We have all been there, you see on the shelves the sparkly MasterCard or Visa literally hanging around and bring it to the cashier and they say “cash only.” I have heard that countless number of times, but that never stopped me from trying.
About every two weeks, I get a haircut and where I go, there is a 7 Eleven next door. Each time as I head home, I will stop into the 7 Eleven and ask to buy the One Vanilla Visa card with my credit card. Each time, the cashier asks me the denomination, I say $500. He says cash only.
On my last time, determined I can get a yes, I said $200 for the One Vanilla Visa since “normal” people would buy $200 and have the cash for it. He rang it up into the POS (point of sale) and he asked me how I was paying for it. I told him credit and for whatever reason he did not cancel the order and allowed me to process the order.
So I’m going to keep working this cashier and build a relationship and move up to $500.
Recently I tried to use my Freedom to buy an OV for $500 at a 7-11. The transaction was declined on the POS. I called Chase instantly and the Chase rep said that it was approved by Chase but declined by 7-11’s system. It would be interesting to find the hardcoded upper limit for purchase with credit cards.
That’s a new one because I’ve heard of different limits and what goes through or not
In NYC, I found a cashier who is sympathetic to the points game, and let me do 3x $500 OV GCs to max out my freedom for gas stations this quarter. Card initially declined, and when i called Chase, they said they locked the card from fraud. 15 min later, it was unlocked and I was able to buy the cards fine. It’s not 7-eleven’s POS, at least not in my region, i guess. Can’t speak for other parts of the country.
the 7 elevens in my area, here in northern jersey, do accept credit cards as form of payment, as long as I can get a human to not deny it and tell me it is cash only. If I am lucky, there is one young guy in one of the stores who will not ask any questions and take my credit card for a one vanilla or a visa gift cards. But whenever there is someone else, they start with they speech: cash only. I will try the $200 approach. It still makes sense with the low fee, when compared to Staples $200 visa gift card and the fee.
Good luck! Hope it works out for you!
success! the cashier guy did say cash only but then he said, i am not sure. That was it, I asked to try and it worked. Better $200 than $500. That raises red flags. I unload with Target red card. easy.
Since I have to collect points for a family of 4, every bit helps, even if I have to pay a fee.
Congrats! I’m glad it’s working out for you! Keep working at it and you’ll be able to buy $500 cards in no time
I am missing the way in which you can unload the $200 card after paying a $4-$6 fee and still break even…I understand doing it when you can figure out a way to find value in something like eBay bucks, but I can’t think of an option to make this worth it…
I don’t mind paying a little bit for the longer term goal of success. While it is a VGC, I have a source that will accept those cards in one swipe for a money order for $1
Gotcha. No Wal-Marts locally. And haven’t made an attempt at trying our local Krogers. Little hesitant. Need to research a bit more the whole MO process, but interested for sure. Are systems typically not hard-coded to deny to pre-paid debit? If it is PIN-enabled, and the cashier is cool, you should be safe?
As long as a system will take debit, there’s a good chance that the VGCs will work then you also need a cashier to allow you to use it.
I’ve literally tried at least 15 7-11s in Manhattan and always get the same cash only spiel!! Hoping to run across a good one of these days…