A week or so ago Safeway sent out a memo (see the full memo on FM here) stating that Blackhawk cards will no longer be accepted for money center transactions of $100+. This seems to be hard coded as these transactions are auto declined, meaning it’s no longer possible to purchase money orders using these cards. There is already a lot of discussion in the comments of this linked post.
You may also like
Staples: No Purchase Fee On $200 Visa Gift Cards (3/30-4/5; Limit 9)
Kroger/ Harris Teeter Stores: No Purchase Fee on $100+ Visa/MC Gift Cards (Stack With Chase Offer)
Staples: No Activation Fee on $200 Mastercard Gift Cards (3/23/25 – 3/29/25)
Office Depot/Max Stores: Buy $300 In Visa Giftcards & Get $15 Instant Discount (3/16-3/22)
[Expired] Office Depot/Max Stores: Buy $300 In Mastercard Giftcards & Get $15 Instant Discount
It’s been another week. Everyone still BAU?
I got one staff asking me to see the card. It was used to be very loose/friendly before. I believe they were informed something for sure.
BAU today
Ditto – all week
22 Albertsons, Pavilions, Safeway, and Vons are BAU.
22? Respect the hussle.
Btw since we’re talking about MSing at Safeway there are several reloadable products they (Safeway) sell that are good for MSing (though not unique to Safeway im sure, just where I found them). I don’t have recent data but if you want to research it yourself find out which reloadable products they have then search flyertalk for those products. The ones with only a single page where people respond to OP with “nope, don’t try, they will shut you down” those are your winners.
Just got the $500 MasterCard from Lowes, liquidated across the street in Fry’s and yes, this Master card is from Meta. I guess this particular BIN won’t be impacted like the grocery, dining and style everywhere as not many people buy these. I haven’t tried Safeway or Albertsons yet as I wanted to get rid of this meta quickly but as of today liquidation at fry’s works. Will try tomorrow with Safeway or Albertsons
Anand
Were you able to liquidate the $500 MC from Lowe’s at Safeway for MO?
Don’t panic just yet… here’s my DP from 10 minutes ago–
Purchased a $395 MO in case I had to $99 swipe my way out of it. First pass, swiped a $200 VGC. Worked like always. Same for second pass, a $200 MCGC… both Metas. Out the door in 2 minutes. My regular service desk person commented, “only one money order today?”
So, either this isn’t a thing. Or it is a regional thing. Or it is a regional rollout that hasn’t hit the PNW yet. I’m hoping for the first one.
It is definitely hard-coded in the Olympia WA area. I have tried at three Safeways. The CSRs were cooperative, but the system declined three times. These three stores were previously reliable.
Worked for me today at 3 different Safeway’s in pierce county WA.
Going to try Chicago area later today. Hit two yesterday with zero issues.
It’s likely each register will need to be programmed. Might be next week, next year or never.
1) Your TITLE (and the link to frequent miler) :
– this goes for moneyorders over $100 at SAFEWAY.
– it would affect all giftcards
– afaik its NOT hardcoded yet (but shows a clear effort by Blackhawk to eventually limit it)
2) Your LINK to discussion (see your Staples thread):
– this is about mainly mastercard giftcards being rejected at WALMART
– started April 30th with ‘tender not allowed’ (up to this point you could run them for any amount as credit)
– seems to be hardcoded into system
In general, both topics are a good reminder not to accumulate large stacks of GC’s without having multiple ideas on how to offload them if needed… 🙂
I had always avoided the MCGCs because they never worked at WM. Doing some reading I saw you had to change payment type to debit and you could swipe the full amount. I bought several $1,000 worth at Staples during their last promotion. Seems to be really hit or miss on these. I did see something about changing the pin helped. I changed the pin on one and loaded it to my gobank card on 5/2. Can we discuss this further?
Isn’t it the exact same issue? This is coming from blackhawk not the individual stores…
So Safeway MO is BAU for time being, WM people report being ‘stuck’ with their MCGC.
Did this just take effect today? Was able to liquidate a few metas (serviced by BH) at an Acme this past weekend
So is this only for 100 and above; has someone tried to liquidate the $100 MC on sale since it would be $99?
I read the post, but not sure if affect metabank VGC. Anyone knows?
They are on the Blackhawk network.
Flip the VGC/MCGC and read the back of the gift card and check if it says “Distributed and serviced by Blackhawk Network” .
Thanks. Got it.
Yea, it’s hard coded. It’s hard carded by Blackhawk the way the memo reads to me. Which is essentially what they did for WM debit transactions.