False Alarm! Online Serve Reloads are Posting as Purchases (Not Cash Advances)

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False Alarm!  Online Serve Reloads are Posting as Purchases (Not Cash Advances)

(Hat tip to RRGG for keeping me informed along the way)

It’s been an exciting last 24 hours, but I am happy to share some good news.  According to FlyerTalk (link) and comments on my last post (link), online Serve reloads are not posting as purchases (and earning miles/points/cash back as before).

Serve Reloads Posting as Credit Not Cash Advances

For some reason, online Serve reloads are affecting cash advance balances across many banks, especially Chase.  Even though the cash advance balance changes, no actual cash advance fees are posting.  

Mom Freedom Cash Advance Fee

For those of us with cash advance limits set at $0, online Serve reloads are being denied and not being processed.  It seems like it might be necessary to have *some* cash advance balance linked to the credit card for online Serve reloads to go through.

Grant Freedom $0 Cash Advance Limit

I have been using my Chase Freedom Credit Card to fund my Serve Card for the last several months.  During that time, my cash advance limit has always been $0 and the online Serve reloads have always gone through right away.  I’m not sure what changed on Wednesday/Thursday, but that no longer works.  I will wait a few days and see if Serve “fixes” the problem.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. Serve just introduced a new section of the site with financial articles from LearnVest (link).

Serve Learnvest Articles


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41 thoughts on “False Alarm! Online Serve Reloads are Posting as Purchases (Not Cash Advances)

  1. Jason

    That’s weird! now it’s showing as sales.
    Man, I thought about canceling Serve!
    Thank you for letting us know Grant.
    Have a great weekend!

    Reply
      1. Grant

        Something fishy is going on, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Serve is known for changing things (like the website design and layout of buttons) so I’m sure they tinkered with something. Hopefully no more surprises from Serve.

        Reply
          1. Grant

            It seems like the cash advance balance decreases on every Serve reload, but when the transaction actually goes through, it is a purchase.

  2. Martin

    Can someone post a link to the Serve pros/cons on here re MS. Have Bluebird but thinking of switching to Serve from the talk but don’t see where the pros/cons discussion was.

    Thanks…

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Serve Pros: $1000/month online credit card reloads
      Bluebird Pros: Writing paper checks

      That is all you need to know, which one would you rather have (everything else being equal).

      Reply
      1. Eric

        Somehow I have added $1,200 through credit card load this month. How is that possible if the monthly limit is $1,200? Could this be why Chase denied my recent attempt? In any case, I probably need to wait a few more days for adding more, as my month will be over on 10/6.

        Reply
          1. Eric

            So the load limit of $1,000 is by calendar month, but the minimum of $500 in load to avoid the $1 fee is by my billing period (which ends on 10/6)?

          2. Eric

            I’m just trying to understand why Serve told me that I had added $1,200 this month so far (which is all from credit cards). I did $1,000 in Sept. and $200 so far in October. September was my first month, so I am still getting my feet wet! Thanks for the replies.

  3. RR

    An update from my comment on the previous post about this:
    My Serve load on my Chase Marriott Business card on Oct 1 has now posted, as a Sale. Still waiting for my Oct 2 Serve load to post, but since my Cash Advance availability still shows no reduction, I’m expecting it to also post as a Sale.

    Reply
      1. purcitron

        strange. my $1 ink bold load didnt work this week. last week my ink bold worked for $200.
        called chase.. they said the ink bold has a $0 cash adv limit cuz its a charge card. catch 22?

        Reply
          1. purcitron

            other chase cards work.
            so no more ink bold with serve? how are others using ink bold? strange

    1. purcitron

      @Sam
      @Grant
      wonder why Sam is able to load serve with the ink bold and im not due to “the ink bold not having any CA allowance, because its a charge card”.
      very strange

      Reply
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  5. Robert

    Barclays US Air card did not even want to go through. I checked all the numbers for any errors on my end but did not see any, thus I used Chase BA card for the first time.

    Reply
  6. Eric

    My Chase Sapphire Preferred has denied me for three days in a row (latest on 10/5). Has anyone been successful in the last three days with this card?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      I sent in a secure message to Chase to raise my cash advance limit on my Chase Freedom up to $500. I think that is the secret, but I will be able to verify soon.

      Reply
        1. Grant

          I made my cash advance limit $500 instead of $200 because I think the cash advance limit does not refresh right away when the payment posts to the card.

          Reply
    2. racerboy80

      I have used the the Sapphire the last three days in a row without any problems. I had problems in the past, but my card was brand new and I called in and they cleaned it up.

      Reply
      1. Eric

        What was your conversation like? FYI – my cash advance limit is currently $20 and I just did a $20 load successfully. I will wait and see if it posts as cash advance or not.

        Reply
        1. racerboy80

          My call to them was about being declined in general, long before this current CA issue. You did not mention initially that you thought your problem was CA related, just that you had been denied…good luck.

          Reply
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  8. Alan

    I tried to limit my cash advance on Citi Premier card to 0. And I tried to load on Serve after that. I got the Serve error message. I would assume Citi Premier takes Serve reloads as cash advance.

    Reply

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