the gift that wasnt.

I got one as a gift and didn't want to give them all of my personal
info to activate it either.

After finding out what info they wanted I made up a fake name, ssn,
address, phone- etc. and it worked fine. Though they said they had
trouble "verifying" the info, they activated my card and I was able to
use it.

I just got a $20 walmart money card from a friend for my birthday and
was hesitant to activate it. I could use the money, living in this
tough economy, so i went ahead and activated it. I hope nothing goes
wrong. I assume my friend probably confused the idea of a money card
with a gift card. They are similar, except she had to pay $3 on top of
the $20 to activate it. I would prefer if she'd just gotten me cash or
went to an actual bank to get a Visa gift card. However, I won't
complain to her since she proabably doesn't realize it is not a gift
card and I don't want to hurt her feelings.

I assusme the teacher was in a hurry and thought the Money Card was
the same thing as a Visa Gift Card, which it is not. People make
mistakes, even teachers.

When purchasing a Walmart Money card or a Green Dot card...please be
VERY careful! A friend of mine had one and because he used it too
much, they cancelled his card! At the time he had about 1,300.00 on
it. They told him they send him a check in 30 business days. That was
almost 4 months ago and he has yet to see his money. They held it in
processing for months. He calls weekly to check on it. It recently got
to the point where they called to verify his address so they could
mail it. That was about a month ago.

It wasnt that he spent too much, it was that he had deposited too much
on it! He was using it for a job he had and someone had paid him that
way. They said he was having too much deposited and wasnt using
enough.

So be very careful when using these cards.

Just as an FYI. You can fake the SSN and DOB entry. WalMart and other
companies have no way of verifying it. Since your son is 13 and
wouldn't have a DL or ID card, they definitely can't verify it.

I lie about my SSN and DOB all the time as most companies have NO
RIGHT to have either....and by giving it to them, and considering how
carelessly most retail companies treat confidential information, you
are opening yourself up to identity theft.

Next time, just fill in a bogus SSN...just pick numbers at random.

Only a bank, the government, some creditors (your power company for
example) and mortgage officers have a right to your SSN.

welcome to the real world , hard work dosent always get you a reward,
maybe you should teach your son that the real reward is know he did a
hard honest days work instead of looking to the skies for some kind of
validation for his efforts, hard work doesnt always equal rewards,
look at the poor guy in the offices around the world that works late
and does everyone else assignments and gets nothing but dumped on by
their coworkers wheres their reward? like i said maybe you should
teach you son that the real reward is self accknowlegement and not
some gift from above
sounds like he already got his real world lesson, HARD WORK DOES NOT
EQUAL REWARDS, AND LIFE IS VERY UNFAIR sounds like the best life
lesson hes learned so far

As others have said, this was clearly a Walmart MoneyCard. The reason
it has to be registered is that in the eyes of the government, it is a
bank account, a bad excuse for a bank account, but none the less...

This is NOT a line of credit, it functions just like a DEBIT card.
There is nothing illegal about having bank accounts for minors. Your
best bet would be to go ahead and register it, does not matter whether
it is in your name or your son's.

Perhaps the idea of this prize was to teach whoever won how to manage
a bank account.

You are right that there is no disclaimer on the GC rack, but, all the
fine print is on the back of the card itself and is also available at
Customer Service.

Good Luck!

Freds which is a knock off from Walmart did the same thing to my son.
Only he had paid 100.00. He never got his money back. They sold him
this card when he was only 16. I guess they can do what ever they
want. Who is going to sue or go to court over 20.00 or 100.00
dollars.

Just wanted to add that this complaint should be directed to the
teacher and not Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart (I can't believe I'm saying this)
is not in the wrong here. Also, the card your son received is a
temporary card that can only be loaded once and once it is registered,
they send you the real card with your name embossed on it. Also, I
believe there is a $3 monthly service fee that will be deducted from
the balance on the card. When I registered mine, I was told that a $3
service fee would be deducted on 9/16. So I urge you to contact your
sons teacher and get this resolved fast. Here's a link for the walmart
moneycard help
pagehttps://www.walmartmoneycard.com/AcctMgmt/Controls/Walmart/Support
/Faqs.aspx (sorry, I can't get the tinyurl website to open)

...It sounds like the teacher bought a Walmart MoneyCard, which is a
re-loadable VISA card, NOT a giftcard. I recently got one because I
wanted to order something over the phone and didn't want to give out
my CC# over the phone. Anyways, the Walmart MoneyCard has to be
purchased and loaded with funds at the Customer Service/Returns desk,
so I'm not so sure the teacher made a mistake and bought the wrong
card. Yes you do have to provide your name, address and SS# when you
activate the card and Wal-Mart explains why, on the website you
register the card on (something to do government regulations or
something like that). I would never give a Wal-Mart MoneyCard to
someone as a gift or a prize because it is in a major pain in the you
know what to register. It took me 45 minutes to register, I tried
doing it over the phone and their voice recognition system failed. I
got on my MacBook and entered in all my information and answered all
their questions and then the confirm page wouldn't load so I had to
get on my PC and re-enter everything again.

I get my kids Wal-mart gift cards for Christmas (well my mother in law
gives me the money to go get them for her to give them at Christmas
she hates to shop..lol)

I have never had a problem with the GC. They run it through the thing
and you pay how much you want on it (I always save the receipt in case
for some reason it didnt activate but it should show it was on the
receipt.

I would think if this was a glitch of it not getting activated when
the teacher purchased it (kudo's to the teacher for saving the
receipt) they would just avtivate it.

I have never in the 4 years of geting GC at Wal-Mart have they asked
for personal information.

I hope you took this up with a manager or supervisor.

Something is wrong.

I haven't used a Wal-Mart GC (not in years, at least), but it seems
bizarre that they'd treat them as lines of credit. In fact, it
defeats the whole point of them being GIFT cards if it requires
someone to take financial responsibility in this way.

I know some cards offer the ability to register, so that, if lost, you
can still get the value. But to require it? That's out of step with
every other gift card I've ever bought or received.

I'm hoping that there was a mistake somewhere. Because if Wal-Mart is
requiring social security numbers for gift cards, well, that seems a
horrendous idea.

Heck, I just purchased a Target gift card for someone that doesn't
have a social security number.

I'm thinking the teacher who purchased the card in the first place
should have activated it before issuing it as a prize.

though I agree I see no reason for a SSN to be used since it's a gift
card and not a credit card.

Now if it was in fact a prepaid credit card then the fault would be
the teacher's in purchasing something that a child would possibly not
be able to use.

Great complaint! I agree COMPLETELY. I wouldn't give the clowns at
Walmart my cat's date of birth, let alone my SSN.