October 23, 2012
Last week, in the post “Bluebird takes flight and changes the game,” I described a new prepaid card from American Express that has some terrific features both for people looking for a no-cost checking alternative, and for points & mile collectors.
Just like the older American Express Prepaid cards that I wrote about in “One card to rule them all,” the Bluebird card can be reloaded with Vanilla Reload cards. This is important because some stores allow Vanilla Reload cards to be bought with credit cards. In other words, it is possible to get points and miles from loading Bluebird. Once loaded, Bluebird can be used like a credit card, or as an ATM card for cash withdrawals, or to pay bills, or to send money to friends.
Bluebird arrives
I ordered my Bluebird card last week (Tuesday) and it arrived yesterday (Monday). With my Bluebird in-hand I was able to run experiments. Some of the experiments were doable from home, but for the others I rushed out to a couple of Walmart stores in the area….
Load via Vanilla: Some people questioned whether Bluebird could really be loaded with Vanilla Reload cards. In fact, some American Express reps even told customers that they could not be used that way. However, online documentation was clear that Vanilla Reload cards could be used. So, the first thing I did after activating my card was to load $500 from a Vanilla Reload card to my Bluebird. No problem. Result: SUCCESS
Load via credit card in-store: The online documentation makes it clear that in-store reloads (“swipe reloads”) require cash or debit card, but an American Express rep I talked with said that “some stores” allow credit cards. I tried at a register in one store, and at a reload ATM in another store. No luck. Result: FAIL
Load via gift card in-store: I didn’t think this had much chance of working, but I had a Walmart gift card sitting around, so it was worth a try. At a register in one store, and at a reload ATM in another store, I tried to reload Bluebird with a Walmart gift card. No luck. Result: FAIL
Load via bank gift card: I thought this one had a chance of working since online documentation said that debit cards could be used for swipe reloads. I brought along two Visa gift cards, both with the word “debit” in the bottom corner. I tried one at a register in the first store and the other at a reload ATM in the second store. No dice. The register told me to select “credit” and then rejected the whole idea. The ATM machine asked for my PIN. I tried 0000, but the machine ultimately told me (in a distressingly loud voice) “card not accepted.” Result: FAIL
Load via true debit card in-store: I fully expected a debit load to work, but since I was at the register anyway, I tried it just to be sure. Using a real debit card (my Mio, actually), I successfully loaded $200 to my Bluebird. The good news is that neither Walmart nor Amex charges a fee for this. So, for people with mile earning debit cards (e.g. Suntrust Delta card, BOA Alaska Airlines card, UFB Direct Airline Rewards checking) this might be a great alternative to buying Money Orders. Since I don’t yet have any of those cards, I’ll have to rely on readers to try this out and let me know if miles are earned when loading Bluebird. Result: SUCCESS
Manage card with Mint.com: One great thing about the older Amex Prepaid cards is that it is possible to monitor your account(s) via Mint.com. I tried to add my Bluebird to my Mint account, but it didn’t work. Hopefully Mint.com will fix this soon. Result: FAIL
Manage card with iPhone App: I installed the Bluebird by American Express app. It’s very easy to use; it allows you to pay bills; send and receive money from others; deposit money via check, bank account, or debit card; and view your transactions and balance. I was happy to find that the app existed and that it seemed to work, at least for the basic functions I tried. Result: SUCCESS
Next Up
There are still many things yet to be discovered about Bluebird:
- Do points-earning debit cards earn points when loading Bluebird at the register?
- Where, besides Office Depot, can people buy Vanilla Reload cards using a credit card?
- What about Bluebird Feeder Packs – will we be able to buy those with a credit card? Where can we buy them?
- Can we make debit payments with Bluebird (to pay taxes, for example)?
- Do transfers from PayPal or Amazon Payments count as direct deposits for free ATM use?
Have you tried Bluebird yet? Have you learned anything worth sharing? Comment below.
Related Posts and Links
- Bluebird takes flight and changes the game
- One card to rule them all
- Bluebird membership agreement
- Bluebird FAQs
- VanillaReload web site
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FM, thanks for the post! If using debit card in store to load your BB, what is the limit for transaction and what is the fee?
