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Exactly 9 weeks ago, Amex lowered the boom on many Bluebird and Serve cardholders. While they didn’t outright shut down accounts, they did bar them from loading new funds. Most people with frozen accounts had been using the cards to indirectly increase credit card spend. The basic process involved buying Visa or MasterCard gift cards with credit cards and then using those gift cards as debit cards in-store to reload Bluebird or Serve. Then, the Bluebird or Serve account was used to pay bills that can’t usually be paid by credit card (e.g. mortgage, rent, or even credit card bills).
Some people had their accounts frozen even though they weren’t using the card to increase spend. The one common denominator I could find was that most people who were shut down did not use the cards often in place of a credit card for regular purchases. Merchant fees earned by Amex on purchases are the primary way that Amex makes money on these cards, so they appear to simply be eliminating unprofitable customers.
Wave 2 (9 weeks after wave 1)
Today, March 4 2016, reports are coming in from email, Twitter, and elsewhere that Amex has sent out email notifications again. The subject heading is “Termination Of Funds Loading Capabilities on Your Bluebird® [or Serve] Account.”
As before, the emails state that “…we have observed unusual usage patterns on your Bluebird [or Serve] Account. Because of this, effective immediately, you will no longer be able to add money to your Account.”
Check your Spam folder
With the last set of account freezes, many people reported that their accounts could no longer be loaded even though they didn’t receive an email. It’s possible that Amex messed up and didn’t send some of the emails. We do know, though, that many of these emails were flagged as spam and hidden away. Check your spam folder.
A pattern?
Wave 1 occurred on Friday January 8th. Wave 2 occurred on Friday, March 4th. It’s too early to know for certain if there’s a pattern here, but I see two likely possibilities (assuming there is a pattern):
- Amex is sweeping through accounts once very 9 weeks; or
- Amex is sweeping through accounts every two months, on the first Friday of the month which is not a holiday.
If either of these patterns is right, May 6 will mark the next Birdpocalypse. After that, the 9 week pattern brings us to July 8 whereas the every 2 month rule brings us to July 1. Time will tell.
See also
- Amex kills Bluebird and Serve for many
- Your Serve or Bluebird is still alive. Now what?
- Bluebird Serve Birdpocalypse: How to liquidate remaining gift cards
- Connecting the Dots (finding alternatives to Bluebird / Serve)
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[…] everyone knows by now, last Friday the proverbial “second coming” occurred when Amex shut down another large swath of Bluebird and Serve accounts for “unusual usage patterns” (which translates to “we’re losing an […]
I need to do a direct deposit to Santander Bank, from what I read, Serve is eligible to do a Direct Deposit (I guess by withdrawing funds to my Sanatander Bank). The problem is my Serve account was ‘shut down’ so I can’t add funds to it. I tried depositing a check through the Serve app, but it was rejected. Is there any way I can add funds to my Serve account, so that I can withdraw it to my Santander account to get a bonus?
Thanks.
I don’t know of any way to get funds on it. Doctor of Credit lists some other options for you to get direct deposit to Santander:
http://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/#Santander_Bank
[…] That left me with one Serve card left. After those 2 shutdowns (January 8th and March 4th), Frequent Miler proposed two possible patterns […]
[…] This is the 3rd wave of Bluebird and Serve freezes. The first came on January 8th 2016 (see: Amex kills Bluebird and Serve for many). The second came exactly 9 weeks later, on March 4th (see: Amex lowers the boom on Bluebird and Serve again). […]
Sorry for cross posting here and on FT. Need some advice: So I signed up for BB on 2/25 (online) activated it on 3/2, and have loaded the full $5k through MCGCs – all at registers since my seemingly working KATE won’t let me load. Fully realizing that no one really knows for sure what the best path forward is, do you have any advice on whether I should clear the balance and close BB account before the end of the month and try re-signing up in April or May? What would you do in my shoes?
Personally, I would hope for a 2 month cycle. I would do another $5K in early April and then close the card. Wait until the next round of shut downs in May (if they happen) then open a new account.
[…] everyone knows by now, last Friday the proverbial “second coming” occurred when Amex shut down another large swath of Bluebird and Serve accounts for “unusual usage patterns” (which translates to “we’re losing an […]
My wife and I both had our Bluebird cards closed in the first wave. We maxed those out for $5k every month with gift cards. I got a Serve 1VIP card later in January and it’s still alive. I’ve only done online debit card loads so far ($1k per month), and haven’t withdrawn any funds.
My husband and I have both Serve and Bluebird accounts were not shutting by both Wave 1 and Wave 2. However, i was not able to load gift card to both accounts today at Walmart. I believe AMEX was able to track the loading method as if you’re using a gift card instead of debit. 🙁
My bet is that your cards were frozen from new loads in wave 2 but you didn’t get emails. That seems to be fairly common.
That is exactly what happened on my 1 of 2 cards. No email and no ability to load. AMEX communicated telepathically. It gave me a cold headache.
[…] Amex’s second wave attack on Bluebird and Serve cardholders, it may seem strange for me to write about options for buying Visa gift cards. After all, […]
Card got shut down in Jan and was unable to reapply after 30 days. SSN was surely blocked by Amex.
I received the 3/4 shutdown notice. I opened my account summer of 2014, and I have even been swiping the card a few times lately as well to see if that would help (on top of all the other survival strategies). On to the next method…
Yesterday and today one of two cards loaded and one rejected. Received no emails and even after logging in saw no sign of shutdown. Moral of story. Damn sure better do your loads before first Friday of the month. Sorta like getting chemotherapy in that you know you are going to die and it’s just a question of when. The sick and twisted lives of MS.
All five BB were shut down. Can we wait a few and get the Serve?
Got my vip shut down in this wave. Seems my wife’s classic serve survived. I did 2-3k per month on the cop in the months following the first wave. No loads on the classic.
I am trying to find an explanation to AMEX madness. Why would it matter to them how we load money into account? They are profiting of our money deposits be it a day, a week, or longer money remain in the accounts. I had a minimum of $2K in the account for months before shot down. If you calculate daily interest on all of the cash we put thought AMEX it would be significant profit.
Just my $0.02