New(est) changes to Walmart point-of-sale systems

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There are no two ways about it: it's been a frustrating week in the world of manufactured spend. Just a month after I wrote my award-winning (or at least widely retweeted) post on dealing with changes to Walmart point-of-sale systems, the geniuses in Bentonville struck again and implemented another set of obstacles to seamless Walmart financial transactions.

I've been experimenting extensively with the new(est) changes. This is my report.

Processing of prepaid debit cards

Historically, there's been a divide between the way (many) Visa and (many) MasterCard prepaid debit cards have been processed at Walmart registers. Visas, particularly the widely-available cards administered under the Vanilla brand, have (until the most recent changes) been processed by default as debit cards. That means immediately after swiping, a PIN pad would appear and allow you to input either a pre-set or extemporaneous PIN code, depending on the prepaid debit card product.

Many MasterCards, on the other hand, have required users to manually instruct the point-of-sale system to process the card as debit; otherwise, the system initially recognized them as credit cards and refused the cards for debit-only transactions.

As a result of that historical difference, I have never used a MasterCard prepaid debit card at Walmart.

The latest changes have resulted in (many) Visa prepaid debit cards being processed just like (many) MasterCard prepaid debit cards have been in the past: initially as credit cards, and only after explicit user intervention as debit cards.

Change payment – but fast!

Over the past few days I've visited many different Walmart store locations and processed all of the transactions popular among my readers. I'm pleased to say that there is no transaction that previously could be conducted with a prepaid Visa debit card that cannot, today, be conducted with a prepaid Visa debit card.

But that doesn't mean it's easy.

Upon each swipe of a prepaid debit card, you have exactly one chance to alert the point-of-sale system to process your transaction as debit, instead of credit. That chance comes immediately after swiping the debit card, while the customer-facing keypad appears to still be "thinking."

On the keypads at my Walmart registers, you'll first see a red button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Then, within less than a second, a yellow "Change Payment" button will appear in the bottom center of the screen. That, and only that, is your cue to push the yellow button on the right side of the keypad, embossed with a left-facing arrow.

If you miss that chance your transaction will be processed as credit, and fail.

As I mentioned, I've done these transactions at a variety of Walmarts and at a variety of registers, and I've started mentally classifying them into "fast" and "slow" locations.

At "slow" locations, you may have up to 1.5 or 2 seconds to press "Change Payment," either using the touchscreen button or pressing the yellow left-facing arrow button.

At "fast" locations, you will have less than half a second, and you will probably not be able to press the on-screen button. But you can still press the left-facing arrow button the moment you see the yellow on-screen button appear, and it will have an identical function (the screen even displays the "depressed button" animation).

Why are so many experienced people having so many problems?

If all that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it's been widely reported for many months with respect to MasterCard prepaid debit cards. But this latest update has caused problems even among people who are well aware of the historical situation and the ongoing updates. Why?

My best guess is that they aren't taking into account the interaction of the new(er) changes with the new(est) changes.

As a reminder, under what we might call "first generation" Walmart point-of-sale software, for all split-tender transactions the cashier first typed in the amount of each swipe, before the customer interacted with the terminal.

Under the "second generation" [new(er)] software, the customer first completes their interaction with the terminal, all the way through to typing in a PIN code, before the cashier types in the amount of the split tender.

The problem is that under the new(est) software, the customer's interaction with the terminal takes much, much longer. And it's difficult to convince a cashier to not interact with her register during the entire 8-12 seconds it takes for the customer to complete their interaction with the customer-facing terminal.

Emerging differences between money orders and bill payments

In my earlier reporting on the "new(er)" point-of-sale software, I said or implied that the new "customer first" protocol applied to all split-tender transactions.

I frankly don't know whether that was an error on my part from the beginning or whether a change has subsequently been implemented.

Either way, since the new(est) software changes have been implemented, I've observed a recurring difference between split-tender transactions for money orders and for bill payments.

It's now my belief that at some Walmart store locations with the new(est) software, split-tender transactions for money orders can still be processed "cashier first." Bill payment transactions, on the other hand, can only be processed "customer first."