Sergey: no fee to load via debit at Walmart. Limits: $1k per day, $5k per month
This is great for those who can get the vanilla reloads. For now I am stuck with the visa gift cards. Going to check out a couple of other Office Depots today.
Thank you for your efforts, FM!
Can a person own more than one of these? ie – the blue ax from Office Depot?
How can you add a prepaid AMEX to Mint? I’ve been wanting to do this, but all I find when I search for that type of account is “American Express Credit Card” and that just links to my normal credit account with AMEX.
bluebird has taken flight! i just received card in mail, loaded it with $1000 from vanillas bought from OD and paid my rent through the bill pay section! score! will load 1000 per day until full ($5000). one great difference between bluebird and older amex prepaid is that with the older amex prepaid you had to wait 30 ACTUAL days to refill to the max $2500, for example. fill up to max, today oct 23 and you couldn’t fill up again to the max until Nov 23. with bluebird i can fill up to $5000 by oct 31 (then spend that money) and refill up to $5000 the next day!! on Nov 1st ! awesome…
what is the fee for ATM withdrawal of BB? How much per transaction? What about the PIN?
What I am most interested in is finding out more about the bill pay feature and using it to pay things that normally can only be paid by check(at least without fee) such as utilities or even better health insurance.
FM, is there a fee for the vanilla reload card?
MileageUpdate: I believe that each person can only own one Bluebird account. That account can hold “sub-accounts” for family members, but that doesn’t change the overall limits to the account. The same person can also have up to three Amex Prepaid cards.
Dave: You can add Prepaid Amex cards to Mint by searching for “American Express” and selecting American Express Gift Card
FM-Great post many thanks! This card might be one step closer to the Perpetual Points Machine you’ve written about in the past. Use Chase Ink or Plus at OD to buy Vanilla – Load Vanilla onto Bluebird – pay Chase bill with Bluebird funds- rinse/repeat.
Sil: If you go to a MoneyPass ATM then there is no ATM owner fee. If you also have direct deposit setup, then there is no Amex fee. Otherwise Amex charges $2 per withdrawal after Nov 4th
Dan: The bill pay features appears to be very simple and straightforward. There is a list of billers that you can pick from. If yours isn’t there, then you can add a new one and they will be paid by check
Don T: Vanilla Reload cards cost $3.95 each and can be loaded up to $500 each.
This is not going to last very long. Cardinal Fang has gotten wind of this scheme and is gearing up for a Spanish inquisition. Be warned.
I thought it was a $10K limit…awesome news about the debit card!!!
Does anyone see anything about direct deposit minimums? For example, if I do a $5 DD from my employer, will that satisfy the DD requirement?
for paying property tax, what do your type in for the “nickname for Payee”. Also is the account number the Parcel number. I don’t see the account number anywhere.
Looks like BB allows to move money to checking/saving accounts. If that’s true, why bother to use BB to pay bills? The billpay service also appears to have trouble taking account numbers!! bummer!!
18, really???…thats’ pretty amazing too
@FM, what do you think of this aspect of Bluebird? Similar to ATM i guess… http://i50.tinypic.com/123slki.png
I did a few $1 test bill payments to Chase, Citi, AMEX, and Paypal so I’ll see how those go.
Fantastic news! Great post, FM.
FM-The Bluebird website says debit card transactions are limited to $100/day, $1000 in aggregate per month. Also, Vanilla reloads are limited to $1000/day, $5000/month.
I added bluebird as a new ‘checking’ account in both Paypal and Amazon payments, and they both issued two small amount into bluebird to verify the account. Then I got emails titled ‘Direct Deposit Load Complete’ for both. And in the transaction page on bluebird website, they show as ‘$0.** Direct Deposit funding’.
Responding to your fourth question: Why would you need to use the BB debit to pay taxes? Can’t you just use BB and send the government a check?
And thanks again for all this info!!!
