Breaking News: AMEX Serve and Bluebird Raise Daily Reload Limit from $1,000 to $2,500 per Day
Frequent Miler (link) reported that Bluebird has increased the daily reload limit from $1,000 a day to $2,500 a day, with the same $5,000 monthly reload limit. I checked Bluebird FAQs and it looks like they quietly increased their online debit card load from $100 a day to $200 a day, with the same $1,000 monthly limit. I have no idea what else Bluebird changed…
According to Serve’s website (link), you can now load $2,500 per day with “cash” (hopefully gift cards too). Everything else looks the same. This is really interesting.
I loaded $900 today to my Serve Card so I am eager to try to load $2,500 tomorrow. Please report your success/failures loading more than $1,000 at Walmart. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
It worked…just loaded 3 Vanilla Reload Cards onto one Bluebird card….$1500 and it loaded all 3! Great news indeed!
Nice work Bill, you still have room for 2 more VRCs if you got them :)
Wait, did you just write that you loaded Vanilla Reloads to a Bluebird card…!! Now, unless you’ve had them lying around since, oh, early April, where in the heck did you get those with a credit card??? I’m sure you won’t say, and you probably shouldn’t. Keep it to yourself. But it’s nice to know that VRs are alive, somewhere out there… lol!
Clarification: My comment was made in reply to Bill’s comment, not Grant’s comment.
VRCs are still alive. Some gas stations in some states still sell them with credit cards. I haven’t seen any in CA, but I’m sure there are some places out there that still sell them.
Bill, can you at least say what State you got your VRs in? Thanks
yes, please! I live in North Carolina.
you still buy vanilla reload? with credit card?
Some places will still let you. I’m not exactly sure where though.
This is great news!
Think this is a response to OVs dying and a huge chunk of MSers being put out of business?
I’m not sure, if they wanted to put more MSers out of biz, they probably would have lowered the daily limit to $500 or something and changed the daily limit on MOs. There are a lot of bad things WM could do…
I was thinking less MSers now so less need to be so strict with upload limits
That’s possible, but I think the number of MSers is constantly increasing, not decreasing.
*I still don’t have the hang of this. What debit cards and what gift cards can be purchased with a credit card and where currently?
*Is it accurate that if you can reload a debit card (i.e. One Vanilla) with a credit card that you can currently then load it to Serve?
*What benefit is there to loading Serve with cash? No points or miles that I can figure. Do you buy money orders with debit cards and load with cash from the money orders?
*One comment indicates that “hopefully” Serve will be able to be loaded with gift cards. Aren’t gift cards only able to be used At the designated store (I.e. Walgreens, Starbucks, etc)?
Sorry to be so lengthy and unknowledgeable, but I am still holding onto the original One Vanilla debit I minimally loaded with a CC and activated and one Serve which I got for free on a promotion and activated and minimally loaded with cash. Then all the store “rejections” began, and that makes it all the more difficult for me to figure out if this is worth doing – which I am sure it is because all of you bright young folks wouldn’t be wasting your time on this rewarding quest.
Appreciate any help you all can offer.
I honestly suggest you do not pose these questions here. Since this is a public site, there is no need to bring more attention than it already has. Look around other websites and figure this out yourself. Spoon feeding and posts like yours are why deals get shut down (eg: OneVanilla at WM) since certain stores get called out and bring attention. Either gather info via PM or look at other forums that are dedicated to this to learn more.
Dear Leslie,
I have the SAME Questions. Thanks for asking! Hope Grant clarifies everything soon.
Eric, if I knew what “PM” was or what other forums that I might peruse, I would most certainty do so. Thank you for your input.
Leslie, I will send you an email with some info. PM means Private Message by the way.
Ha. I thought at first that this was a prank post so you could get people to your post to introduce yourself as a new Prior2Boarding blogger! I’m glad it wasn’t a prank – it really is time for me to switch over from Bluebird to Serve. Best of luck on your new domain. Kathy
Thanks Kathy, I am planning on staying self hosted for now. If traffic becomes too much (my dream), I might move over to the BA servers. I was going to have a Intro to P2B last night, but thought I would cover this now and work on my intro later (like right now).
can serve be loaded with moneypak? is it $2500 per day on serve?
According to Frequent Miler:
Serve and Bluebird have nearly identical limits and features. Serve does have a few advantages:
-can be loaded online via credit card (up to $1k per month or $1.5k w Isis)
-can be loaded with MoneyPak cards as well as vanilla reloads
do you know the limit for MoneyPak reloads? It the $5000 montly limit the combined limit for WM swipe loads, MoneyPak reload and VR? Thanks.
Yes, I believe all those cards are cumulative and you can only do $5,000 per month across all of them.
