Bluebird takes flight and changes the game

@bf, no. I have reloaded only 1,000 so far. My balance is $1,000.

Good point. Possible British Airways “Travel together” voucher…

I ordered the Bluebird online, received an email that I should call in to verify my identity, but I can’t get through! Anyone else having this problem?

Steven Lu: No. I tried, but it didn’t work

@Brent post 107-
I had this same error, but it cleared up when I entered the 9 digit zip code for payments (leave out the dash). Still nervous to try it, gonna make sure I use that memo field.

Does your credit card company charge you a fee for cash advance for loading money onto bluebird?

Not sure where else they are being advertised but Bluebird ads are all over CNN. I would think that’s not their target market. They are probably advertising on the reality shows, no doubt !

Chase is losing money with our Inks; Bluebird is losing money with us, but we are the most inexpensive way for them to advertise their brands.
Chase also wants the business market from Amex. With the Plus being a credit card, my guess is that many people (not us ! – LOL) will end up carrying a balance.
The frequent flyer blogosphere also has been great marketing for the Bluebird. For every one of us, there are many that will hear about it from us and use it in a profitable way for Amex/Walmart. Also, a lot of us have visited a Walmart this week. I know I did and I ended up buying a scooter for a grandson that I was going to buy at Toys R Us (with a giftcard I was going to get at Staples for 5X). Also got Halloween stuff and got a glimpse of the new Walmart food store. Pretty impressive.

Instead of looking at ourselves as Chase/Amex/Bluebird leeches, we should see ourselves as free marketers for these products.
Most of your readers are savvy, but many who hear about these deals through the blogs and blog readers will use them as the companies’ intended.

Off to New Zealand next month and was looking for a way to avoid a fee for cash withdrawal at ATMs. Thanks for that suggestion.

does no forex fee mean that i can write a check in another currency for free? i live in canada, where atms are never free with a non-bank card, but i’d love to pay my rent this way with the check method.

Here is a tidbit of interesting information. I discovered today that American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit cards earn 6% cash rebate at Wal-mart NEIGHBORHOOD grocery stores. This type of Wal-mart is different from the big-box discount department store locations and Sam’s. So if you have this type of store in your vacinity, purchase your Wal-mart gift cards there and then use them to purchase bird feeder packs if you think that might be a beneficial way of loading up your Bluebird account.

Good to see that FM and Million Mile Secrets both were able to load up permanent cards today! I think I ordered one day behind you guys, so expecting to have mine tomorrow and do the same! Woohoo!

Just loaded my bluebird with Vanilla Reload cards as well. No issues at all.

My permanent Bluebird came today and I loaded it with a Vanilla Reload card. No problem!

Jason: I have a feeling AMEX would prefer to have an account with a balance of several thousand dollars loaded electronically over an account that gets a few hundred in cash loaded at Walmart every couple weeks. In fact it will be folks that carry larger balances that in effect subsidize smaller accounts. If low income people needed to OD on ice cream to stay alive, you might have a point!

Sil: So…. a CSR told you that you couldn’t load Vanilla onto Bluebird, but you haven’t actually tried loading onto the actual Bluebird card, correct?

Hope that there is a way to do this besides ice cream in the end too. I’m in an area that has them in stock usually, but I’d like to have another method than that for when those go away.

@FM: I just loaded 2.5K of ice cream (that I could get only because I happened to travel to an OD infested area) to my new AX prepaid for the first time. I have almost zero chance of getting more ice cream in the near future because they are not around in Phx. I need to drain the prepaid somehow back to my bank. What is the best way to do it? I do not have Serve. DW does. If I get BB, can I load it with this prepaid and then send a bill pay to DW/friend who will revert back? Also, would you suggest keeping the prepaid around if I cannot easily buy ice cream with my ink?

I spoke directly with BB Customer Service today and they were adamant about the fact that Vanilla Reload was a viable source for funding the Blue Bird.

I hope this isn’t true but I had an interesting discussion with the manager at the Framingham, MA Office Depot yesterday. I went in to do my monthly Vanilla Reload purchase and as I stared blankly at the gift card display wondering where they were he came over and asked if I needed help. I asked about the cards and he said they were out and sell out quickly. I’ve never had an issue before, so I was either lucky or they’ve had an increase in sales. He then proceeded to tell me people have been buying them to do “something” with credit card points, but he wasn’t exactly sure what, and that the credit card company would soon be putting a stop to it. Apparently this particular location receive lots of calls from Chase regarding the purchase of these cards. It sounded like Chase was trying to put some blame on OD for people taking advantage of these cards, but the manager said he told Chase as long as the shopper has a valid credit card, and ID he’s not going to stop them from buying a product in his store. Chase then indicated this is loophole, and they are actively working to close it. I hope it takes them awhile to do this but in the meantime grab the cards if you see them!