DRSP: I haven’t seen anything about direct deposit minimums either. I think we’ll learn from trial and error. My guess is that any direct depost will qualify no matter how small. Just keep in mind that you have to have a direct deposit within 30 days prior to your ATM use so setting up a regular $5 deposit might make sense.
Sil: The nickname is whatever you want. It will show up in your list of available payees. The recipient won’t see that name. For the account number, put in whatever is needed by the biller. In your case, yes, parcel number probably makes sense if that’s how your county tracks tax payments.
Talon: that’s true that you can simply move money directly to another bank account, but you need to be careful. Amex is likely to shut people down if all they do is load it up and immediately withdraw all the cash. It will look like money laundering, plus it won’t be at all profitable for Amex. Amex would like for you to keep a balance and for you to use the card for credit transactions. As much as possible, I recommend keeping Amex happy so that they’ll keep supporting awesome products like this one.
Ryan from MA, Grant: see my answer to Talon.
Josh: There are two ways to load Bluebird with a debit card, one is online and one is in the store. Online, you are correct that you are limited to $100 per day, $1000 per month. They also charge a $2 fee per load. In-store, you are limited to $1000 per day, $5000 per month and there is no fee.
Arc: Good to know!
JetsFan: I’d be nervous about having Bluebird send a tax payment to the IRS on my behalf via check without having accompanying documentation of what the check is for. Since sites like PayTaxUSA charge only $3.49 per debit transaction this could be a decent alternative if Bluebird can be used that way.
If we want to keep Chase (or any credit card issuer) happy in general, do they prefer we make one $500 purchase or fifty $10 purchases? Which of those earns them more commission from the merchants, or does it not matter?
Responding back on my tax question and other uses for billpay. Is a possible step having a check made payable to a vendor, but mailed to yourself? This might enable you to address the documentation issue by re-mailing the check to the merchant. I admit that I have not received the card yet, and have not tested BBs billpay capabilities.
to meet a new spend on a credit card how can I load BB without using vanilla
Jack L: I don’t think it matters for credit transactions although some individual vendors pay a per transaction fee on top of a % so they would be unhappy with many small transactions.
JetsFan: That would look very suspicious to Amex. Next year BB is supposed to have checks available for you to write yourself. Wait until then to send checks to the IRS
ck: It doesn’t look like there are any good options besides Vanilla. There’s a small chance that once Feeder packs become available we’ll be able to pay with credit cards (but there’s evidence to suggest otherwise).
Hey everyone: don’t forget to add your Bluebird card to your RewardsNetwork dining program so that you’ll get even more points when eating out!
Is there an added benefit to doing direct deposit on the BB? I’m not sure why people are asking about this. Do you suppose it makes AMEX less suspicious?
Dave: By establishing direct deposit once a month you get free ATM use at MoneyPass ATMs
What is the best (and least expensive) way to move the balance from Amex Prepaid to the bluebird?
@kc: I am in the same situation as you, no vanilla reloads here too. May I ask you how do you cash out Vanilla gift cards? TIA!
I signed up for two BB accounts using my same name and SSN. Rec’d em both. So far, only activated one, but if they were sending me a second card, with an entirely different number, can’t see why two (or more) cards won’t work. But then again, one has to suspect that activating two cards using same SSN would raise a few eyebrows inside their compliance office…
Is the 5K/month Vanilla/DC load limit per CALENDAR month, like the PP, or 30 day cycle?
So basically to take advantage of this card depends on either a) being able to buy Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot with a CC, or b) having a miles earning debit card?
Does anyone know if bill pay has an auto-pay or schedule feature to pay some recurring bills automatically, like mortgage?
Also, is too much bill pay activity a negative to AMEX or are they earning trans fees for these?
Thanks
I don’t have a Chase Ink credit card. As such, is there a way for me to get 5% or 5 points off the Vanilla Reload card? Otherwise, I don’t see the benefit of getting the Bluebird since I don’t make any payments that a credit card can’t handle.
The billpay feature of this card is simply amazing. I do not believe that Amex will let this loophole live for long though.
What qualifies as a direct deposit for BB? I am self employed.