I know better than to suggest that's the rule at every one of the thousands of store locations in the United States. But if you're having ongoing problems with these prepaid debit transactions, that would be the place I would start diagnosing the problem: either buy money orders or, during bill payments, find a way to convince your Customer Service and Money Center employees to resist processing the split tender until you've completely finished interacting with your customer-facing terminal.

Conclusion

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Booking premium domestic products (on the cheap)

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Back in March I observed that Delta's premium transcontinental BusinessElite service was bookable using Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan miles at the standard domestic First Class rate. That fluke has since been fixed, but it got me thinking about the best ways to book those premium transcontinental seats using partner miles. Here's what I found:

American Airlines

American Airlines operates a 3-cabin First Class product on transcontinental flights between JFK and LAX and between JFK and SFO. Booking these 3-cabin First Class seats through AAdvantage costs 32,500 miles each way at the SAAver level.

The popular workaround of using British Airways Avios on oneworld awards is actually counter-productive in this case, since for premium cabin redemptions British Airways charges 2 (Business) or 3 (First) times the cost of an economy award. Since LAX and SFO are in the 2000–3000 mile band, a First Class redemption will cost 37,500 Avios from JFK each way.

Instead, book your First Class ticket using US Airways Dividend Miles. You'll pay just 50,000 Dividend Miles, since US Airways doesn't have a spot on its domestic award chart for 3-cabin Business Class.

While researching this I naturally started wondering what would happen if you tried to price out a First Class award on a date when seats were available in Business but not First, since they don't have a separate price point for domestic Business. This is what I found:

Clever girl!

Delta Airlines

Delta operates their premium BusinessElite product between JFK and LAX, SEA, and SFO, and prices those seats out at 65,000 Skymiles roundtrip.

Many people would prefer to burn Skymiles instead of other, more valuable mileage currencies, but you can still book BusinessElite tickets with 65,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles roundtrip, which you might consider doing in order to put together an itinerary that mixes and matches American's First Class and Delta's BusinessElite products, perhaps if you're some kind of travel blogger intent on reviewing these products (or if you just happen to be Mileage Plan rich).

If you're booking an award ticket for yourself or a (very) immediate family member, and are willing to persevere through their Byzantine booking procedure, you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Airlines and book a roundtrip BusinessElite flight for 45,000 SkyPass miles.

United Airlines

United operates their "Premium Service" BusinessFirst product between JFK and LAX and JFK and SFO. Unfortunately my cursory glance showed essentially no award availability on the product. If you are able to find award space at the Saver level, it costs just 25,000 United miles each way, since it is a two-cabin product.

Star Alliance has a number of member airlines with interesting mileage programs, so you may find lucrative redemption options in your own favorite non-US program. Here are some that occurred off the top of my head:

  • Aegean Airlines. If you happened to have run up a balance of Aegean miles while qualifying for Star Alliance Gold status, you can redeem 21,000 of them for a one-way Business Class ticket within North America;
  • Lifemiles. As you may have noticed, Lifemiles are currently having a moment. If you've accumulated a stash of them, you can redeem 60,000 for a roundtrip Business Class flight within North America. Those miles may be cheaper than you think;
  • Lufthansa Miles & More. As is pointed out ad nauseam whenever a new affiliate link is released, Lufthansa allows you to redeem 35,000 miles for roundtrip domestic First Class (or in this case, BusinessFirst) awards within the US.

Do take a look at United BusinessFirst award availability, in case you think I'm exaggerating. You should probably not plan on redeeming any reasonable number of miles for that product, unless they open up vastly more award space in the future.

Observations on the banks and their quirks

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Despite the fact that here in America we have a more or less centralized banking system, each bank still interfaces with that backbone (the Automated Clearing House, Visa and MasterCard payment networks, etc.) using its own proprietary software. That leads to the various banks processing identical transactions on different timetables. Nothing in this post is scripture, but I thought it might be interesting to share my observations on the quirks of each bank, as I've observed them, and invite readers to share their own experiences in the comments.

