Requesting an Increased Cash Advance Limit from Chase for Online Serve Reloads
I’m sure most of you are sick of hearing about Serve and their “cash advance fees” on Chase cards, but I promise this will be the last post about this issue. Last Thursday/Friday, Serve or Chase started processing online Serve reloads slightly differently than before (link). As it turned out, no cash advance fees ever posted, but the online Serve reload would decrease your cash advance available balance (link).
If you tried to use a Chase credit card with a cash advance limit smaller than your online load amount or a Chase Ink Bold business Charge Card, your online Serve reload would fail and you would get this error message.
To resolve the issue, I sent a secure message to Chase asking them to increase my cash advance limit to $500. Unfortunately, Chase was unable to do so over Secure Message (one of only a few things that they cannot do, apparently).
My next idea was to call Chase and have them manually increase my cash advance limit on my Chase Freedom from $0 to something around $500. I never said why I wanted to increase my cash advance limit and he never asked.
Toward the end of the call, the representative was able to increase my cash advance limit to $1,300, which represents 20% of my $6,500 total credit limit on my Chase Freedom.
I attempted another online Serve reload and this time the transaction went through. The $200 pending charge showed up in my Chase Freedom online account right away.
Looking at the available cash advance limit, the available balance decreased by $200.
There are multiple reports that online Serve reloads still post as purchases, regardless of what the cash advance balance/limit says. I tested the charges on my parents’ Serve cards (my Guinea Pigs) and all the online Serve reloads posted as purchases.
For completeness, the Chase Ink Plus Business Credit Card does have a cash advance limit, so it should work with online Serve reloads.
Unfortunately the Chase Ink Bold Business Charge Card does not have a cash advance limit (since it is a charge card), therefore it will no longer work with online Serve reloads.
Update: apparently some Chase Ink Bold Business Charge Cards are still working with online Serve reloads (thanks Helix!)
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
A while back I changed my mind about requesting a Discover cash advance increase when they answered that it would indeed be preceded by a hard pull.
Really? That doesn’t seem right. Try calling back and see if they can change your cash advance limit with no credit check.
whose ink BOLD still works please?
I tried calling about 3 times, they stated they they will need to do a hard pull/inquiry in order to increase my CA limit.
That’s pretty lame. Might as well use a different credit card then.
I am a bit confused. First all the bloggers told us to change the CA limit to zero. Now it needs to be more than zero for the transaction to be approved. And with no cash advance fee? So confusing!
I feel your pain Heather, bloggers are the worst!
Yes they are!! Causing panics and giving me heart attacks for no reason! This is too much for MS. :P
Haha, handing out heart attacks makes the weak MSers drop out and makes the rest of us stronger :) #whatdoesn’tkillyoumakesyoustronger
Its all because of the so called “experts” who spread fear for nothing. In the past Serve CC loads never counted towards CA so there was no reason to set your CA to zero. Now those that set CA to zero are begging the CC issuer to increase the CA limit to X amount resulting in needing a hard pull.
Fascinating.. I called one last time just to make sure. What do you know? The CSR went ahead with my request and told me that “they only need to adjust the cash advance portion”. It may be that the CSRs are misinterpreting when we ask for the limit reversal / “increase” because they do not realize that we had asked the limit to be decreased to $0.
4th or 5th time is the charm! Amazing they had no idea what you were asking for the first few calls. Glad you got it to work. I am assuming you tried a Serve reload and it worked?
so …originally it was recommeded by all to hv a 0 ca limit but now the rules hv changed and u no longer can hv a 0 ca if u want to load serve with cc? and even though u hv to hv a high enough ca limit yo cover the load ,ultimatelyit will process as a purchase and not ca…correct?
Yes, you got it! It’s kind of tricky, but you explained it perfectly!
My Chase Freedom card cash advance limit is set to $4100, more than enough for the $200 reload I just attempted. But I received the error message, no go.. :(
Now what?
Hmm, have you maxed out on your daily or month load limits? Double check your Serve account to see if you maxed out the credit card reloads for this month. Hope that helps.
Hi Grant,
I am confused about credit card loads on Serve. Are there any credit cards left that are not imposing cash advance fees?
Yes, Chase and Barclays do not charge any cash advance fees for online Serve reloads.
Still okay for Ink plus serve loads in Feb 2015?
Yes, you should be fine to load a Chase Ink Plus to your Serve Card.
Thanks! Tried today after upping CA limit (had lowered it based on bad info on FT). Wife is primary i am secondary. Getting error. Should i 1. use her card 2. open serve in her name and try with her card. Again Ink Plus (not Bold). Thx
For loading your Serve Card, the name on the credit card should match the name on the Serve Card. If they do not, you can add her as an authorized user on to your credit card and use that to load her Serve Card. Does that make sense?
Yes, she is primary (chase acct holder) I am authorized user(secondary). I tried to load my serve with my card and got an error. CA up to 4300
Hmm, you might have to call Serve and see if there is a block on the card. Sometimes after switching credit card funding sources, Serve won’t let you use the card until you call and verify the card with them.
Still getting an error. I was made an authorized user on her acct. Waiting on her serve card to arrive. Any other suggestions?
Call Serve and see if they know what is causing the error message.
Thanks again and sorry to ask so many questions. My acct was locked and I had to verify the card. Now it still wont work. Called Serve they said Visa (chase) is blocking it….. Will wait until my wife’s serve arrives and try with her CC linked to her serve. Only thing i can think of. In the meantime going to buy giftcards for FD are vanilla visas best way to go or Simon Mall, Pinned MC what do you recommend as I am having so much trouble :/ thanks for all the help
I have no experience loading gift cards at Family Dollar, so I have no idea how easy or difficult the loading process is. I would wait until your wife’s Serve Card comes in the mail and try that with her credit card.
The wanted me to email a picture of the card to confirm it. Does that sound normal?
Yes, Serve wants you to upload the picture to a secure website or email the picture to them. This is an older post about this situation: http://travelwithgrant.boardingarea.com/amex-serve/call-serve-after-changing-credit-or-debit-card/
So it is confirmed that CSP still works using Serve to satisfy minimum spending requirements? i.e. Purchases
Yes, I haven’t heard otherwise. All Chase and Barclays credit cards should be safe to use to reload your Serve Card.
Can anyone confirm (as of March 2015) that Capital One Venture will still post successfully as a purchase and NOT a cash advance?
Good question Rachel, hopefully someone can chime in with their experience.