Citi Double Cash Purchase Tracker — Revealed!

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The Citi Double Cash is, at face value, a no-annual-fee, 2% cash back credit card. But rather than awarding 2% cash back on purchases, the geniuses in Citi's credit card division came up with a way to drag out their cash back awards over the life of a balance (compare to Barclaycard's practice of awarding Arrival+ miles as soon as purchases move to posted from pending status). 

According to the card's terms and conditions, there are two ways to earn cash back:

"Cash Back on Purchases: Unless you are participating in a limited time promotional offer, you will earn 1% cash back based upon eligible purchases appearing on your current month's billing statement. Eligible purchases you make will be accumulated in the 'Purchase Tracker' shown on your billing statement. The Purchase Tracker shows the balance eligible to earn cash back on payments each billing cycle.

"Cash Back on Payments: You will also earn 1% cash back on payments you make that appear on your current month's billing statement as long as the amount paid is at least the Minimum Payment Due that is printed on your billing statement and there is a balance in the Purchase Tracker. The balance in the Purchase Tracker is reduced by eligible payments you make. When the Purchase Tracker reaches $0, you won't earn cash back on payments until more eligible purchases are made."

This Rube Goldberg contraption raised a few obvious questions: what's a "Purchase Tracker?" How often is it updated? Most importantly, would payments made against purchases in the same billing cycle award all 2% in cash back when the statement closed, or would cardholders have to wait for a second statement to close before they earned the second 1% cash back?

Now that my first Citi Double Cash statement has closed, I'm prepared to reveal all.

What does a Purchase Tracker look like?

There are two versions of the Purchase Tracker: the one that appears on your billing statement, and the one that appears online. They reflect the same information, but in slightly different ways. Here's the Purchase Tracker that appears on my billing statement:

And here's my online Purchase Tracker:

As you can see, my Purchase Tracker reflects all the purchases and all the payments I made during my first billing statement, and I received 1% cash back on each.

The Purchase Tracker is not updated in real time

The online Purchase Tracker only reflects purchases and payments on your last billing statement; it is not updated in real time, and my best guess it that it's unnecessary to wait for your purchases to post before making payments against them.

In other words, all your purchases in the current billing cycle are added to your previous Purchase Tracker balance, and all your payments during the current billing cycle are compared to that new total. If your total payments are less than that new Purchase Tracker balance, you'll receive 1% cash back on the total payments amount.

Statement credit redemptions are not payments and are not supposed to reduce the Purchase Tracker

When redeeming your Double Cash cash back balance as a statement credit, you're informed that the redemption will not reduce the amount in your Purchase Tracker, since statement credit redemptions are not treated as payments.

On the one hand, that means you won't earn cash back on the amount of your statement credit redemption. On the other hand, that means that even when you pay off your entire remaining balance, you will still have a balance in your purchase tracker.

Direct Deposit redemptions aren't immediately available

While you can redeem your Double Cash cash back for statement credits immediately, you cannot redeem your balance as cash back deposited into a bank account until you initiate two ACH "pull" payments from that bank account. Since my "payments" were balance transfers from my new Chase Slate card, I did not have any eligible linked bank accounts, and made a statement credit redemption instead.

Conclusion

If you pay off your entire Citi balance before your statement closes each month, the Citi Double Cash card is a true 2% cash back card. If you instead take advantage of its 15-month 0% introductory APR by paying off your balance as slowly as possible, you won't receive the entirety of your second percent of cash back until you pay off your balance in your 15th month of card membership.

Arrival+ devaluation and imputed redemption values in a 2.11% world

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Last week a number of bloggers "confirmed" some forthcoming changes to the Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard. The trouble is, they confirmed different things!

  • Amol at Travel Codex wrote: "The first changes for new cardmembers should go into effect sometime in September, although it may vary for different people depending on when their cardmember year begins."
  • Matt Zuzolo at Bankrate wrote: "These changes will go into effect in November for cardholders who got the card before Sept. 30, 2014, and in August 2016 for cardholders who got the card on or after Oct. 1, 2014."
  • Summer Hull at Mommy Points wrote: "For those interested in applying for either version of the card, Barclaycard is targeted mid-July for a relaunch of the products for new customers.  At that time the 5% rebate on travel purchases will be in place, but it won’t expand to all categories until November (reportedly for tech related issues)."

I really like my Arrival+ card

As a reminder, I don't have any third-party credit card affiliate links anywhere on this site (although I do have a couple of personal referral links on my Support the Site! page).