These observations are based on obsessively logging into all my bank accounts multiple times each day, both on PC and smartphone. If you don't obsessively watch your accounts, you probably won't notice any of these differences, since they don't have any impact on the important stuff like statement balances or due dates.

American Express

American Express clears transactions the fastest among any of the banks whose cards I carry: they'll typically post the second business day after a purchase.

When making a payment, my "available credit" will typically increase on the day the payment is scheduled to be received, while my "outstanding balance" will decrease only the following day.

Rewards typically post to third party accounts about a day after statement closing, while my Blue Cash seems to take up to 2 days (based on a very small number of statements to date).

Barclaycard

Barclaycard clears transactions typically within 3-4 business days, I haven't observed them to be particularly fast or slow.

Payments post in the opposite manner of American Express: my outstanding balance will go down in the evening of the day a payment is scheduled to post, but my available credit won't go up until the following business day.

One of the many reasons I love the Barclaycard Arrival (now Arrival+) is that rewards post mid-cycle. Interestingly, in my experience they tend to post the evening before a charge actually clears on my online account. This can lead to some confusion about whether miles are the results of a charge posting or RewardsBoost shopping portal miles posting, because the pending charge disappears completely overnight, before reappearing as cleared the following day.

US Bank

US Bank is the opposite of American Express: charges take the absolute longest to post of any of my credit cards, at least 4 business days and sometimes up to 5.

However, I've been able to use this to my advantage, because of the other quirk of US Bank compared to my other credit card issuers: US Bank reports my balances to credit bureaux on the last day of the month, not on statement closing, while rewards are naturally based on all the charges during my statement cycle. That means I can drive down my balances before the end of the month with charges that will post before my statement closing date. I'm unable to truly maximize this quirk because my statement closing date happens to fall at the beginning of the month. If you have a mid-month closing date, however, you could easily avoid having any of your spend ever show up on your credit reports.

All of my US Bank credit cards are without a preset spending limit, so I'm not sure when credit becomes available again after a payment. However, payments usually show up online the day after a payment is scheduled to arrive, with the correct posting date.

Chase

Chase is absolutely vanilla compared to these other card issuers. Charges clear within 3-4 days, and payments post on schedule (although they don't show up in online banking until the following day). Ultimate Rewards points post towards the evening of the day my statements become available, while third-party rewards (Avios) can take 2-3 days to post.

I also use my Chase cards least aggressively of all my rewards-earning credit cards, so my experience may simply be a consequence of basing my conclusions on fewer datapoints.

Conclusion

Do these quirks jibe with your own experiences?

Have you observed similar quirks with other card issuers, like Comenity, GE Capital, or FIA Card Services?

Frequent Miler's wrongheaded approach to redemption values

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Frequent Miler's a smart dude, whom I respect for his dedication to the craft. Sometimes, though, I have the sense that he gets a little up in his head. In today's edition of "Frequent Miler overthinking things:" redemption values.

Background

In three recent posts, Frequent Miler has sought to find a rubric for understanding the "reasonable redemption value" of various loyalty currencies:

The underlying principle behind the series is that the value you should feel comfortable redeeming your points at is based on the typical price of the product you're redeeming them for.

But that's not right, and here's why.

Forget 5%

If you have a 5% cash back-earning credit card, then presumably you already know you need to be putting as much spend on it as you're comfortable with. You're going to get more value from each dollar spent at 5% cash back than you will with virtually any other credit card (unless you're going for a heroic signup bonus or high-spend threshold on your alternate card).

Forget "unlimited"

I have a commenter here on the blog who regularly chastises me whenever I write about opportunity costs, because of the possibility of "unlimited MS at negative cost." But even if you did have access to unlimited manufactured spend, you'd still want to spend your time (which, last time I checked, is not unlimited) manufacturing that spend on the most lucrative cards possible.

What do you actually redeem your miles and points for?

Here's where Frequent Miler goes so far afield. He argues,

"I think it is important to supplement Fair Trading Values with estimates of the redemption values of points and miles.  Such numbers could be used to help decide whether buying points or miles is a good idea.  And, they can be used as a target when booking awards to ensure that you get good value from those awards."