Keep cool my babies! This is nothing revolutionary, and has already been done (by me for example) with some other pre-paid cards, like Netspend. If you don’t use this carefully you will get shut down. Don’t even think about paying your CC bill with this bill payment feature…tried, worked, shut down by NS. It’s just too obvious.
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One question for Frequent Miler, have you tried doing a PIN debit transaction at the register? This is where the true laundering capabilities lie.
I bought the bean with a cc today at a corner store where you can also get a flu shot. I bought a couple other items with it.
The last thing I want is to start a flame war. I just want to respectfully ask AlohaDaveKennedy to stop posting the Cardinal-Fang-be-afraid posts on so many posts and threads on numberous sites that offer great potential earnings such as this — but may eventually be shut down due to perks abuse or for other capricious reasons. If Chase puts a stop to this, Chase puts a stop to this. But what point do the sky-will-soon-fall sentiments serve? In the meantime, I’m all for fellow miles/points collectors weighing the risk/reward proposition on every offer, and then making a sensible decision on how to proceed.
Instead of paying by check to utility companies,they usually offer free ACH from your checking/savings account. I’m wondering, if BB can be used for this? If I have routing/account numbers for direct deposit, then I can use them for ACH, right? Or money can only “go in” to BB, not out?
pas: I think your best bet is to find the cheapest ATM machine you can and withdraw the money (over time) from your prepaid card in order to move it to the Bluebird
Ron: Very interesting! Maybe you can have more than one after all…
Preacher: The limits are per calendar month according to the T&C
Mattolo: Yes
Gary: I don’t see an option to make recurring payments but you might be able to setup your mortgage to pull from Bluebird (don’t know for sure yet). I don’t think Amex would mind a lot of bill pay activity. It is a feature they advertise and so it would just show that you are an engaged customer
@pas , @frequentmiler : the other option which I am using is , funding my amazon payment account with amex prepaid and transferring them to BB .
cost = 0 dollars
Ron: At this point it is unclear. some people plan to try simply moving money into Bluebird from Amazon Payments, PayPal, bank accounts, etc.
frequent churner: No, I haven’t tried doing a PIN debit transaction. With the bill pay feature available and even the ability to move money directly to a bank account I don’t see any situation where a PIN transaction makes sense except maybe to pay taxes online.
Cd: Great! Any chance you’re willing to give more details?
Sergey: Since Amex’s goal is to compete with checking accounts it seems like they should allow ACH withdrawals, but I don’t know yet if they do.
amod: Yes, good point. Using Amazon Payments to move money out of the old prepaid cards is a great way to go.
FM, thanks! If ACH withdrawals works, then paying property taxes would be very easy – in our count ACH payment is free (CC/debit card payment is not).
[...] fees! However, make sure to read the Caution section at the bottom of his post. You can also read The Frequent Miler’s post about it as [...]
Absolutely terrible customer service! Even though I have 2 AMEX credit cards and my (very old) cell phone is registered on those accounts, the rep told me that “the 3rd party company we use to verify phone numbers is unable to validate your phone number”. I was told that there is no recourse – I am just SOOL!
@FrequentMiler — it makes sense because transferring money directly to banks from the BB will look suspicious. If you’re happy with just regular purchases and bill payments, that’s fine, but if you want to buy a few grand of money orders every month, you need a PIN #. I get them at an obscure local grocery store with a pharmacy…makes for a good cover story.
@FM – It doesn’t look like you’ve tested loading via Visa Vanilla cards to BB. Right? Expecting my permanent card today and have a good source of these cards (in addition to OD MyVanilla reloads). Would like to use the regular Visa Vanilla’s for non-IB spend requirements to avoid taking away all of the supply of OD MyVanilla’s (since demand is obviously about to go up).
[...] post, answering questions on Bluebird and the results of some of his experiments with the [...]
@amod,
Thanks for that suggestion.
I guess I can move the funds from Amex Prepaid to any bank checking account via the Amazon payment. I don’t need BB for that. Have you tried that? Are there any costs associated with moving that?