So I don't have any incentive to write about cards I don't carry or cards I don't love. And I really like my Arrival+ card:

  • True Chip-and-PIN functionality makes it fantastic for buying train tickets when you've just arrived in Europe, without exchanging money at extortionate airport rates;
  • "Travel redemptions" are eminently gameable;
  • Barclaycard treats a wide range of online transactions as purchases, and MasterCards are much more widely accepted for such transactions than American Express cards;
  • I've had the annual fee waived on both of my account anniversaries to date.

Two changes to be aware of

While I'm not entirely convinced when the new changes will come into effect, all the reporting so far indicates that they will eventually be applied to existing cardholders. For me, there are two key changes to think about:

  • the Arrival+ mile rebate on travel redemptions will go down to 5% from 10%;
  • and travel redemptions will start at $100 (10,000 Arrival+ miles).

The first change means that the card is, at best, a 2.11% cash back card, while the second change means that the $89 annual fee will no longer be eligible for rebate. In other words, if you can't get Barclaycard to waive the annual fee, you'll actually have to pay it.

That raises the breakeven point of manufactured spend on the card from $40,050 to $80,909 — that's the point at which you're making any profit over a straight 2% cash back card, if and only if you actually pay the $89 annual fee (if you have the annual fee waived, then the card is still strictly superior to a 2% cash back card like the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express or Citi Double Cash).

Imputed Redemption Values in a 2.11% world

I use the term "imputed redemption values" to designate the amount you have to save on hotel points redemptions in order to justify earning hotel points rather than cash back on your most-profitable cashback-earning credit card. So far, I've been using 2.22% cash back as my benchmark, and you can find those imputed redemption values here, which will remain valid for existing Arrival+ cardholders, for now.

But the upcoming devaluation of the Arrival+ MasterCard means those values will not be relevant to new cardholders, so I've recalculated my imputed redemption values for the hotel chains I follow using both the new 2.11% maximum earning of the Arrival+ MasterCard and a straightforward 2% cash back earning rate, like that of the two cards mentioned above. I've also included the 2.22% earning for the benefit of existing Arrival+ cardholders.

Club Carlson

This calculation has been additionally updated to reflect the end of the last-night-free benefit for co-branded US Bank cardholders.

Hilton HHonors

Starwood Preferred Guest

Marriott Rewards

Hyatt Gold Passport

IHG Rewards

Choice Privileges

This is the first time I've included Choice Privileges, the loyalty program of the Choice Hotels chain, in my hotel analyses. The administration of this program appears to me to be a complete disaster, but they have a remarkable number of hotels all over the world and what appear to me to be fairly generous imputed redemption values.

I'll have a more in-depth post coming on this program later this week, but for now, here's the imputed redemption value of manufacturing spend with the Barclaycard-issued Choice Privileges Visa Signature card, which earns 2 Choice Privileges points per dollar spent with the card:

Those are obviously very competitive imputed redemption values for top-tier properties. The only trouble is that it's wildly unclear to me whether Choice Hotels actually has any top-tier properties.

For example, the excellently-located Comfort Inn Central Park West costs just 25,000 Choice Privileges points. But a paid stay in July (Choice Hotels only allows award bookings within 30 days for non-elite members) costs just $209 — well below the $278 imputed redemption value for such a stay.

Paying credit card bills with money orders

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Today's post is about an issue that I've found causes the occasional misunderstanding in the travel hacking community.

Some banks are (rightly) suspicious of large money order deposits

If you've ever searched Craigslist for a job, you've no doubt come across exciting opportunities in the field of check-kiting. How this scam typically works is that you'll receive a bundle of money orders, which you are instructed to take to your own bank to deposit.

Banks are required to make the funds available within a certain number of days, whether or not the funds have in fact been made available by the bank against which the check is drawn. Once the funds become available to you within the statutory period, you're instructed to wire the funds back to your "employer," deducting a certain percentage to cover your own time and expenses, of course.

When your bank discovers the money orders are fraudulent, they deduct the entire sum from your checking account and hold you responsible for the money.

Besides being aware and wary of the above scam, banks may also be suspicious of customers who conduct large transactions in cash-equivalents like money orders. The larger the bank, the more likely they are to be unwilling to humor customers who insist on depositing vast sums of untraceable funds. That's one reason why one of the most valuable resources any travel hacker can draw on is an accommodating local bank or credit union.

