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Developing story…
Earlier this month, there was panic about Serve apparently charging cash advance fees for online credit card loads. It turned out to be a false alarm. See: Serve is safe.
Now, though, there is some evidence that US Bank is charging cash advance fees. Here are recent reader comments:
Just an FYI – I am new to all this so I might be missing something, but I used my and my boyfriend’s Club Carlson cards (USBank) to load $1000 each in the last 2 weeks on our individual Serve accounts. Showed up as normal purchase both in pending and when actually posted, but when statement came out on each card there was a $10 “cash equivalent fee”. This equates to a 1% fee on money transferred to serve.
I just got the same $10 fee on my club carlson card. Will call to ask about it.
And then Anthony writes again:
So I just called. The woman ( who knew exactly what Serve was ) told me it must have been a glitch in the system that my Serve loads were coming up as purchases and that I got lucky up until my last one. Held firm they were advances and not purchases. Looks like i’ll be staying away from that card for a while when it comes to loading serve.
Serve is NO LONGER SAFE at least at US Bank as of October 9!! Loaded $200 to Serve with Club Carlson Visa on 10/3 – posted as purchase on 10/6. Loaded $300 to Serve with Club Carlson Visa on 10/9 – posted as CASH ADVANCE on 10/10- $12 CA fee and no reward points! Also, the MCC codes were different, 7278 on the first one, 6051 on the second!
So, unless this is an elaborate prank, I’d recommend against using US Bank credit cards to load Serve online.
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Interesting indeed. I loaded Serve with USB CC card most recently on 10/8, posted as purchase. I tried loading several times on 10/9 and more recent, but Serve said all those were rejected. I guess the CA must be set as 0.
I had been using US Bank Visa Buxx to do debit card loads to Serve for September and had started to load again in October. Only loaded 2 times in Oct. before Serve started to deny debit loads. Serve and US Bank both pointed fingers at the other. US Bank says Serve is treating debit loads as cash advances. Serve claims that they didn’t change anything, that it is US Bank that made the change. As Serve is trying to pull money as a cash advance and it went through as debit in Sept, I believe AMEX changed their process and lied when called out and asked if they had changed. I’d place the blame with AMEX. So now I have to find a new debit card to work with Serve.
I’ve had trouble with debit loads to Serve lately too. I don’t know if it is related to the credit card cash advance issues, but it does seem to have happened at around the same time. I’m hoping that Amex will find an overall fix to both issues.
Oct. 1 statement has “NO” cash advance or other fees for Serve loads or any other MS loads for my Wife or myself. As of 10/11/14, “None” of this months Serve loads have any cash advance or fees for either of us. We’ll see what happens @ the end of the month when we get our statement.
Ink Bold now totally does not allow Serve loads. It was precisely because of that block from Ink Bold that made me switch over to Carlson, and now I’m faced with a $40 fee for the four Serve loads.
Seems like a great reason to switch over to the new RedCard from Target since it also allows online bill pay.
[…] Serve no longer safe with US Bank? […]
According to flyertalk the cash advance fees started 10/8 or 10/9 and have been noted with many different cards. It seems Amex changed their coding?
Loaded on US Club Carlson on 10/4 and 10/7 and received points and no Cash advance but the one for 10/9/14 $500 load shows Cash Advance of $20
Used club carlson to load serve, loaded just fine in last 2 weeks and received points as well.
I just checked mine, and it looked fine, including a load on 10/8. Just a data point. I might wait until this sorts out a bit more.
I had set my Chase in cash limit to zero about three weeks ago and well the first serve load worked in that time period, the one that was scheduled to go through today didn’t do so successfully
Loaded Serve with my Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card earlier this week and was also charged a cash advance fee. I sent Citi a secure message and they agreed to waive the cash advance fee this time as a courtesy. Not going to load with that card anymore!
[…] Serve no longer safe with US Bank? […]