Update – I’ve removed parts of original post that alluded to money order deposits. Suggestion by Hugo – use MO to pay your cc bill like you would a check.
Introduction
Now that Serve died for most of you, the natural MS progression is to move to MO’s since you’re already used to driving into Walmart, but let me heed you these warnings before you start getting banned from banks like yours truly. Here is some friendly advice:
- Don’t shit where you eat. This means AVOID depositing money orders into banks that issue credit cards like Chase, Bank of America, Citi, US Bank, etc. You would think this is common sense, but even the best of them will forget this rule because they’ve been depositing heavy volume and there had been no adverse action. Until one day… BOOM! Your bank account is gone. Your credit cards are gone.
- Don’t deposit into your main bank account. This is the bank account where you have direct deposits going to and where you pay off your credit card bills. Trust me. You DO NOT want to have this account shut down since having to change all your autopays will be a nightmare!
- Use credit unions! There are plenty of them out there. Online and locally. Try to avoid the ones that make you do a HP.
- You are NOT safe with a business checking account. A reader just had his BoA biz checking account closed that he opened in October and deposited too many MOs.
- Stay away from US Bank! Add Bank of America to that list too. I’m sure there are others, but those 2 do not like it.
- Oh and when you start really scaling up, you might also win an all expenses paid visit from the police, federal government, or even the FBI! Winner winner chicken dinner!
Federal government or the FBI? That is a little hard to believe.
Doesn’t the update that you posted about paying CC bills with MOs fall under the category of “Don’t shit where you eat?”
Yes it does. That’s why I don’t do it, but others have done it. As you can see, this game is very much YMMV.
I will add that if you have 10k of MO in hand and purposely decide to split the deposits into different accounts you are operating in a very grey area that could be considered structuring (some will argue that MO’s don’t fall under the cash rule, but if you have to retain an attorney to prove this and your accounts are locked by the gov’t it could cost you an awful lot in fees and stress to prove your right). Structuring is a big deal it will make you wish that you just lost your points because a credit card closed your account.
Yeah I made that point already in the post, but I’ll clarify further. Thanks.
Just don’t split the 10k into 2 accounts at the same bank. I think 7k/bank/month seems good enough to fly under the radar, but I’d probably only do 5k to be safe.
I find it helpful to use banks that have natural limits to the amount I can deposit.
For example, one CU I have only allows 10 free mobile deposits per month before charging 75c each. And since they’re not local to me it forces me to look elsewhere to deposit more. But they offer 2.4% interest so I want to max them out.
I imagine it’s a good way to explain away any potential structuring charges.
I haven’t seen any banks that have that restriction, but I could see how that’s useful. I could also see how that could bite you in case you forget and you accidentally go over because you forgot one month.
Before you cash out your money orders you have to buy them. Did I hear anyone mention U.S. Postal Inspectors? I bet they make a bank shutdown look like an ice cream sundae with nuts on top.
I have a reader who had the FBI stop by his house. I’m asking him to write his story as a guest post. Talk about a heart attack…
I’ve read at least two stories in one of the private boards who related their harrowing experience with visits from the postal inspectors. although many make fun of it saying it can’t be true, they’ll probably believe it only when they get the knock on the door. both of those who got this visit had to hire lawyers to get them off the hook from these PIs. There’s a thread on FT where the OP showed a form that he was being asked to fill in one time he came in for more MOs. From what I gather, the OP has made himself suspicious by coming back for more MOs with each transaction $1K or more. For a lot of MSers (newbie or vet), they become oblivious to the fact that their actions are attracting attention because they think they’ve done nothing wrong. They find out the hard way once they’re already being questioned for suspected fraud.
You can’t buy MOs from the USPS using prepaid GCs so this shouldn’t even be an issue unless you’re mailing MOs and that’s too risky for me.
there’s several on FT that mentioned they have successfully bought MOs at the PO. I don’t have personal experience with it since I can still buy MOs at my grocery store for lesser fees but I may look into my PO when the well dries up. From what I’ve read, OVs and Metas go through there without issues. as always, YMMV.
Awesome, thanks for the heads up. Any mention of being able to split the MO purchase into more than one prepaid card?
I can’t remember of posts saying that but you can check it out.
Yes you can. I haven’t done it, but it can be done. Just make sure the cashier knows how.
dont mess w/the PO. just dont. you do not want that headache. find another place.