But he doesn't explain why. And that's because no sane person starts with redemption values, then decides whether a redemption is worth making. Sane people start with a trip they want to take, and then figure out how to pay for it.

How about an example?

In the latest edition, Frequent Miler suggests that a reasonable redemption value for Delta Skymiles might be 1.02 cents for domestic economy redemptions, on the following grounds:

  • the average domestic flight costs $381;
  • it's typically possible to fly for somewhat (10%) less than average;
  • Delta charges up to $10 in fees on domestic award redemptions;
  • and you'll typically end up paying 32,500 for a domestic award redemption.

The problem

All of this begs the question: if you're getting just 1.02 cents per Skymile for your redemptions, why do you have any Skymiles at all?

I ask because every dollar you put on an American Express Delta Platinum (earning 1.4 Skymiles per dollar at $50,000) or Delta Reserve (1.5 Skymiles per dollar at $60,000) card could be put on a 2% or 2.22% cash back card. 

Furthermore, all your paid flights on Delta could be credited to Alaska Airlines' much more lucrative Mileage Plan.

The answer, of course, is that you have Skymiles because you get more than 1.59 cents (Platinum) or 1.48 cents (Reserve) per Skymile on your redemptions.

In other words, if you're getting just 1.02 cents per Skymile on your redemptions, you need to redeem all your Skymiles and stop earning more as soon as possible.

So what's my alternative?

The alternative approach, which I've advocated in my own posts (Club Carlson, Hilton) is to instead start with the cost of acquisition and ask a far simpler question: "how much do I need to value this redemption to justify putting the needed spend on a co-branded credit card instead of a 2% or 2.22% cash back credit card?"

The best part is that this exercise allows an instant validation of whether a trip should be paid for with cash or points, based on actually existing prices for the product you're interested in.

A real person starts by saying, "I'd like to fly roundtrip on Delta between Madison and a New York airport (but not Newark) for a weekend in June."

Then they pull up an ITA Matrix search and find the lowest fares available:

As you can see, our little weekend romp will cost between $460 and $541.

Then a real person hops on delta.com (or, more likely, alaskaair.com) and checks award availability, immediately seeing whether they are getting more or less value than their points' acquisition cost:

Using this technique (again, the thing that people actually do when evaluating redemptions), we can calculate our redemption value for each weekend:

  • June 5/6 — 8: $540/25,000 Skymiles. 2.16 cents per Skymile;
  • June 12/13 — 15: $460/25,000 Skymiles. 1.84 cents per Skymile;
  • June 19/20 — 22: $460-$520/32,500 Skymiles. 1.41-1.6 cents per Skymile;
  • June 26/27 — 29: $475-$540/32,500 Skymiles. 1.46-1.66 cents per Skymile.

Here's the thing: these are all great redemptions, not because of the high value you're getting for each Skymile but because you already have 25,000-32,500 Skymiles, and if you don't redeem them they're just going to keep collecting dust.

After redeeming, decide whether to keep earning

Once you have a load of Skymiles it's too late to start considering redemption values. The time to make that calculation is before you earn them.

If in your market, for your travel needs, you're redeeming your Skymiles for less than the implicit cost of acquisition (putting the spend on a 2% or 2.22% cash back card), you shouldn't be putting spend on that card to begin with (unless you're doing so for other reasons, like Medallion Qualifying Miles or the Medallion Qualifying Dollars waiver).

That doesn't mean you shouldn't plan ahead

Over at Milenomics they're doing the Lord's work advocating for a rational approach to earning and burning miles, and one of the centerpieces of that effort is so-called "demand schedules," explicit plans for upcoming trips and the miles, points, and cash currencies the traveler plans to redeem for them.

Demand schedules can't anticipate everything, however. If you have an upcoming trip to Milan planned with American AAdvantage miles and you suddenly discover a $200 one-way flight, you shouldn't blindly book the ticket with your AAdvantage miles anyway. You should, however, be ready to spend those miles as soon as possible, even on a less expensive trip you might have been planning to pay for with cash.

