Tag Archives: American Express Bluebird Card

State of the Union: Bluebird and Serve as of April 22, 2014

AMEX Serve Logo

State of the Union: Bluebird and Serve as of April 22, 2014

In case you missed today’s breaking news, you can now load your Serve Card at Walmart with gift cards (with PINs), just like you can with a Bluebird Card.  You can load either card at the Money Center (Customer Returns Center), at a cashier, or at a Money Center ATM (I haven’t tested this yet, but it should work.  If not, see previous two suggestions).To summarize everything, here are all the facts you need to know as of today, April 22, 2014:

Bluebird Card loading:

  • $5,000 calendar month reload limit in-store (Walmart), $1,000 per day reload limit
  • $1,000 online debit card calendar month reload limit, $100 per day reload limit
  • No credit card loading in-store or online

Serve Card loading:

  • $5,000 calendar month reload limit in-store (Walmart), $1,000 per day reload limit
  • $1,000 online debit card calendar month reload limit, $200 per day reload limit
  • $1,000 online credit card calendar month reload limit, $200 per day reload limit

Questions about loading at Walmart:

  • Daily loads are at least $1,000, has anyone had success loading more than that on the same day?
  • Can you load at Walmart with a credit card?
  • What is the monthly reload limit?  Is it $5,000?  Is it more/less than $5,000?
  • Gift card reloads are showing up as “Cash Reload Incomm Default Merchant” – the same company behind Vanilla Reload Cards

Walmart Load Serve Home Screen

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My Crazy CVS / Vanilla Reload Conspiracy Theory

No VRC Vanilla Reload Card

My Crazy CVS / Vanilla Reload Conspiracy Theory

Let’s be honest, no one knows what is going on with CVS and Vanilla Reload Cards.  All I know is that my local CVS stores have let me buy them with credit cards on Sunday afternoon, Monday morning, and Tuesday morning.  Since I don’t know why my local CVS Stores (located in Southern California) accept credit cards while other stores across the country are cash-only, here is my conspiracy theory.  Feel free to share yours in the comments below.

It all started a few months ago when I used to see purchase description after some of my CVS purchases:

CVS Purchase AMEX GC

The charge shows up as Garfield Beach CVS, LLC.  After a quick Google search, I stumbled onto CVS Caremark’s 2013 10-K Financial Statement (link).  Go to page 99 of the PDF or page 61 of the document.  It shows a list of “significant subsidiaries” and I have highlighted the subsidiary that shows up for my purchases.

CVS Subsidiaries 2013 10-K

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Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard, 2 New AMEX Offers, Bluebird Reloads at Walmart, and More

UPDATE 3/27/2014 at 10PM PST: Chase has started converting IHG Visa Credit Cards into IHG MasterCard Credit Cards (see pics below).

Lounge Club Logo

Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard, 2 New AMEX Offers, Bluebird Reloads at Walmart, and More

TGI Friday!  Here are some random travel-related news from today…

I just created a tutorial about how to sign up for a free Lounge Club membership if you have a Chase Ink Bold/Plus Credit Card.  You can read it here.

Lounge Club Card

I got this letter from Chase alerting me that my Chase IHG Rewards Club Visa will soon be replaced by a Chase IHG Rewards Club World MasterCard.  Technically, if you cancel the Visa card, you can sign up and receive the sign up bonus on the MasterCard.  It appears that you have to close your Visa before April 1, otherwise you will automatically be issued the MasterCard and miss out on getting another sign up bonus.

Here is the corresponding FlyerTalk thread (link).

New IHG Card Letter Front

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Updated Bluebird Posts (VRC Loading, Bill Pay, and Bank Transfers)

BB Bluebird Changes

Updated Bluebird Posts (VRC Loading, Bill Pay, and Bank Transfers)

Just a heads up, Bluebird has been updating their website, so some of the steps required to use Bluebird have changed (slightly).  Mainly just graphical changes, but I wanted to let you all know that I updated the steps for the following Bluebird posts:

 

 

If I missed anything, please let me know and I will update those pages ASAP.  Have a great weekend!