Introduction
I went to my local USPS yesterday, and the clerks showed me this memo. I have a good feeling on WHY this memo went out; let’s just say that the pigs got slaughtered along with the hogs. The memo seems to have only been sent out regionally for now, but it sounds like it’s a matter of time before it’s hard-coded in the system.
It’s time to create a fake front gift card template that states some bullshit and of course my name lol
Visa/MC are going to see the sales of these gift cards plummet. A year from now, I’ll bet you they will be running promo’s to try to move these at 85 cents on the dollar.
I still don’t know how they make money on these or why stores sell them with CC’s. The swipe fees are double the fee the store collects. I guess Visa and MC probably get a lot of breakage from people losing them etc. Do the stores get a discount on the sale though? Was always curious how the math worked out.
The business model for Visa/MC is non-use fees and breakage. The retailer takes part of the activation fee plus a discount paid out of what essentially amounts to double swipe fees being collected by the network, one on the sale of the gift card, and another when the gift card balance is used.
Man this sucks….Wally World is probably not far behind!
2 of my 4 local WalMarts actively ask to see cards, and refuse to process Gift/Debit cards.
Of the 2 that were MS ‘friendly’, one just this week was identified as a ‘high risk store’ and now is asking to see that the debit cards have your name on them.
That leaves just 1 still in the game for me… and I expect it, too, won’t be far behind.
RE the USPS money orders… this is not unexpected. As other MS methods have dried up over the past two years, it has basically forced anyone doing MS to rely VERY heavily (if not solely) on Debit GCs and money orders. For those without MS friendly WMs, the USPS was the only way to go.
RIP