RedBird, Serve and BlueBird Rumors - American Express Prepaid Card Rumors

There have been a lot of rumors going around the web regarding the American Express Prepaid Cards RedBird, Serve and BlueBird.   These cards are highly lucrative for Manufactured Spend so they can generate a lot of chatter.

Here are the rumors:

American Express Serve - Up to $250 Free

Update: A reader reports that he tried to add funds with a Citibank credit card and it went through as a regular credit card purchase, not a cash advance.  I don't have a serve account so I can't verify, but Citi cards should be safe with Serve.  Either way, send a secure message through your Citibank account and ask for the cash advance limit to be lowered to $0 so that if it does process as a cash advance the transaction won't go through and you won't be stuck with a bill.


Serve® is one of the prepaid products available through American Express.  Similar to Bluebird, its best feature is that you can use it for online bill pay.  This means that any money that has been loaded onto your card can be used to pay a credit card bill as well.

An additional advantage is that you can load funds from a credit card onto Serve with no associated fees (unless your credit card issuer counts it as a Cash Advance). You can then pay your credit card bill with the bill pay.  Not too shabby.

Advantages:

• Online Bill Pay
• Loading with a credit card for free ($1,000 a month)
• Load "cash" at 7-11 and CVS
• There are some reports that CVS allows you to load with a credit card and it is considered a "cash" reload - unconfirmed.
• $50 bonus for two direct deposits of $250 or more.
• There are some reports that Amazon Payments will work for this - unconfirmed
• 20% cashback for any "tap purchases" using Isis Mobile Wallet until January 31st.   Up to $200 in credits ($1,000 of spending).  This works on anything, including Visa Gift Cards or Vanilla reloads!

There are a couple of problems with Serve:

• $1 monthly fee
• You can avoid the monthly fee by loading $500 a month or having direct deposit or having it in your Isis Mobile wallet.
• You can't have Bluebird and Serve at the same time, it's either one or the other.

I don't have Serve because I have Bluebird and I don't want to give it up, if you are interested you can sign up for American Express Serve® here

Thank you YP for the tip!

Serve Prepaid Card from American Express - Load $25 and Get $25!

Update - Alive again, but new serve accounts only.  Expires December 31st.


Serve Prepaid Card from American Express - Load $25 and Get $25! - Expires September 30, 2012


The best part is that once you verify your checking account and you load $25 onto your card they credit the $25 the same day and you can withdraw your money back to your checking account for free immediately!

One bonus per new account.  You can get one for you and another for your spouse or anyone else in your family who is over 18.

This is not a credit card!  You don't give your full full Social Security Number and there are no credit checks.  This is will not affect your credit score!

You can load money with a credit card, but that isn't free.  Use your checking account.


Here's how to do it

1. Click on this link
2. Click on "sign up to get started"
3. Put in your info.  When you get to the next screen make sure you follow the directions for the password.  If you do it wrong you will get a "template error" that doesn't mention anything about the password not meeting the requirements
4. Once you set up your account verify your checking account for at least one user.  You will need to do this to withdraw your funds for free.  You can either choose the option of instant verification or through trial verification.  
5. Start over for any additional accounts
6. From your serve account, send all your money to one account (all you need is an email address) and accept the money to that account and you can with draw the money once it has posted

Note: You can't load money on two account with same checking account.  It won't work.  You can load one with a checking account and then another with a separate checking account or debit card.  Once you have gotten both bonuses, transfer all the money to the account with the verified checking account and withdraw.

I got my bonus money within 20 minutes, but it can take up to 30 days.

Here are the Terms and Conditions:

Offer expires September 30, 2012 and is not available to existing Serve account holders or any person that has previously canceled his or her Serve account. To receive the $25 from Serve, you must open a new Serve account (subject to approval) and add $25 or more, which must post to your new Serve account on or before September 30, 2012. In some instances, it may take several days for added funds to post to your account, so please allow sufficient time for that process to occur. Serve will provide a one-time credit to your Serve account of $25 within thirty (30) days of you satisfying the above requirements. Funds loaded via person-to-person send/receive money transactions will not satisfy the account funding requirements. Limit one (1) $25 credit per new Serve account. Subaccounts are not eligible for the credit.  Offer subject to change or cancellation at any time and cannot be combined with any other offer(s).

Thank you J Combs!

Use Serve Prepaid Card to Consolidate your Prepaid and Gift Cards

Serve prepaid card is currently running a promotion where if you load $25 onto you card, Serve will load another $25 instantly

In addition, serve can be used to consolidate your prepaid cards in your name or your nameless visa gift cards (I assume Mastercard works as well, but not confirmed.  Amex nameless cards do not work)

Here is how to do it:

1. There are many ways to load money onto your serve card, one is through a credit card.  
1. When you are on the main page of your Serve account, you will have to click on "additional ways to fund your account" to choose a credit card.
2. Serve's official rules are that after March 15, 2013, they will charge you 2.9% to load with a credit card.  When I loaded from my prepaid and gift cards, I was able to transfer my whole balance without incurring any fees from Serve or my card companies.
3. There is a limit of loading $100 a day from a credit card so depending on how much you are adding, it may take a few days.
4. This only works if the card is in your name.  Nameless visa gift cards work as well.  Nameless Amex gift card will not work.
5. After you have loaded all the money into your serve account, you will have one card with all of the money on it so you don't have to constantly check your balances on different cards.
6. If you and your wife have gift cards you can send money from one serve account to the other and consolidate even further.

Do not immediately try to take the money out to your checking account or from an ATM.  Many people have gotten their accounts closed and their bonuses taken away.  There is no problem as long as you then spend the money.  The idea is to make it more simple (who wants 20 gift cards that you need to keep track of), don't try to take it further.