Paying credit cards with money orders is no big deal

I've recited the above well-known facts because, not unreasonably, many people seem to think that the implication is that money orders are inherently suspicious. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If you have local branches of the banks that issue your credit cards, they will be happy to accept money orders as payments against your credit cards. For example, I have local branches of both Chase and US Bank:

  • In the case of US Bank, I simply hand my credit card and money orders made out to "US Bank" to the teller and ask to make a payment.
  • In the case of Chase, I make the money orders out to "Chase Card Services" (the payee on my Chase credit card bills) and fill out the light blue "payment" slip found at the customer island.

While I've read (occasional, rare) reports of Chase and US Bank checking accounts being closed for making a single large money order deposit, I make tens of thousands of dollars in payments against my credit cards every single month, all of which my clerks are invariably happy to process.

Distinguishing between deposits and payments

The essential thing to remember here is how the bank treats the two kinds of transactions:

  • Deposits into a checking account, made available within the statutory period, can be withdrawn as cash. If money orders turn out to be fraudulent, the bank is responsible for getting the money back from you — money you may no longer have access to.
  • Payments against a credit account, on the other hand, merely reduce the outstanding balance owed. If your money orders turn out the fraudulent, the bank will versus the payment and charge a returned payment fee.

This different is key to understanding why, in general, payments against credit accounts pose a much lower risk to the banks than deposits into demand deposit accounts.

Warnings, cautions, etc., etc.

I make money order payments against my credit card accounts constantly, and my local bank branches are always happy to process them.

But as I'm fond of saying, I'm not a banker, and I'm especially not your banker. If banks in your area have been recently hit by fraudsters, they may be more cautious than necessary about money orders, regardless of the actual risk they incur by processing them.

So start slow, get to know your tellers, make sure they know what they're doing, and build relationships. Then stop worrying, and make any credit card payments you please using money orders.

Do this now: activate third-quarter bonus categories

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Is everybody else as excited as I am about the beginning of the third quarter, just a few short days away? Here are the cash back bonus categories and activation links for the quarter beginning July 1 and ending September 30, 2015.

  • Chase Freedom. 5 non-flexible Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent at gas stations. If you have gas stations that sell PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards or PayPal My Cash cards, this one takes care of itself. Otherwise, you can either buy actual gasoline, or see what other gift cards your local gas stations carry. Make sure you activate your third-quarter bonus earning for each Chase Freedom card you hold.
  • Discover it. 5% cash back at "Home Improvement Stores, Department Stores, and Amazon.com," doubled to 10% if you call to enroll in the current double cash promotion. Ordinarily I load my Bluebird card with $200 Visa prepaid debit cards purchased at Staples with Ink Plus; in July, I'll instead load Bluebird with $1,500 in prepaid debit cards purchased at Home Depot or Sears.
  • Citi Dividend Platinum Select. Earn 5% cash back on airline purchases and at any hotel in the Hilton portfolio. I won't personally be taking advantage of this offer.
  • US Bank Cash+. Select one of gas stations, grocery stores, or restaurants where you'll earn unlimited 2% cash back, and two additional categories where you'll earn 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in spend during the quarter. Charity remains a 5% cash back category, so if you have recently taken out a large negative-interest-rate loan, low-risk, short-duration Kiva loans continue to be an option. Cash+ registration takes a few days to become effective, so don't delay.

One weird old trick to get American Express business gift card orders approved

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Until today, I had never had an American Express business gift card order approved. In the good old days, this wasn't a big deal: business and consumer gift cards both typically paid out at the same high rates, and I didn't (and still don't) have enough credit lines worth manufacturing spend on outside of bonus categories to justify buying more than $20,000 in American Express gift cards per month (the limit on consumer gift card orders).

Since cash back payouts on American Express gift cards dropped from the 4% that used to be typical to the roughly 1.5% they seem stuck at these days, my inability to get business gift card orders approved started to rankle, since payouts on business, but not consumer, gift cards would occasionally be increased 50% to 2.25%, where they sit today on TopCashBack. But even though I have an IRS-issued EIN, and an American Express small business credit card issued under it, my streak of failures continued unbroken.

Declined gift card orders wouldn't have bothered me so much, except that each failed order would tie up valuable credit lines for 7-10 days, effectively shutting down my manufactured spend on some of my most lucrative credit cards for weeks at a time.

Use your last name and Social Security number to get business gift card orders approved

A few weeks back I read in the comments on Frequent Miler's blog that he had success being approved for business gift cards using his last name and Social Security number, rather than the name of his business and EIN.

