5 ms·
Probably none, given this complaint is focused on money services Walmart provides.
by kryptn 4y ago
Probably none, given this complaint is focused on money services Walmart provides.
- tehwebguy 4y agoWalmart Money Center has been a pretty large component of "manufactured spending" which is not the same thing as churning but churning is often used as an umbrella term for all point earning hacks activities.
- iancarroll 4y agoYeah, it would be hard for churning/MS to exist without Walmart. You can buy Visa/MC gift cards with a credit card, turn them into money orders at Walmart (via running them as "debit"), and deposit those into most banks at a ~1% total loss. These days, I think Walmart is not the easiest route to liquidate gift cards though. They used to allow some silly things like combining many gift cards to buy one money order, but are at least supposed to restrict it now.
- rafale 4y agoIs manufactured spending legal? It sounds like abusing an electronic and wire system.
- iancarroll 4y agoSounds like you are alluding to wire fraud, but you would be doing something wrong if you are defrauding anyone. You are just sending money to yourself, via a fairly high-surveillance method (Walmart will check your ID, you have to deposit it into a real bank account, etc).
- cmeacham98 4y agoYes, at least in the US. CC merchants are constantly fighting this behavior and limiting what counts for the purpose of the reward via their Ts&Cs. (I have not passed the bar, this is not formal legal advice)
- formerkrogemp 4y agoYou can't do that kind of shit at retailers anymore.
- iancarroll 4y agoYou can definitely still do it. I would say it is a bit less popular now though as the pandemic slowed travel, and credit card issuers have gotten used to churning and managing breakage/risks. Chase still offers big incentives on office supply stores, so that's probably the main driver of MS right now aside from sign-up bonuses. Staples quite frequently offers $0 fees on their gift cards to encourage this.
- pxx 4y agoYou definitely can. I used to say "maybe not in the sfbay area" where all of the opportunities have been mined, but, no, there are still opportunities for MS even there. Outside of sfbay the sky's the limit.