I just signed up for a BB card for myself and my wife and will try to get some Vanilla cards soon
Can I pay an emplyee ( in this case my wife ) reimburseable business exspenses. ?? I have done this through AmazonPay, and I keep a record of her reimbursemnets for tax purposese each month . We have a small business and she is actualy one of my emplyees
FM-would you suggest that we email you a list of OD’s that have reloads. I want to share with others that are having trouble finding but I don’t want to piss folks off if a run on the store leaves them dry.
@Smitty06, there is an old post of his that has a chart already.
Where can I get Vanilla reloads in the DC metro / VA / MD area? All ODs have been out of stock for months.
smitty06 – please email me the OD list
Thanks FM. Have you heard anything about certain Office Depot’s not carrying the Vanilla reload card? I have been to our local OD twice and have been told by store employees that I can purchase them online. If I cannot purchase Vanilla reload at Office Depot, is their somewhere else I can purchase and still receive 5X Ink points? Thanks!
frequent churner: I understand. I just think that it would be easier to send checks to relatives, send money to others via Bluebird (for them to withdraw the money to a bank), etc. Very similar to Amazon Payments but with $5K/month limits
Curtis: I did try to use a Vanilla Visa in store to load BB. It didn’t work because I didn’t have a valid PIN to use. You can use them online to load, but you are limited to $100 per day / $1000 per month and you’re charged $2 per load (e.g. 2% fee)
jerry: the easiest option for paying someone is if they have a BlueBird card as well. Then you can send them money using their email address. Alternatively you could pay them with the BillPay feature, but I’d be nervous about having a check sent to the same address that your own BB is registered to
Smitty06: As Curtis noted, there is a post for collecting that info: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2012/06/22/where-to-buy-vanilla-reload-cards/. It would be great if you could post the info there. I don’t think it would spark a run since not everyone finds that page!
Titan limousine: check the page I referenced to Smitty06
Randy: Yes, there are many ODs that don’t carry Vanilla. In particular, I’ve been told that ODs in Manhattan and Hawaii don’t carry them. There are others as well, but I don’t have good data about where they are. No, currently there are no other Ink 5X options for Vanilla Reloads.
Sending checks is all good, but my relatives don’t want to participate in this, and it looks like income so there’s tax implications. Plus AMEX will have to pay for physical checks to be mailed so you better be profitable for them.
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I prefer a strategy of doing my normal purchases with them, then buying MOs and paying mortgage. Make it look like normal spending.
Chase website is down right now, I blame FM.
Rob P: Just doing some Lab experiments with Chase’s website servers. Everything will be back to normal soon…
I’m trying to figure out how this can generate some UR points without having an Ink card. If you have Freedom and CSP, can you see any good ways to get a substantial amount of UR points without paying fees?
Darius from MMS posted an identical article today. FM, if this isnt unfair competition lawsuit, you must proceed as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxEpRtKfd-o
@Don T: Buy the VR cards at OD with Freedom and Sapphire, load BB and use it for bill payments like mortgage, rent, utilities.
…or use any CC. But you won’t get as many UR points without Ink.
Can’t wait to get mine in mail
Hi
If there is no office depot in my area and I got bluecard and INK, where can I get the 5x everywhere? Do you have a list of stores where 5x points for INK and a sub-list of them that allows vanilla reload?
Just got mine in the mail yesterday. can’t wait to get my ice cream at OD andtry it out!
and try out the bill pay.
[...] before making your own. I will post some on the topic, but Million Mile Secrets, Gary Leff, and the King of Prepaids, Frequent Miler, also seem to be quite interested in Bluebird. I recommend keeping an eye on them, and especially [...]
My Bluebird account keeps getting locked out – I’ll do the email verification and reset my password, get logged back in, but it gets locked right away again. Anyone else having this issue? I can’t load any vanilla on to the card currently and I am assuming it is because my account keeps getting locked. So weird.
I posted this (below) in MMS blog. I think he over-exposes things and doesn’t share the wisdom, just shows the steps of an idea. On the other hand, I think you, FM, show things and help people learn, which is a great thing. That is why I like your blog and your style.