Because once you've passed up the opportunity to earn cash back, and instead earned miles or points, it's too late to start calculating [edit: ideal] redemption values.

Manufacturing spend with low credit limits

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My impression is that most people get into travel hacking the same way I did: by accident. Either by accidentally triggering elite status, getting an operational upgrade to first or business class, or discovering a lucrative but unadvertised feature of a card they already carry. Then — if they have the right personality type — they get hooked.

A straightforward consequence of that fact is that most travel hackers are middle or upper class. It simply doesn't occur very often that the working poor fly 25,000 miles on the same airline during a single calendar year (and think to credit their flights to a frequent flyer account), or carry credit cards that can offer outsized rewards.

But as I never hesitate to remind people, I myself am a poor person, and that means low credit limits. Nonetheless, I have a miles and points strategy that's comprehensive enough for me. Here's how I do it.

Have perfect credit

When I was growing up, my mom always referred to herself as a person with "perfect credit." What she meant was that she paid off all her credit card bills on time each month, and had never missed a payment.

And when my mom was growing up, that may have been what "perfect credit" meant. Nowadays, of course, we could critique her credit history for not having students loans, car loans, or home mortgages: she was fortunate enough to be educated when student loans were in their infancy, and to never have to take out a loan for a car or house.

Nonetheless, the single most important thing you can do to develop your miles and points strategy is avoid scrutiny by banks, and that means at least having a spotless credit profile, if not a perfect one: pay your bills on time.

Miles-earning debit cards

For years, Bank of America would issue Alaska Airlines debit cards to anyone with a checking account — they didn't ask your annual income and they didn't check your credit history.

Sure, that card's no longer being offered, but rather than pine for lost opportunities, why not go sign up for a Suntrust Delta Skymiles World Check Card?

Diversity is strength

I don't have a credit limit over $10,000 on any of my 2% cash back credit cards.

But I have three of them:

  • Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express;
  • US Bank Cash+;
  • and Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard.

Between the 3, I have over $20,000 in credit limits, which I can deploy to earn over $200 in cash back each month without spending over my credit limit on any one of the cards.

Take risks

I would never give this advice to someone who makes a lot of money and enjoys high limits on all their credit card accounts. But this post isn't for them, it's for the rest of us.

As I shared back in January, my "old" Blue Cash card was approved with a credit limit of just $1,000. If I limited my spend on that card to my credit limit each month, I'd be earning just $340 per year, minus my costs. And that would be a total waste.

So I cycle my credit limit many, many times each month.

Is that a good idea? Of course not. But you probably have higher credit limits than I do.

Conclusion

What I'm trying to say is that you don't need to think about manufacturing $50,000 per month as requiring a single card with a $50,000 credit limit, or even multiple cards with credit limits that add up to $50,000. $25,000 in money orders deposited into a checking account with a linked miles-earning debit card can double your value at a trivial additional cost, and aggressively paying off your credit cards mid-cycle can free up additional credit limits as well.

Weekend roundup from around the web

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I like to periodically clear out my RSS reader and pass along stories that might be of interest to my readers. Here are today's stories:

A joyous and meaningful Memorial Day to all my readers.

JFK-MXP // PRG-NRT mistake fare/fuel dump still available

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If you've been under a rock for the last 24 hours, you may have missed news of a fuel dump that broke into public last night.

Background

Fuel dumping is one of the more arcane arts of travel hacking; it involves configurations of flight legs which cause the fuel surcharges normally associated with an itinerary to "drop off," leave only the (usually much lower) base fare in place.

There are a plethora of these tricks, and they're reproducible. Most travel hackers I know, myself included, don't bother with them for the simple reason that they're typically only good for specific routes or carriers; if you aren't interested in flying that route or carrier, they're little more than a party trick, although a very neat one.

Today's fuel dump

What made today's revelation (starting yesterday evening in this FlyerTalk thread, continuing today on Twitter here and here, among other places) interesting was that it was for a huge range of dates (I found it on basically all mid-week-to-mid-week itineraries) and between destinations that were conceivably interesting to a lot of people: the first leg from several major US cities to Milan, Italy, and the second leg from Prague, Budapest, and other European cities to many destinations in Asia.

