28 thoughts on “Everything you Need to Know About Bluebird”

1. Gary November 6, 2013 at 7:49 pm

   I have Bluebird, should I get Serve for her or another Bluebird. Is there advantages to having both AMEX. types. (I heard they won’t let you have both at the same address?)
   Thank you,
   Gary

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant November 6, 2013 at 8:36 pm

      I am trying to get a Serve card and it is not easy. For some reason, Amex doesn’t want you to have both cards. You can try to get the Serve card.

      Reply ↓
2. Gary November 7, 2013 at 5:53 pm

   I shall try to get my wife the Serve card and will report back.

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant November 7, 2013 at 6:53 pm

      Thanks Gary. Send me an email if she is successful.

      Reply ↓
3. xoomoon January 21, 2014 at 8:02 pm

   Grant, I bought the $100 mastercard giftcard and loaded to my bluebird account from the bluebird website under adding funds from a debit card/gift card. Is this ok? this would not raise suspicion right? The only reason I did this was because the walmart money kiosks were all out of service in my area tonight.

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant January 21, 2014 at 10:58 pm

      If you change reload methods several times, Bluebird might get suspicious. If you only do it once, you will be fine.

      Reply ↓
4. Peter April 30, 2014 at 7:07 am

   when ever i use my bluebird card at the gas station, I usually spend $20, then about an hr. later I noticed that the gas station withdrawals $90, $60, etc. but then I get it back in 3-5 business days. Why does this happen

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant April 30, 2014 at 7:46 am

      Unless you go inside and tell the attendant you specifically want $20 of gas, the gas station will probably put a hold on the extra funds in case you use more gas than you wanted to. Next time you want to get gas, just go inside and have them authorize a certain dollar amount.

      Reply ↓
5. david May 18, 2014 at 8:20 pm

   What’s so special about this bluebird card? I happened on your site while trying to devise a way to convert some walmart store credit to actual cash or to visa/mc/amex/paypal. The volume of info you have here on managing this card and the VRC coupled with the level of interest/participation from others makes has my curiosity piqued. I’ve never had much use for re-loadable cards so Im ignorant of them,. some reason I get the feeling Im missing out on some obscure or little known benefit to using them. Links to other write ups or similar write-ups would suffice though a use case or an actual explanation would be great. Thanks for your time :)

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant May 18, 2014 at 8:33 pm

      Good evening David, thank you for the question. How much Walmart store credit do you have? Have you ever though about selling it to one of the online gift card resellers? You can get up to 90% face value of the gift card as a check, PayPal payment, or Amazon egift card. Check out there for more info: http://www.giftcardgranny.com/sell-a-gift-card/#walmart

      In a nutshell, Bluebird is a reloadable debit card that can be used like an online bank account. You can withdraw money via ATM, you can used the card as a normal debit card to shop in-store or online, and you can also do online bill payment with the card. The reason this is specially is because you are able to load funds to a Bluebird Card (or an American Express Serve Card) and then use the card to pay bills, like a credit card bill. In essence, you are moving money around in a circle while generating frequent flyer miles or credit card points. I’m sure that doesn’t make it any more clear, but this is a great tool to meet credit card sign up bonuses. Say you have to spend $5,000 in 3 months. For most people, that is hard to do on credit cards, but with Bluebird, you can do that for around $50 out of pocket costs and reap all the benefits from the credit card bonus. Let me know if you have any other questions about Bluebird, I will do my best to answer them. Have a great night.

      Reply ↓
6. Bill June 11, 2014 at 9:19 pm

   Help! You know anything about the Vanillareload.com site?
   It’s been down since Saturday, June 7th…now just says Down for Maintenance.
   Can’t load Vanilla cards for 5 days now!!!

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant June 11, 2014 at 9:28 pm

      Hmm I haven’t been to that site for weeks. You might be able to call InComm and they can process your reload over the phone.

      Reply ↓
7. innajl June 14, 2014 at 2:22 pm

   Just came back from visiting two Walmarts and in both of them the managers refused to allow me load visa gift cards saying that the new policy came out allowing only bank debit card be loaded.
   However just yesterday I was able to lad these cards in the different Walmart, apparently they did not know about the memo. Just the heads up to people here that this will be coming to the Walmart close to you

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant June 14, 2014 at 4:19 pm

      The official policy from Walmart is not to allow gift cards to be used. Most Walmarts do not enforce that policy. If they ask, tell them you are using a debit card with a PIN.