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Sadly however, your blog posts about this subject may also over reveal the use of debit cards from all the mile banks at WM but I guess we will have to see how long that all lasts now. Maybe the use of debit cards that earn miles to load a BB will be ok to do at WM but this all resurfaces the MO thing, which many were hoping would NOT be so publicized. It is being done though. The train is moving. The ride has an end.
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Anyway here’s what I wrote:
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marathon man | October 24, 2012 at 8:20 am |
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I have this obligation as a human being to remind people who are planning to use such a service as bluebird to bill pay their mortgages, etc to really look into how things credit and how long they take to post first. Some have auto-pay on their bills now –coming from a checking acct or whatever, and they may elect to change this and use BB to manually do it by loading funds on the BB card, etc. But you need to first find out how long it takes to have BP send the funds, how they credit, what that may do to any other auto pay you may have set up, and whether it’s sent by some paper check or some electronic ACH. It would stink, for example, to have swiped thru to ‘bill pay’ the bluebird today but find that the mortgage company doesn’t really get the money til say 10 days later. You could be late and have fees imposed, or worse.
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Also some banks like BofA do not like partial payments and since many mortgage payments are higher than the $1000 daily limit you need to find out what your bank has for policies on receiving part or multiple funds from you. I know that if I send a physical check to pay my prop taxes or bring it to town hall, it goes in pretty quickly and counts for the day I gave it to them. But if I bill pay from any bank it takes up to 10 days and goes to some far away place they set up and once in the system it’s on its own path that can take 10 business days! So you need to know this going in.
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In my opinion, there are risks with all of this and many here are prepared to take them, but what I had said in my earlier post was this: Because MMS has outlined these things so easily here, he makes people think it IS just so easy, and it’s not. He also further exposes deals and systems that should not be on blogs, period. Blogs are too widely read by entities other than those who just want a few miles. I am not sure why he feels the need to over expose this stuff – maybe to get hits on the blog, look cool for seemingly knowing things, illustrating his presentation skills, or whatever, but it’s going to do more danger than good. Again, why expose some of the things one can do with debit cards over and over? WHY? WHY! Are we trying to just TELL the banks about their card uses? Lets do that, instead!
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I think seasoned people as well as newer people have every right to know of and learn of these things but like I have said I think these sorts of things are best discussed in smaller groups and settings. the steps all make sense but they also invite too many issues which could kill the thing off or put further restrictions on it. That, plus making people think they can JUST pay their bills with ease, is not a good thing to lead people down to thinking.
Marathon Man,
I equate this with the Efficent Market Hypothesis. In today’s world you are not going to keep somtehing that you are talking about on the internet a secret. So while blogs may get the information out to a wider audience more quickly the results are inevitable. In this example, BB partners with Wal-Mart to market to a certain demographic niche. In so doing, they open the door for what some are calling “exploitation” of the market. But I believe it is Amex’s responsibility to use risk management and not the consumers. If 5k per month on a BB is too much exposure then they can adjust accordingly. Similarly, this topic of Chase “perk abuse” is also absurd. They use 5x on office supplies as a marketing tool. Office supply stores sell pre-paid cards. Chase caps the potential at 50k spend at office stores per year. Why do they have the right to shut someone down for spending up to 50k at office stores? Agagin if the risk is too high for chase, they can lower the cap to 25k, do not just arbitrarily shut down people’s account because they are using your marketing tool to their advantage. If a restaurant advertises all-you-can-eat but then says that after 2 plates you are abusing the “perk” would anyone find that acceptable?
If this has already been addresses, I apologize. I have some property taxes to pay. They can be paid online with a credit card but a fee would be charged. I can pay it with bluebird and have them send a check but county asks that checks are sent with the tax notice stub. I know that many people use their bill paying services through their banks so their payments stubs don’t necessarily get sent in for student loans, car payments, etc. Does this ever create a problem? I have never done it before. Thanks!
Does BB actually send a check when you do a bill payment, or does it pay the bill electronically?
I am having setting up payee in the BB account. After talking to their customer service, they referred the issue to technical team. Until its resolved I can’t use BB account to make any bill payments.