How to find it

A few moments ago I was still able to find a $257 fare using this trick; how long it will last is anyone's guess. Here's how to find your own trick fare:

  1. Use Priceline.com to conduct a "Multi-Destination" search.
  2. For the first leg, search for a US city served by Alitalia (it seems to be Alitalia coding on the first leg that triggers the error, whoever the operating carrier is). JFK and LAX reportedly work, although I haven't been able to reproduce any fares out of LAX. Use Milan's MXP airport as the destination. As I said above, mid-week departures seem to return the lowest fares.
  3. For the second leg, use a European city served by Alitalia, KLM, or Air France with a destination in Asia. Mid-week dates return the lowest fares.
  4. Keep searching.

For further suggestions, start with the FlyerTalk thread where people are reporting their successful reservations.

Example

Here's a $257 flight using JFK as the US origin and Shanghai as the Asian destination:

Act now...

Priceline seems to give you until midnight on the day after booking to cancel airline reservations. Even if you're not sure about your plans yet, consider doing what I did: book several options, then talk it out with your family or friends and see which, if any, of the options end up working for you. While apparently this trick has been around for a while, I do not expect it to last long now that it's out in the wild.

...but be careful

For the time being I would not associate your frequent flyer number with any of these reservations, especially an account with the operating carrier. Instead, consider crediting your miles to a partner mileage program, like Alaska Airlines for flights operated by Delta.

Guest post: Deposit money orders by smartphone

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Today I'm very pleased to present a guest post on a topic that I think my readers will find as fascinating as I do: depositing money orders using your smartphone, instead of at the counter or using a bank's ATMs. For more like this, check out Doctor of Credit's site here.

List Of Bank Accounts That Allow Deposits Of Money Orders By Smart Phone

by Doctor Of Credit

I asked on Twitter whether I should post a list of bank accounts that allow MO deposits because a lot of people have been asking me for such a list. Originally I was just replying to those e-mails with this information, but FQF suggested that I share it. I asked him if he'd like to host the post and he said yes, so here goes!

We've divided this list into two sections, nationwide banks and local banks. The local bank section also lets you know of any joining requirements. It's important to remember that a lot of these accounts come with fees (most of which are avoidable) so keep that in mind before opening an account. Tip: Leave the receipt attached to your MO to increase the chances of it being accepted. This won't work for all applications, but it should work for most. 

Warnings about MO's & bank accounts:

  • Always keep copies of everything you do and get receipts where possible. This way if something goes wrong you have a paper trail to help rectify the situation.
  • Start small and only do amounts you are comfortable with having frozen, in case of a shut down or dispute.
  • Check that the bank is FDIC insured or has NCUA insurance if it's a credit union.
  • Spread your money orders around different accounts.
  • If you sign up for a new bank account be wary of monthly fees and early account closure fees (most banks charge this if you cancel your account within the first
  • Some banks will do a hard credit pull when you open a new account, all banks will do a ChexSystems inquiry.
  • Too many ChexSystems inquiries in a short time frame can result in a fraud flag or similar being placed on your ChexSystems account. This will make it difficult to get accepted with other banks/lenders that check ChexSystems.
  • It's also a good idea to familiarize yourself with structuring laws to ensure you're not violating them.

Nationwide Banks/Credit Unions

Works

  • Alliant: Very quick to shut down accounts doing any sort of volume. Usually available the same business day, sometimes held for one business day if submitted after 3PM CT.
  • Discover: Funds take two days to post, no known limits although the ToS does state they reserve the right to add these limits in as they like. People often have issues with MoneyGram MO's, Western Union MO's will work fine.