With payouts on business gift cards up to 2.25% again today, and having just freed up a fair-sized chunk of credit on my Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard, I decided I had nothing to lose, and placed an order for two $2000 business gift cards, using my last name and Social Security number. Then I went about my day.

Less than 3 hours later, American Express notified me that my order had been approved — my very first business gift card approval ever.

In defense of American Express for Target

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American Express for Target prepaid cards were, until earlier this month, one of two popular methods for running up credit credit spend at Target store locations. Loads of up to $1,000 cost $3 each, and it was possible to liquidate the funds on the cards using fee-free ATM's, where the first withdrawal each month (of up to $400 per day) was free, and each subsequent monthly withdrawal cost $3.

When Frequent Miler was reporting on the end of free Prepaid REDcard loads at the beginning of this month, he mentioned in passing:

"Amex for Target is now almost useless

I tried loading it with a credit card.  No luck.  I tried using it to load REDbird first as a credit card and then as a debit card (yes, I knew that wouldn’t work, but figured it couldn’t hurt to try). No luck. The only remaining use I can imagine for the Amex for Target card is if you’re stuck with a bunch of Vanilla Visa gift cards that don’t work at Walmart and you don’t have a REDbird card."

The cost structure of American Express for Target cards hasn't changed

I only had 3 or 4 good months of earning before Target stopped allowing credit cards to be used for prepaid card reloads, but it was a very good 3 or 4 months, and I developed a certain fondness for American Express for Target cards. The loading and unloading limits of AFT cards creates a very simple cost structure:

  • Loading $1,000 costs $3;
  • Unloading $1,000 costs an average of $6 ($4.50 for the first $1,000 each calendar month, $7.50 for the second).

In other words, American Express for Target cards are now a more-expensive-than-usual method of liquidating PIN-enabled debit cards.

The value of American Express for Target depends entirely on your earning rates

There are many reasons why Frequent Miler would reject the idea of paying $9 per $1,000 in liquidated manufactured spend. If you purchased $500 PIN-enabled prepaid Visa debit cards with a 2.22% cash back card, you might pay 1.4% in purchase fees, and an additional 0.9% in liquidation fees would consume the rest of the rebate value of your manufactured spend.

But if you were earning 3.75% cash back on your prepaid Visa debit card purchases, and are able to split payment for your loads between two PIN-enabled debit cards, you're suddenly netting at least 1.9% on each card.

Conclusion

Of course, if you're fortunate enough to be earning 5% cash back on certain prepaid card purchases with an American Express, Wells Fargo, or TD Bank credit card, then you are probably hunting for liquidation options at virtually any cost. A mere 0.9% liquidation fee is small change in the context of a lucrative-enough earning environment, which is yet another reason everyone needs to ask what role non-bonused spend should play in their manufactured spend strategy.

I'm not loading up on business Amex gift cards today (but you probably should!)

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In case you missed it, perhaps because of job responsibilities in the formal economy, today TopCashBack (my referral link) is offering 2.25% cash back on business American Express gift cards purchased after clicking through their shopping portal.

TopCashBack is personally my favorite cashback portal, both because of their consistency in tracking transactions and the ease of requesting ACH payments (BeFrugal, for instance, still requires you to have an open PayPal account in order to be paid electronically).

Personally, I'm sitting out this increased bonus, for 4 reasons:

  • I already have $8,000 in American Express gift cards on order. That's just about my comfort level for having outstanding American Express gift cards, because of the limited range of liquidation options. If my grocery store went out of business tomorrow, I might be forced to slowly liquidate them using Vanilla Visa prepaid debit cards;
  • I don't have any available space on my 2% cash back credit cards. When you manufacture as much spend as I do, and have credit limits as relatively low as I do, sometimes when increased payouts like these come along you will happen to be out of available credit. It happens, you move along. This week I happen to be particularly cramped because my Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express was recently compromised and I'm still waiting for my replacement card to arrive.
  • My alternatives aren't particularly appealing. I have a slew of 1% cash back credit cards, but even with an additional 2.25% earning rate, American Express gift card purchases aren't really competitive with my HHonors Surpass American Express and Flexperks Travel Rewards bonused earning at grocery stores, where I tend to liquidate most of my American Express gift cards.
  • I can't get business American Express gift card orders approved, and declined orders tie up my credit limits for a week or longer. If you've run into this problem, Frequent Miler recently mentioned in the comments section of his blog that he's been able to use his last name and Social Security number as his "business" information. I haven't had a chance to try that yet (and for the reasons above, won't be trying today), but I do hope it works for some of my readers.

