
Talk to me about a card cloner…where does one buy one, and how is it used?
as with most things you buy them on the internet, make sure to get a reader/writer, a reader only doesn’t help you. They pull the data off the mag strip and output into a .txt file. You can then use the txt file to write that data on another cards mag strip. Its basically what hotels used to code those mag strip room keys. So if you wanted to mess with your friends you could copy your room key card onto your credit card. I also used it to track my MS, since I could just save the txt files. I have the card #/exp/CVV of every gebit card I’ve churned in the last 5 years.
Its worth nothing though that most cards that HAVE a chip will not work by swiping only. Terminal will ask you to insert the chip, so its applications are pretty limited since most cards have chips these days. So you can’t copy a regular debit card with a chip onto a card without a chip and expect it to work.
You can buy a chip reader/writer if you know where to shop…
Can you put several debit GC on one card so that you can just do one swipe for say $1000 instead of 5 $200 swipes?
no need to buy a cloner to do that, just sand the bottom front of your cards to make them thinner and you can stack at least 2, maybe 3 together in one swipe
Great idea. Did you try that?
yeah, but it only read the top card. i need to shave it thinner so the reader can get through to the bottom one. just got a new precision grinder for sharpening knives so i should be able to get them paper thin now. i was using a nail file before, came out pretty janky
Can the cloner overwrite the strip on a bank-issued debit card?
Thanks for the great info. May I ask more questions? thanks. I. It seems that with the help of a card cloner, we can easily clone a Visa Gift Card (no chip) to a new card. Then, which specific new card should I use? For instance, if I use one of my regular bank issued visa debit card (with a chip) as the “new card,” will it work? II. As others have said, can we clone several Visa Gift Cards to the same new card and then use the new card to do a single, large transaction for money orders?
What is your equipment set up?
Could you please publish a how-to guide?
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
That “sign” looks suspiciously like the one used at Stop & Shop when the “no gebits” policy went into effect.
I still do gebits at my local Stop & Shop.
How recently?
March 1, 2023
I mainly go to Walmart because it is closer, but Stop and Shop is my backup for $500 VGC.