USPS Money Orders for Coin Payments
BAJJERFAN
Posts: 31,088 ✭✭✭✭✭
For those of you who have taken USPS money orders as payment for coins have you ever asked if the post office will take the money order as payment toward a blank one?
theknowitalltroll;
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The USPS will not sell you a blank MO. It must be for a specific amount.
I believe they will cash one. At least they did in the past.
Are you asking if they will convert a MO made out to you into a MO made out to noone?
If so, idk. But they will cash the MO and let you buy one with the cash.
I think they are asking is if you have a $500 USPS money order to you, can you use it to buy a $498 money order. Good question, I will ask in a couple hours. I have asked about cashing before, but the offices I go to rarely have much money on hand because they are small.
Understood, but since they usually don't have sufficient cash will they take the one you have as payment for a blank/new one/s for the same amount? By blank I was referring to one that hasn't been made out to a payee.
If they have the $ in the drawer they are supposed to cash one if you present it. If you take that cash and buy another one, that is your business.
That makes sense. I never thought of that. I have gone there to cash before and been told to come back at the end of the day when they will have more cash in the til.
If I have one made out to me for $758.56 and they don't have enough cash to cover it will they accept it as payment a new one for $758.56 is what I'm asking.
That is a good question and worth getting an answer to (and posting here). It would be a way to get rid of the buyer's MO and getting a "clean" one.
I am not sure. Please let us know if they do because this very occasionally happens to me
I would think they would
On another board a posted said that his bank won't cash them because they could be stolen. If that was the case wouldn't the bank just return it and debit his account? Why would they be on the hook?
Very good question. Common sense says you should be able to get a "blank" money order but don't forget, you are dealing with the post office.
I don't know how many times I've been told "we don't have enough money to cash it, come back later in the day" only to be told when I come back "sorry, we closed out early and the cash is ready to be deposited". Now I just ask if they are valid and then deposit them in my credit union checking account. This is one of my pet peeves. If the post office wants to make believe they are a financial institution they should always have enough cash stashed away somewhere to cash all or most of the money orders that come in during the day. They don't seem to have a problem selling as many as you want!
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
You could take full payment for a USPS MO in forevers.
It probably depends on your post office. I tried doing that at mine (after they told me they did not have cash) and they could not do the swap either.
There has to be more to his story that he did not share, or maybe even he did not understand the nuances.
I assume (?) you can always deposit a USPS MO in the bank like a check. Maybe he wanted to cash it out on the spot.
I suspect they meant walk in and leave with cash and no account involved. Money Orders are like checks, you deposit them into your account and if they are bad the bank debits that amount and charges the $40 (or whatever) bad check fee.
I asked at my PO about using a USPS MO to help buy another MO and they did not know. They said they would ask their supervisor. They said they are supposed to only take CASH or DEBIT CARD to purchase MO. I will see in a couple days what they found out and suspect It might depend on the local interpretation of the USPS rules.
By his bank I assume he had an account there. As long as you have sufficient funds in the account they should give you cash for it. I asked at my PO and was told by the window clerk that that would be allowed. Of course you'd need to pay the $3 or whatever fee depending upon the amount..
Check the status of a MO:
https://mois.usps.com/pls/pmoisnp/mois_external_pkg.main
MO Info:
https://www.usps.com/shop/money-orders.htm
https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2017/pb22458/html/mo_003.htm
I presume that you are going or trying to make the new MO to someone other than yourself. Otherwise this makes no sense.
bob
You could use it to pay someone else most likely. I was looking at the specific situation where the guy said that his bank WOULD NOT cash it.
What’s a MO?
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MO is short for Money Order
What pissed me off is when they couldn't cash the MO, but they could give people cash back that used a debit card to buy stamps.
Good question that I don't have an answer to. I always deposit them at my bank. I can't even remember trying to cash one at the PO; many years ago they told me they did not have sufficient cash on-hand and I never tried again.
The USPS Money Orders are my favorite form of payment because you can cash them immediately even at my bank
The purchaser of a postal money order writes the name of they payee on it after purchasing it. Yes, you can use a MO made out to you to purchase a new one as long as you or the clerk has the cash to make up the difference.
The government is incapable of ever managing the economy. That is why communism collapsed. It is now socialism’s turn - Martin Armstrong
Money orders purchased through the Postal Service cost more than at other places, such as Walmart, 7/11, etc.
Yes, but USPS are safer. Check the fees and wait times if a non-USPS one gets lost.
USPS money orders are no fee. They cost less than any other place.
When cashing large amounts I call ahead and ask them to put aside $xxxx.xx for late in the day. They do.
Very accomodating.
bob
I don't think the PO puts the payee name on the MOs.
Just the amount.
IIRC, they are all blank.
@AUandAG
I'm pretty sure you meant you got the short end of the stick. Might wanna do a quick edit before CU gives you the short end of the stick also.
https://usps.com/shop/money-orders.htm
They don't put any names on them. They also don't record who the purchaser is. I wonder how many different ways they have of searching money orders if you don't have the serial number. I wonder if they could locate a MO that's been cashed if you gave them the face amount and place of purchase.
Too wate; he got kwoted. Unless the quoter agrees to edit his post.
I noticed that.
Hopefully @jmlanzaf will also be kind and do a quick edit.
Oh well, I missed when they started to charge for them.....been 10 years or so for me....guess things change when you're not looking.
bob
They all used to... Now it depends on the post office branch and clerk.
done
So I went through this scenario, just as the OP asked.
I received a Postal Money order for ?? $500 or so. The post office has very strict rules about not keeping a lot of cash on hand, and it is collected quickly and drop safed, so they do not have access to it. They also would not "hold" $500 for me to come it and cash it.
I asked about "cashing" it for the $500, getting the $200 they had available between all 4 windows, and getting a new check for $300. They could do that, but still had to charge me the fee for another Money order.
So to the OP, yes, you can, but you pay a fee that they said is not waivable.
But the original infraction is still there. Calling @AUandAG ...
Yep, and there was a mystery post in between you & I. ???
Use mobile deposit if your bank has it. Use the bank’s app, take a pic of the MO, and deposit. Then go to PO buy MO with debit/credit card. Done.
Ack, it is what it is....just a bit po'd at them at the moment. Broke the stock on an antique rifle that cannot be replaced anymore....grrrrrrrr
bob
Balance restored.
That's all well and good but in my 4th post here a person on another message board said that his bank WOULD NOT cash any USPS money orders that were sent to him by another party. I don't know if he wanted to deposit them or not. He refuses to stand in line at his PO and is sure that they usually don't have enough cash on hand to cash them. Plus his PO is closed due to storm damage of some sort. So basically he's sitting on them. Also he knows that he can deposit checks by mobile means or cash them at his grocery store.
Sounds like his bank is protecting itself from him.
MO’s are secured checks/instruments.
Therefore, an assumption, he provided false MOs (or some other type of instrument) sometime in the past and is currently prohibited from using this type of deposit.
He said his bank has been burned by stolen ones so they won't accept them. Of course they can be looked up online easy enough. Money orders other than USPS issued ones could be a problem.
You can certainly buy a Postal MO with a Postal MO as long as the clerk has the change if needed.