Spoke with an AMEX rep this morning at length and he said that at this time you can not load a walmart giftcard onto the bluebird directly. You could however (supposedly) use the walmart giftcard to purchase the re-load packs in a Walmart but this would seem to be not profitable because of the fees/small amounts.

Thanks, FM!
I would do the experiment myself but I’m holding off on getting a BB until a profitable way to fund it is identified, other than vanillas, because any strategy that is reliant on OD continuing to sell vanillas on CCs is short-lived in my opinion.

@B-Rad — many have tried, most have gotten away with it for a few months, almost all had their accounts shut down. Stay away from any card marketed by Netspend / PayPal. Or, get it, load it up with $5k+ worth, buy money orders to clear it out and shred it once they close your account.

After reading all the posts above, I think I have an experiment that may work (the post may be lengthy, but worth it) for those of us who don’t have the Ink Bold, Plus, etc.

I have an amex blue cash preferred card and buy lots of gc’s at my local safeway (grocery store) to maximize the 6% back, plus 2x fuel rewards. Because my office depot doesn’t have vanilla reloads, I starting looking at other places that vanila reloads are sold near me. There aren’t any within 20 miles, so I began to look at vanilla reload’s website and affiliates (mio, momentum, netspend, etc.) After looking at the mio and momentum locations near me, these seemed to be very inconvient (20+ miles to drive to), so I moved on to netspend. When I looked at these locations, I found that they actually carry Netspend prepaid cards at my local safeway (and many other nearby locations). It seems that Netspend works just like the bluebird. For example, you register online for the card, they send it to you, you go to safeway and buy a $500 reload pack for ~$5 and you reload your card that way. (I’m not sure if there are daily reload limits, fees, etc. because when I tried to call, I needed to have a card in hand to get to next level of options). Once the card is in hand, could it be loaded with these reload packs? I don’t see why not, but can’t confirm until I talk to a rep / get the card) Netspend is a visa / mastercard, so that could be helpful as well. Interesting note, when I was at my safeway, there were reload packs that could reload $20-1000 dollars, but said purchase with cash only. There were other temporary reload packs that would load $20-500 for a fee of ~$5, which could potentially be continuously loaded to pay all bills while earning ~5% on nearly all spending since the netspend is a debit card.

I hope I’m making sense. Has anyone else tried this before with a blue cash preffered? With netspend? Can netspend be reloaded with the reloads at the grocery stores? Can you buy these with reloads with a credit card?

I’m trying to come up with an alternative to ink bold for those of us who don’t / can’t have one or office depot is not an option.

Keep us posted if you have any info about this or have tried it out.

Never mind – found the information in the FAQ’s:
“Visit http://www.VanillaReload.com or call 1-877-429-8140 to transfer your money from the Vanilla Reload Pack to your Bluebird Account. You will need to have both your Bluebird Card number and the Vanilla Reload PIN from the Network Card handy”

@Mike – can you use gc to buy gc from plastic jungle? Never tried that, there site says “credit card or paypal.”
But if so you can buy an amex gc through bigcrumbs for 1.4% (there could be some shipping/purchase fees under $10 but on a $1k gc you are getting $14 from bc) and then use the amex card to buy the walmart card from pj through tcb (which is 2.5% btw not 4%).
Just adding a layer! lol

I am finding it difficult to believe that a direct CC reload at a Walmart register will be processed as a purchase, not a cash advance, if it is allowed in the first place (we’ll see). That said, I don’t see why Vanilla reload purchases and billpay to your credit card will raise flags. If you (could) charge a reload to a CC and pay that CC off from billpay, that might look interesting to the CC company, but even that is a stretch. The CC company still gets merchant fees and should be happy.

Also, Amex FR has to do with debt and your ability to repay. I’ve had one. I don’t think anyone will get a FR over BB. I believe it is in their CC terms, but not in BB’s.

Seems just like a bank account to me, and Amex is probably getting a cut of of the $3.95 Vanilla reload fee, merchant fees for purchases, interest on existing balances, other fees, and of course revenue from the inevitable unused and abandoned balances. Just because some people hit the jackpot, it doesn’t mean the casino is unprofitable.

I’m not advocating people go crazy with this, just don’t be afraid of the boogeyman under your bed.

I’m also not seeing the benefits here for those unable/unwilling to go all-in with Vanilla. Not only do you risk being cancelled by Chase but also Bluebird. Amex isn’t generally a company that’s going to allow such shenanigans…I bet we’ll be seeing a ton more of the dreaded “FR” coming up. Amex has excellent safeguards in place to prevent this type of churning..for instance they just capped the Preferred Blue Cash 6% at grocery stores to $6K/year for those who were buying $500 prepaids at Kroger and other grocers.