Grant,
Can it be reloaded with a Buxx debit card?
I don’t know, I haven’t tried. If you do try it, please let me know if it works. Thanks Jack.
Grant, RE: Bluebird monthly limits. Can I load $5000 a month at WM plus $1000 online with a buxx card for a total of $6000, or does the $5000 limit stand no matter the method of my loads?
Yes, you can load $5,000 at WM and an additional $1,000 online.
I think the “**up to $1999.99/day at Walmart registers” is pretty important to note. A fair number of people like me only use $500 cards to load at Walmart. Walmart allows 4 swipes per transaction. This means that the total loaded at one penny under $2K is 4 $500 swipes with the remaining card still active with a penny (chucked in the garbage). The key will be to get the register monkey to understand that “to the penny” load amount and then to make the keypad adjustment on the 4th card to a 5 number load rather than a 3 number load. People going in with 4 $500 cards and a “$2K load me up” command are in for a rude awakening.
I only load with gift cards, so the BB change will reduce my monthly trips to Walmart from 5 to 3. That is an ENORMOUS benefit. If Serve hasn’t changed their daily gift card load limit, then it becomes the inferior product, by far, even if you live right next to a Walmart. The $1K extra in credit card loading doesn’t come close to equaling the removal of 2 trips (and dependent on the competency of the attendants, maybe more trips) to that house of horrors.
Serve has the same loading daily limits as Bluebird.
Meaning Serve takes gift cards up to $1999.99 at Walmart?
Actually I think you can do the full $2,500 as there is no asterisk next to the “cash” load wording. I have yet to try though.
When someone has success loading Serve past $1K at a Walmart register with gift cards, please report it. It’s odd that Amex calls out swipe reloads in their BB language but not in the Serve language. Could be an oversight, or it could be that you can’t load more than $1K/day at Walmart into Serve using gift cards.
We will see. Now that I can’t buy OVGCs at CVS, it’s a bit harder for me to buy gift cards to load.
I agree with Leslie! I thought that BlueBird was dead to us since they no longer accept Vanilla One Visas?? Should I close the Account and open a SERVE Account instead as I have NO access to Vanilla Reloads in Boston? What are my alternatives?
PLEASE reply to Leslie, so that we know EXACTLY what to do! It is bizarre that some people seem paranoid about you sharing your knowledge—that is why I take the time to read your blog. Seems like there are some people who want only an “Elite Few” to know how to use the system and keep the rest of us in the dark—how selfish!
Kim, are you familiar with the phrase there’s no such thing as a free lunch? If you want to reap the rewards then you need to take the effort in researching. The MS forum on flyertalk is a good place to start.
I helped Kim and Leslie “offline” this morning. All should be good now.
Hey, Kim, I am coming to Boston in a couple of weeks and would love to catch up. Maybe Grant can hook us up via “PM”?
Hey Grant, sounds like you are doing well with your enterprise. Wish you all the best!
Thanks Leslie, I have more fun than I should with the blog. I sent you and Kim an email. Good night!
Hi Kim & Leslie,
In Boston area there may be a Shop & Stop store which the same chain with Giant Food stores (I saw them in Newport, RI). They offered the GC with extra reward points promotion, check it out if they still offer.
Thanks for the tip Hoang!
Thanks, Grant. And thanks, Chris, for the tip on the MS forum on flyertalk. I shall check it out and hopefully learn something additional. Seems like Kim and I and surely some others are in the “same boat” and are willing to learn. Appreciate all the help.
Thanks Leslie, hopefully the MS forum isn’t too daunting. Also, you don’t need to put my blog web address when you leave a comment, just your name and email will do :)
Grant,
The Visa GC from MB works great with Kate same as the SIM Visa from USB. SIM GC cost only $2.95 but MB cost 5.95 but easy to get from grocery stores. The grocery store has the promotion until next week. They give 4X reward points usually they gave nothing. I bought $500 GC and they give me $2 off per gallon so actually I make money and earn point !!!
Good deal on that grocery store deal. No simon malls near me unfortunately.
Grant, thanks for your blog! Your info has really helped me; especially for the short-lived OVGC POS workaround for a few weeks in June before WM blocked the OVGC.
I did some testing at Mega-lo-mart (Wal Mart) … a register reload of $2000 to my BB card was approved, reloaded via Visa Debit cards in $500 increments for a total of $2K – NOT limited to $1999.99. FYI, the cust svc clerk stated all reloads over $500 at ONE time must be done at the CS desk… YMMV.
Thanks for the data point. I have 3 Serve Cards (mine, mom’s and dad’s) so I usually bring 2 cards with me and spread the loads across multiple Serve Cards, but the cashiers at the money center never give me any trouble.