  

  • Simple: Allows 15 photo deposits per month and a maximum of $3,000 per deposit. First five money orders are limited to $2,000. For the first 30 days there is also a 9 day hold applied to MO's, after that they should post instantly.  Recently started sending e-mails to people asking the source & purpose of the money orders. $200 of the money order is released the following business day and the remainder the business day after that. They also tend to exclude people with too many ChexSystems inquiries (generally if you have more than 4 in the past year you'll be denied by Simple).
  • CitiBank: Maximum of $500 per month for the first six months and then $1,500 per month. Application seems to have a lot of trouble dealing with some MO's.
  • Everbank: Funds should be available immediately, no known limits.
  • Schwab: The limit that applies will depend on your check deposit limit. This is different from individual to individual. You can find this limit by navigating to the "Deposit" screen, it'll be under the "Amount" field. Most people will find they either have a $1,000 or $10,000 limit based upon how much funds they are holding with Schwab. Their app has issues with differentiating between the background of a MO and the actual writing on the MO, which means they can't accept all MO's. MoneyGram MO's seem to struggle, whilst WesternUnion MO's work better.
  • PenFed: Funds are made available immediately, no known limits.
  • USAA: Money posts instantly, no known limit ($12,000/month is the maximum I've seen). The application seems to struggle reconigizing some MO's, for best results use a black background and decent lighting. If you're still having issues you can use their Deposit@Home product.
  • Wells Fargo: Daily limit of $1,000 and 30 day limit of $3,000 for the first 180 days, after 180 days this limit is automatically increased to a daily limit of $2,500 and a monthly limit of $5,000. These restrictions are per account, not per person meaning you could use a savings & checking accounts to double these limits. Funds should be released the following business day. A lot of people seem to have issues doing MO deposits with Wells Fargo, this seems to be largely dependent on where the MO was purchase.

Doesn't work

  • Ally
  • Bank of America: Used to work but this was shut down on February 23rd, 2014
  • Barclay Savings Account: ToS specifically states MO's are not allowed with remote deposit.
  • BB&T
  • Bluebird: ToS specifically states no MO's.
  • Capital One 360/ING direct
  • Etrade
  • Fidelity Investments
  • PNC: Some have reported this working, but more reports of it not working.
  • Serve: ToS specifically states no MO's are allowed.
  • SunTrust
  • Vanguard

State Specific Banks/Credit Unions

Works

  • DCU: [Requires membership]
  • LMCU: Ensure the back of the MO is signed, otherwise the app will not recognize it [Must live, work, worship or attend school in Michigan's lower peninsula].
  • Patelco CU [Must live, work, worship or attend school in one of the following California counties: California counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, or Sonoma].
  • Security Service FCU: Funds available immediately [only available in OH, UT & CO. Other requirements apply].

Doesn't Work

Some banks also have the ability to accept MO's via a mobile application but they charge a fee for doing so. These banks usually have a more feature rich offering with less limits and limitations (and better scanning technology) but the fees makes them a non-feasible option for most people, KeyBank & US Bank are two well known issuers that charge for this service.

As always, your own mileage may vary so if you have any other data points please let us know in the comments - I hope you found this post helpful. 

Will blogs over at Doctor of Credit. If you're going to sign up for a new bank account, you might as well sign up for one that gives you a bonus.

Will compiled this list which shows a complete listing of bank account bonuses. It can be filtered by bonus amount, hard/soft pull, credit card funding, direct deposit requirements, monthly fees, early account termination fees and expiration date. Don't forget to follow him on twitter as well. 

P.S from Will, if you haven't already I'd recommend signing up for a subscription to Free-quent Flyer. He drops a lot of nuggets of wisdom not shared elsewhere and it only costs you a minimum of $2 a month. You can sign up in the side bar.

In which I let my readers down

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On Wednesday of last week a reader tipped me off to a Staples promotion that was being discussed in this FlyerTalk thread. Basically, a portal coupon that probably shouldn't have worked with Visa gift cards was working for Visa gift cards, allowing people to buy $200 gift cards for $191.95.

I was able to place 4 orders before the coupon code I was using started consistently returning errors, meaning I bought $800 in cash equivalents (plus my credit card rewards) for about 4% off of face value. I know a lot of people went a lot bigger, but I had literally just moved and was placing my orders in the midst of the chaos of settling in here, so after I got 4 or 5 errors in a row, I gave up on my valiant effort to put Staples out of business.