Conclusion

This is a fantastic opportunity that comes along every few months to generate a higher-than-usual return on your unbonused manufactured spend. I can't quite fit it into my strategy today, but if you can, enjoy it in good health!

Suntrust has politely asked that you step up your game

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It seems that in the last few days Suntrust has been mailing letters to holders of Delta SkyMiles-earning debit cards, notifying them of a radical devaluation in the terms of the program, effective July 25, 2015.

Via Doctor of Credit, for cardholders who don't have a Signature Advantage account with Suntrust:

  • the annual fee will rise to $95 from $75;
  • earning will be cut to one SkyMile per $2 spent with the card from one SkyMile per $1 spent with the card;
  • and earning will be capped at 2,000 SkyMiles per rolling 30-day period.

Signature Advantage accountholders will have slightly more favorable terms, but pay a $25 monthly maintenance fee.

Confession: I've been slacking off

I've had a SkyMiles check card since last April, and have earned a few hundred thousand SkyMiles with it since then. But I could have been earning far, far more, and I wasn't.

The reason is somewhat risible, though it seemed to make sense at the time: Suntrust caps free, next-day inbound transfers from external accounts at $20,000 per rolling 30-day period. After that, the only free option for inbound transfers is 3-business-day transfers, which would involve tying up funds for days at a time without anything to show for it.

There have always been other options for transfers: I could use a third-party banking platform like Google Wallet or Amazon Payments, or pay a nominal fee for external ACH "pushes" from one of my local banks or credit unions. But that would also take additional time and raise the price I paid for miles for which I didn't have any specific redemption in mind.

So I didn't, and instead limited myself to $20,000 in SkyMiles check card purchases per rolling 30-day period.

But no more!

I'm not aware of any volume limits on Suntrust's 3-business-day transfers, so once I hit the $20,000 monthly limit on next-day transfers, I'll be aggressively using the longer, less-convenient, but still-free transfers. By initiating a transfer each day I should (after the first 3 days) have funds available for my SkyMiles check card each business day.

By my reckoning, I have 10 weeks and 3 days to earn as many SkyMiles as possible under the program's current terms and conditions.

Since I just paid the current, $75 annual fee in April, I'll probably hold onto the card until April, 2016, earning 2,000 SkyMiles per month at a cost of approximately $13.40. It won't make me rich, but I like flying Delta, and that's a price I'm willing to pay for the additional miles each month.

Conclusion

What do my readers think? Have you been using the Suntrust SkyMiles World Check Card as aggressively as you could have been? Will you start, now that we have just 73 days to take full advantage of it?

What role should non-bonused spend play in your miles and points strategy?

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Last week Shawn at Miles to Memories wrote about his experience buying PIN-enabled, Metabak-issued, personalized Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall, after clicking through a cash back portal like TopCashBack.

I responded to him on Twitter, remarking "I think you're begging the question; real issue seems to me what role unbonused spend plays in strategy."

Since I have this blog lying around, I figured I can explain myself more completely.

How is your manufactured spend throttled?

I've written before about the kinds of throttles that prevent us all from manufacturing an unlimited amount of spend. Even with huge credit limits, unlimited stock, and compliant cashiers, you'll still be constrained by the time you're willing to spend manufacturing spend, so in a concrete sense everyone's manufactured spend is throttled.

Of course, most of us don't live in that ideal manufactured spend landscape, and so regularly run into credit limits, dwindling supplies, suspicious cashiers, and a simple shortage of convenient or accessible stores.

Liquidation throttles matter most

There is no way to manufacture, on a monthly basis, more spend than you're able to liquidate, and in a fundamental sense manufactured spend is really manufactured liquidation: the search for more, easier, faster, and cheaper ways to get cash back out of the products we buy. After all, there's no special trick to buying cheap printers; the trick is getting virtually all your money back, so you can pay off your credit card while pocketing the rewards you earned on your purchase.

Different forms of manufactured spend are throttled differently

A few examples illustrate this point clearly:

  • You may be able to buy an unlimited number of OneVanilla prepaid Visa debit cards on credit, earning 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar using a Chase Ink Plus card at 7-Eleven store locations, but if you have only one Serve card, you can only liquidate $5,000 in Vanilla Visa cards per month at Family Dollar. At the same time, you might be able to liquidate an unlimited number of Metabank-backed Visa gift cards at Walmart.
  • If you have a Target Prepaid REDcard, you may be able to liquidate up to $5,000 in PIN-enabled debit cards per month at Target for free, but if your Target store locations require you to use cards that match your ID, you may not be able to liquidate any cards purchased at merchants where your credit cards offer bonused earning.