This product is designed for poor/undocumented people unable to bank normally like the rest of us do. They aren’t going to allow thousands of people to effectively load it up with CC’s and cash out via checks. Is it worth getting blacklisted by Amex in addition to Chase??? I predict the “gamer” effect will be too large to remain sustainable just like I predict the Vanilla reload game will go for the same reason. Not very many people buy $500 prepaid cards, so I’m willing to be that that well over 50% of the Vanilla reloads at a national level are being purchased at OD using a Chase 5X card. No way it hasn’t been noticed.

@k20:

Could you tell us what gas station you see vanilla reload?

I’ve had a different experience with Vanilla reloads at OD. There are two OD’s within ~10 miles of my house. The closer OD has been out of VN reloads for the past 2-3 weeks, so I’ve driven to the further OD to pick them up. However, stopped by the closer OD today and they are back in stock (40+ reload cards on the rack, next to the Amex Prepaid cards). Promising sign, as it was looking like the OD would stop carrying them. Each store is obviously different, so YMMV.

@ James, if you need an interpreter for MM’s WM post, then you probably don’t have anything to worry about. 😉 to MM.

I didn’t see this in your post nor did I see it at Amex/BB FAQ page: Once you sign up the card will be sent to you in the mail. I thought the card you got from Walmart was your permanent card but that’s only a temporary card. Just sit tight once you sign up and they’ll be sending you a card in 10 business days.

I wasn’t sure about this so now I went and wasted $5 I didn’t need to; hopefully this will stop someone else from doing that.

Sorry guys, but there’s going to be absolutely no chance that Walmart will allow reload by CC. It’s just reality.

Vanilla Reload at OD seems to be the best bet, however it looks like that’s on the way out as well with OD ceasing to carry the product anymore.

A major limitation is the difficulty in finding Vanilla Reload Network cards at OD. I found one card at a distant OD today, but when the store searched all the nearby stores for inventory, the result was zero. I guess the big Q is whether Walmart will accept CCs as a form of payment to load BB cards.

I just checked my county’s property tax website. They only take Visa debit, which basically excludes using BB for this purpose for me. I just registered my Prepaid AMEX today, I think I’ll use that.

I second ElTurk views. Unless Walmart accepts the use of mileage cards, we are stuck with vanilla reloads from OD.

@ElTurk,This can help you with min spend on new CC’s, you can also spend you way to status.

Dan – Fed requirement to combat laundering

FAQ and T&C both say $5k/mo limit on the Cash Funding category includes Vanilla and swipe reloads at register combined. Given 1) too expensive to at 2% fee to do debit load of $1k/mo and 2) other loads do not earn pts
it seems to me this is effectively limited to $5k/mo max load.
Love to know if anyone sees anything I am missing in this?

Couldn’t wait. Went to Walmart and picked one up at lunch today. Tried to load with AMEX, no dice, VISA, no dice. First tried at a register, then at customer service. Wound up parting with a $10 bill and netting a whopping $5 balance. Time to go ice cream shopping.

Possibly after registration, re-loading will work with a CC? I’ll find out in the next day or two.

This makes me think we are going to Ink ourselves right out of the points and mile game? However, I’m in but slowly.

Thanks again FM. (I met you very briefly at the Seminars by the way). If I understand this all correctly, I can buy Visa debit cards from anywhere using any card and meet minimum spend (and earn some points) for only a $4.95 fee (roughly 1% of a $500 card), and then load them onto a Bluebird at Walmart and pay my mortgage (just for example) through Bluebird’s bill pay service. This is in addition, of course, to trying to get 5X at OD.

Can we slow down a bit for old folks like me? I just want to see if I follow.
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I assume the value of this card is that you can earn parts when you “charge it up” with money, then use that money for non-points-earning activities like paying using the cards send-a-check functionality.
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So that means the card is only valuable to the extent you earn points when charging it up. It sounds like the real value there is figuring out how to earn 5X points during the charging process. That is done by using the Ink Bold card in combination with in-store purchases of reload cards (Vanilla Reload) on which you will earn 5 points per dollar value of the card, less whatever the fee for purchasing the card is. Correct?
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Otherwise, the best one can do (which is still okay) is one point per dollar added to the bluebird card, but only assuming you can figure a way to charge it from your points-earning credit card, and not a debit card or cash. Correct?
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This would work great for me if I can use it to send checks for tax payments since I’m self-employed and therefore send the government tens of thousands of dollars a year instead of having it withheld. But the secret is finding some way to charge the card at 5X (or, anyway, better than 1x if possible).

Just a note here. This card is designed to compete directly with normal bank checking accounts. Therefore, it is possible that the large rent/mortgage/tax payments won’t raise a red flags. We will have to sit back and see how it unfolds.