I don't regret not placing more orders, since I feel like I did fine. But I do regret not blogging or tweeting about it. That was basically a judgment call, which in retrospect I think I got wrong. There were three factors in play, and I put too much weight on the first two and not enough weight on the third:

  1. My reader communicated the tip to me privately. While he didn't ask me to keep quiet about it, that's always my presumption unless a reader tells me to share a tip according to my discretion. The FlyerTalk thread was light on details and had conflicting information, so it wasn't the kind of source I felt comfortable pointing to unequivocally for this deal.
  2. The deal was clearly a technical error in how the coupon code was being implemented by Staples' order processing system. It was possible that by blogging about the error it would be fixed more quickly, and orders that had already been placed using the coupon code might even be cancelled. Blogging about it would not only not help my readers, it would also hurt anyone who was already taking advantage of the deal.
  3. It was an inherently time-limited deal. If anything, it was most like the United award glitch from last year, where all award tickets passing through Hong Kong priced out at 4 MileagePlus miles each. While those of us who booked tickets for later in the year had our reservations cancelled, those who booked close-in tickets (within a week, I believe) had them honored. For such time-limited deals, I think there's a presumption that the more people who get in on it, the better. This was one of those deals, and it should have been shared as widely as possible so as many people as possible could take advantage of it.

There you have it. I make judgment calls like this all the time, and I like to think I get more of them right than wrong. But I definitely don't get them all right, and I think this was one of those.

What do you think?

What's a Travelocity hotel gift card?

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Moving house is always a stressful experience, but as a travel hacker there are particular advantages and disadvantages to moving to a new community.

The disadvantages are obvious: back in New England I had a group of well-trained cashiers at all my local haunts. That streamlined my daily routine and saved me time and stress convincing each cashier to try transactions that I already know will go through.

However, there are advantages to a move as well. For example, my routine in New England was limited to the small set of stores within walking distance of my apartment. The amount of money I was spending on a daily basis might arouse suspicion, and the longer I continued using the same store locations, the more likely a cashier was to start to connect the dots.

The biggest advantage is the one I wrote about here: a new locale means new store types, different products, and new opportunities.

I'm already excited by some of the options available in my new community, but today I want to write about a product I spotted just yesterday that may or may not be lucrative for some readers: Travelocity hotel gift cards.

$25 off 2-night stays

Like all good scams, Travelocity hotel gift cards are needlessly complicated. The card I found at a local gas station cost $25, and offered $50 off stays of two or more nights, as long as the price before taxes was $150 or more. In the ideal use case for these gift cards, you would get a $25 discount on a two-night stay that cost exactly $150 before taxes. Assuming taxes of 10%, you'd pay $140 for a $165 stay, for a discount of about 15%. Naturally, the more expensive the day, the smaller your discount will be.

Since you have to book your stay through the Travelocity Incentives website, you won't earn hotel points or elite night and stay credits for your reservation. Since hotel stays are by far the least efficient method of earning hotel points, this isn't the end of the world, but be aware of the issue.

Worth it?

While at first glance a $25 discount, even given the stay and price requirements for use of these cards, seems like a no-brainer, especially for non-chain properties or stays at chains you don't pursue status with (Best Western, anyone?), there is an additional problem: once you're willing to forego hotel rewards by booking through an online travel agency, you have other options.

For example, the Welcome Rewards program of Hotels.com rebates 10% of your pre-tax hotel cost in the form of a free night after 10 nights booked through them (with the value of the free night capped at the average nightly rate for your 10 paid nights). For many stays, that rebate will be worth more than the $12.50 per night discount offered by Travelocity on stays of exactly two nights.

If you're willing to work a little harder at it, Priceline's Name Your Own Price engine can still offer huge discounts on opaque bookings (where you don't find out the hotel until you pay). 

Conclusion

While it may have limited appeal for the reasons given above, I wanted to bring these gift cards to my readers' attention for those cases when, while making a two-night reservation, you realize the nightly rate happens to be exactly $75. In such circumstances I'd strongly consider popping down to the gas station and picking up a Travelocity hotel gift card.