DO NOT send people WAL*MART money orders !!!

[rocksanddirt]

Wal Mart seems an odd entity.

I'm glad I'm in an area that's not forced into shopping at one.

[Rick Denney]

I don't think it's just Walmart. I suspet it's also true for convenience-store money orders sold under the company brand. I doubt, for example, that a 7-Eleven would cash a $100 money order, given that they claim not to keep that much cash in the till.

Such a money order is not a promissory note, but rather a demand check, just like a personal check. It is used by people who don't have checking accounts, or for people writing checks to people who won't accept their personal check for whatever reason. I consider it a "rent-a-check", and I'm glad I don't have to use them.

Rick "who buys postal money orders quite frequently, however" Denney

[rocksanddirt]

Wal Mart seems an odd entity.

I'm glad I'm in an area that's not forced into shopping at one.

Just wait......

Heh.

well....there are at 3 walmarts within about 10 - 12 miles of my house, and there's enough other businesses that sell the things I might need that overlap with Walmart that I never have to go to one.

[mclaugh]

Wal Mart seems an odd entity.

I'm glad I'm in an area that's not forced into shopping at one.

Just wait......

Heh.

well....there are at 3 walmarts within about 10 - 12 miles of my house, and there's enough other businesses that sell the things I might need that overlap with Walmart that I never have to go to one.

For now. Wouldn't bet it'll be the same 3-5 years down the road.

[rocksanddirt]

Heh.

well....there are at 3 walmarts within about 10 - 12 miles of my house, and there's enough other businesses that sell the things I might need that overlap with Walmart that I never have to go to one.

For now. Wouldn't bet it'll be the same 3-5 years down the road.

I don't know....they've all three been there for at least 3 yrs. I'm in an area that is deceptively densely populated....so the local walmarts all seem to be where they like them, the outskirts of small towns, where they can drive away the competition....but the 40mile radius area has about 3 million people....so they do just fine business wise, but have to pay more than they like to get workers to keep, and they can't sneak the prices of 'staple' items up.

[OldsRecording]

Wal*Mart money orders? Would those be printed in China? Maybe they are backed by Chinese money too?

"Excuse me- could you please cash this money order for 20,000 yuan?"

[tofu]

[sungfw]

So quite frankly, the Chinese ARE the ones backing US. Gubmint Obligations and you better hope they don't decide to dump it quickly.

They won't butcher the sow until her teats completely dry up.

When the time comes that it substantially advances China's political ambitions to call in their loans, they'll do it whether or not the sow's still producing milk.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan launched an arms race that spent the Warsaw Bloc into bankruptcy. You can bet your left nut that the Chinese government was watching closely and learned an important lesson from it. Given the mounting national debt, the ever-widening balance of trade deficit with China, the refusal of the Chnese government to decouple the yuan from the dollar, and the aggressive marketing of Chinese goods, this long-time China-watcher believes that a case can be made that the Chinese government has embraced a similar policy of economic warfare to spend the US into bankruptcy by targeting, not the military, but the American consumer.

And you can bet your right nut that NEITHER Republican NOR Democratic politicians give a tinker's dam about it.

[ThomasDodd]

If an entity issues a "money order" and refuses to cash it...ie: "You'll have to take that to your bank, honey"...IMHO the issued instrument is NOT a "money order" and is only a "check" (ie: promissory note).

I don't "cash" anything. I deposit it in my bank account and withdraw funds with a debit card when needed.

All a money order ever is is a check. They are normally requested by a payee when a personal check is not trusted to be good, or the payer doesn't have a checking account. You cannot write a "hot" money order, nor will a money order bounce (if it's not counterfeit). It's an indication that cash was used for the "purchase" and is backed by the trustworthiness of the issuing entity.

you know, the place from which you MAIL a money order

Hmm, I mail items from home. I put them in and envelope, address it, place a stamp on it, and put it in the box at the end of the drive. Of course my mail box has been there, non-vandalized since I moved to the current location and set it up. I buy stamps from the carrier, and other postage online. I only go to the Post Office to pick up large packages.

800-542-3590 is the number to call to verify if they are valid or have been cashed.

[TMurphy]

Speaking as someone who has worked (and currently works again for the summer) in a bank, there are so many phony money orders floating around that I don't blame Wal*Mart for not cashing them--even if they issued them. Counterfeit money orders and bank checks are becoming increasingly common, because the holds most banks place on them is shorter. That means, by the time the phony gets back to your bank, the money has cleared and been spent, and the bank will hold you liable for the funds. Where I work, we hold all non-government money orders just as long as out of state checks, to protect against this. People get annoyed, but the bank doesn't want to get burned.