Match your liquidation bandwidth to bonused spend first

By allocating your liquidation bandwidth to your credit cards' bonus categories, you'll maximize your earning over however much spend you're able to manufacture and liquidate each month.

The logic here is simple: Shawn's personalized GiftCardMall Visa gift cards may cost him just $4.59 each, while a Visa gift card purchased at a grocery store might cost $6.95. But if Shawn uses a Hilton HHonors Surpass American Express card to purchase each, he'll be paying 0.3 cents per HHonors point at GiftCardMall and just 0.23 cents per HHonors point at the grocery store. If he cannibalizes his liquidation bandwidth with "cheaper" GiftCardMall gift cards, he'll end up paying more per point than he would by swallowing the higher per-card charge.

A special note on American Express gift cards

American Express gift cards, purchased after clicking through a portal like TopCashBack, are capable of adding a cash back bonus to any non-bonused spend, which can be well worth doing to diversify your strategy away from just miles and points. On the other hand, you'll only be able to liquidate them at merchants that accept American Express cards and don't specifically prohibit gift cards (like Simon Malls).

If there's room left for non-bonused spend, that's fantastic

There are forms of manufactured spend that are intrinsically unbonusable:

  • Visa Buxx cards can only be loaded with Visa and MasterCard credit cards in the Buxx cardholder's name. If you load them with a Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard, for example, you'll earn 2.22% cash back, and there's no way to juice that earning rate with an intermediary step (although you may have a different preference for the funding card).
  • Serve cards can be loaded with third-party American Express cards like the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express, but not with American Express gift cards. You'll earn 2% cash back on up to $1,000 in online loads each month, and you'll be glad to get it.

Finally, there are forms of manufactured spend like the personalized GiftCardMall Visa gift cards described by Shawn, and Simon Malls Visa gift cards, which can usually only be purchased with credit cards in the purchaser's name. They have the advantage of being relatively cheap and available in relatively large volumes, but the disadvantage of not receiving any spending category bonuses.

Conclusion

By now I hope my point is obvious: while the large volumes possible with those products do represent a real, concrete advantage that I have no intention of minimizing, if you're capable of liquidating such large volumes you have to first ask whether you've really exhausted all your bonused spending opportunities!

If you have, then manufacturing additional, non-bonused spending that fits within your liquidation bandwidth is common sense. But if you haven't, then you're leaving miles, points, and cash back on the altar of volume.

Possible point-of-sale update rolling out to Family Dollar (nothing to worry about)

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This seems like it's been a week of minor updates, but during a promotion as lucrative as the one we're currently living through I don't consider that a vice.

I ran into an extremely minor hiccup while liquidating some deeply-discounted Vanilla Visa gift cards at Family Dollar yesterday, and wanted to pass along a heads up in case any readers run into a similar problem.

Vanilla Visa gift cards should be automatically detected as debit cards by Family dollar registers

Until yesterday, every time I used a OneVanilla prepaid Visa debit card or Vanilla Visa gift card at Family Dollar (as long as the card was activated properly, and I waited a sufficient interval before using it) the card was automatically detected as a debit card, asking me only how much cash back I wanted (none) and for a PIN number (any 4 digits, selected the first time the card is used).

Yesterday, at one store, they weren't

I have two relatively convenient Family Dollar store locations, which is terrific since, due to still-poorly-understood velocity limits, any one store is of only limited use each day.

Yesterday at the first store I visited, swiping either of two $200 Vanilla Visa gift cards generated an on-screen error message of "Visa tender not allowed." Fortunately, it occurred to the cashier helping me to press the "F2" key on her register before I swiped, which directed the terminal to treat my Vanilla Visa gift card as a debit card. After that, I was prompted for my PIN and the transaction was successful.

At the second store I visited, an identical card (indeed, one that had generated an error at the first store), went through without the "F2" intervention.

Conclusion

I have absolutely no reason to believe Family Dollar won't continue to be an avenue for liquidating PIN-enabled Vanilla-branded Visa cards for the foreseeable future.

However, slightly different point-of-sale software may be rolling out in waves that will require additional input from cashiers before Vanilla Visa cards are recognized as debit cards.