mnfilmer

Long time lurker, first time poster in the MS forum.

My boys' (ages 6 and 8) piano teacher charged $234 a month. I'm sick of writing checks. So let's see if she takes money orders!

Ordered a $240 VGC from giftcards.com and activated it.

Rolled up to WM with my boys on a busy saturday afternoon and kindly asked for a money order for $234. Slid the card, entered the last 4 digits of the card when it asked for a pin.

Cashier printed MO, no problem.

MO in the mail to piano teacher!

I guess my problem is I now have a VGC with $5.12. I did try to buy some beer with it a WM after, but kept getting declined. Further research needed.

FormallyKnownAs

Load the remaining balance to Amazon as gift balance

alphakenny1

Congrats! I remember the first time starting on this MS journey and was super excited when I first bought a money order from Wally World and USPS (Oh I miss those days!!!).

Enjoy!

RedSun

Just go not get too greedy and risk of getting shut down.

Zgirl

Zgirl

Klemhuzzah

Congrats on your first time success!

krazykanuck

Not all retailers auto drain GCs. Mine does, but I don't shop at WM, so can't help you there. If you want to continue in your MS life I recommend buying the largest denomination to lower your cost. Also this is only kinda MS since you're actually paying a legit bill, but it's always nice to see people starting small and testing the waters to get used to it.

GetawaysRus

You can verify the remaining balance on the GC.Com website if necessary.

If you know $5.12 remains but the cash register fails to autodetect the card balance, tell the cashier to key in that you are paying 5.12 with this card. Then enjoy your beer.

I have some local stores that will only auto drain a VGC if I run it as credit (rather than debit). If you slide the card and the enter PIN screen comes up, usually it is a green button to press and the terminal will switch to credit. Then you can enjoy that beer.

zeppoloveskafka

This is not manufactured spend. This is just spend. And I have no idea what your profit was (I would naturally assume you lost money on this), but it doesn't seem like it can possibly be worth the hassle. I also don't like the idea of mailing money orders... if it gets lost you've created an unnecessary hassle.

Whatever your profit was, surely it would have been higher if you had bought a $500 card, deposited in your bank, and then sent a check. This isn't manufactured spend, this is manufactured profit loss.

dealhunter32

The idea of using money orders to pay bills is an interesting one. If you have enough bills, you could completely avoid depositing money orders to your banks / credit unions, minimizing risk of shutdowns.

bigshooter

I pay my apartment rent with money orders. Quick way to get a few thousand points a month without risking checking account shutdown.

Ultraboost

Congrats but why does this have to be a new thread?

cruisr

radonc1

So we now have a debate on what exactly MS is.
If we assume that MS is nothing more than generating CC debits by purchasing financial instruments such as VGCs and then paying those bills off in whatever fashion (BP, etc) as an endless cycle (one hopes) then this is not MS.

However, I like to believe that MS is more what the OP is doing than that endless cycle described above. He had a bill that could not be paid by CC. He generated a CC debit by buying a GC and converting it to a MO. He then used the MO to pay the bill. It is true that this will cost him some money. Whether it is worthwhile for him to do so depends on the CC he uses and what it gives him.

For me, I add a step when the MO is not permitted to pay the bill. I have a checking account where the MO is deposited and then the bill is payed by a check out of that account. My benefit from this is that I get CC minimum spend, some cash back and points that can be used for a myriad of purchases. By meeting my minimums on a single credit card, I get a healthy sum of cash deposited into my investment account. I also collect points to fly and stay at hotels using that same minimum spend.

I think that the bloggers have more than calculated the value of our activity. I calculated that paying bills with a check from my MS account costs me 0.8% additional to the actual bill. That is 80 cents per $100 spent. (and I am not including any specials such as the OM rebates where VGCs cost nothing to buy)

So OP, keep at it. Read everything here to avoid the disasters that await you and your hobby. Open a new checking account and partially fund it with MOs and pay those pesky bills that don't take CCs or MOs out of it. (But but but don't pay your CC bills out of it if you want a relatively peaceful and serene hobby ) Good luck