      Reply ↓
8. Jennifer Dilts February 2, 2015 at 1:53 pm

   My experience with Blue Bird has been very frustrating! Their website is often unavailable. I finally was satisfied after I had my payroll check added via direct deposit. I used the info. that was provided to me by BB.On this same form it states that I can have “gov. benefits’ provided through this DD info.also. I decided to do this since my local bank had recently sold & we have had some issues with them since. Long story shirt, BB sent me an email last week to notify me that my refund deposit had been denied by their bank.My name is the primary name on the BB account. My husband is listed as a family member. says this is why they rejected it. Both names are on the account as well as the tax return. They have not returned it to the IRS yet either. Should I contact the American Express bank since I am not getting any assistance from BB or their resolution team as I have not been able to get through to them.I always get cut off.No one will give me a direct number to call them without going through the BB customer service.Thanks!

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant February 2, 2015 at 2:36 pm

      Good afternoon Jennifer, I’m sorry to hear about your recent Bluebird issues. Bluebird customer service is not very good. If you call during their normal business hours, you should get a rep from the US who should be able to escalate your issue to the right department. I would keep following up with them until you get someone who can help. I wish I had the magic number to call, but I’m afraid I don’t have any number other than 877-486-5990. I wish you good luck.

      Reply ↓
9. Josh February 8, 2015 at 11:19 am

   Grant, I’ve been combing through your blogs and I’m still a bit unsure about what I need to do to make the most of all these rewards? I currently have the Chase Freedom, Capital One Quicksilver an the Sallie Mae World Mastercard.

   I’d like to get as much cash back as possible to earn more money. I don’t currently have an points earning cards they are all simply cash back. Like you’ve mentioned previously it would be nice to make some money from paying bills like rent or car payments. Am I understand the steps right?

   Step 1) Establish a Bluebird Account

   Step 2) Purchase a VRC which is a Vanilla Reload Card? (This will want to be done at a merchant where I get the most cash back ie: grocer for 1st quarter on Chase Freedom card.

   Step 3) Take the VRC to Walmart to add the money from the VRC to the BlueBird Acct?

   Step 4) Make sure I go to regular cash register to load BlueBird account not customer service?

   Step 5) Make payments to the landlord and person using my Bluebird account or pay off CC using bluebird account.

   How much will I want to purchase on my initial VRC purchase? Can I put $1000 on it and only pay on activation fee?

   Is Walmart giving anyone any grief about loading BlueBird account with the VRC’s?

   Reply ↓
   1. Grant February 8, 2015 at 3:08 pm

      Thank you for the questions Josh, you are mostly right. You will need a Redbird (Target only) or Bluebird/Serve (Walmart only). Almost all merchants who sell VRCs will only accept cash. With that said, if you get a Bluebird or Serve Card, you can load that will Visa or MasterCard debit cards at Walmart. After you have funds loaded to your Bluebird or Serve Card, you can make a bill payment to your landlord or pay off your credit card bill. Let me know if you have any questions.

      Reply ↓
10. River February 23, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    Great blog Grant,
    What is the best method to liquidate vanilla reloads other than Bluebird/serve? I have excess VRs & my Bluebird is maxed..

    Reply ↓
    1. Grant February 23, 2015 at 6:27 pm

       Can you get your friends or family members to get a Bluebird/Serve Card and give it to you? That is a good way to scale up your MS.

       Reply ↓
       1. River February 23, 2015 at 7:34 pm

          Unfortunately I don’t have family members to get bluebird. Would you recommend My vanilla debit or any other method? Thanks

          Reply ↓
          1. Grant February 23, 2015 at 8:40 pm

             You can get a GoBank Card, that is very similar to a Bluebird/Serve, but it is a Visa card instead of AMEX.

             Reply ↓
             1. River February 23, 2015 at 10:04 pm

                I don’t think you could load go bank with VRs? I’m looking for VR compatible method alternatives. I believe netspend & mio is dead by now.. What do you think of My vanilla debit (MVD)?
             2. Grant February 23, 2015 at 10:05 pm

                Oh VRCs, I haven’t used those in years. I’m not sure which reloadable cards will work VRCs nowadays. How many VRCs do you have to load?
11. River February 24, 2015 at 10:08 am

    About 20.. I can get more but I need to liquidate those first..

    Reply ↓
    1. Grant February 24, 2015 at 10:12 am

       Dang, that’s a good problem to have. I believe in the VRC network, it shows a few cards that you can use. I really don’t know which ones are worthy working with though.

       Reply ↓
12. Scott July 7, 2015 at 9:35 am

    I’ve found that over the last month or so all my local grocery stores (Stater Bros, Vons, Albertsons, Ralphs) have gotten rid of the variable visa gift cards. All they have are the $100 and down fixed ones. Anyone else notice that? I guess I’ll have to switch to Simon (never done it before but it seems pretty easy).

    Reply ↓
    1. Grant July 7, 2015 at 12:55 pm

       Yes, I noticed that too. Lots of fraud with those variable load VGCs.

       Reply ↓