**having issues setting up Payee **
jim: you really do need to get to an OD that carries Vanilla reload cards to do the 5X everywhere trick. Some people take time when they travel (within the US) to pickup reload cards
marathon man: Thanks!
Kathy: If your county asks that checks are sent with the tax notice stub, then you probably don’t want to take a chance with this. Next year Amex promises to add the ability to write checks directly so that you can send it yourself. For now I’d recommend paying bills where you don’t need to include a stub.
frequent churner: I believe that if you pay a biller on BB’s list, they will receive the funds electronically. Otherwise a check will be sent.
pas: Make sure you enter the biller’s zip code not your own. Also try entering the full “zip + 4″ without the dash
For mint.com users, you can request Bluebird support at the link blow. The more people request it, the more likely, and sooner the support will be added.
http://satisfaction.mint.com/mint/topics/when_will_mint_support_bluebird
TonyL: Thanks
@FM, I agree with Pete (#78), Darius from MMS reaped the fruit of your hard work by writing BB in his blog first and as if it was his own discovery, I call this stealing.
TonyL, Peet: I’ve learned that people have different views about what level of attribution is required and/or good form. Regardless, it’s great having readers sticking up for me
Disregard my previous question/issue – apparently my card wasn’t activated even though the option was no longer showing online – their technical support fixed the issue for me. Vanilla reloads worked after I was able to activate.
No Vanilla AMEX at my OD, bur they do have Visa One Vanilla and AMEX Gift cards , neither of which work , I assume??
Must be AMEX Vaniila correct or a bank debit card ??
So far, success! Finished loading my Vanillas onto BB card (because limit is $1K per day), used bill pay to pay my rent by requesting a check made out to my rental company, but addressed in care of me (because I usually just hand the check to my landlord, who lives upstairs). Supposed to arrive by 10/30, but as long I get it by 11/1 I’m cool.
Jerry: you needed vanilla reload cards. They are not Amex. No, gift cards and prepaid visa/Amex cards won’t work to load Bluebird
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Glen: cool. Let us know how that goes. That could be a great way of solving the problem of how to send checks when they need to be accompanied by a pay stub
I’m going to pick up a $500 vanilla card at Office Depot. I signed up online for the BlueBird card, but haven’t gotten the hard copy by mail yet. I looked at the account online though and can’t figure out how to load the vanilla card to it once I get it? Do I go through the vanilla site? I know this is basic stuff but I seem to be missing a step. Please forgive me for the beginner question!
@Michelle – you load thru the vanilla site. Enter your card # and then the number underneath what you scratch off the back of the reload card. Should load instantly.
Michelle: when the permanent bluebird arrives, activate it, then go to vanillareload.com to move the money to your bluebird
Your account is locked.
To unlock your account submit your e-mail
to reset your password.
That is what it shows whenever I login. What happened
@pointsmachine – I was having the same issues, turned out I was using my email address to log in rather than my username and my account would show as locked every single time I went to log in. Use your username/password to log in and you should not have any problems.
@FM — I’m in NYC, with no access to the prized Vanilla Reloads. I spoke last night with a Bluebird CR, to ask about the future of Bluebird feeder packs. After being on hold for a bit, she came back with info that the Feeder packs were for the previous incarnation of Bluebird, and are incompatible with the new Bluebird product. She re-emphasized that the only reloadable available for purchase and compatible with Bluebird was the Vanilla Reload.
I was suspicious this was the case, as the website for Feeder packs has a 2011 incarnation date. Since Frequent Churner mentioned these in the comments of your first post on Bluebird, I’ve watched the website for the list of merchants who sell the packs, but the link was perpetually broken. The website has now been updated with the “Where to Buy?” tab completely removed.
So, for those of us interested in potential Feeder pack funding of Bluebird, it appears that this will not be an option.
Like you always caution, it is not good push Ink Vanilla purchases too far. But it would still be good to earn even 1x points for non-points transactions – like shopping at Costco (which this card will aid tremendously). Do you think Chase would be concerned if I also purchased Vanilla reloads with my Sapphire card? Not sure if they pay attention across accounts or if they even look twice if you are not earning 5x. Thanks.
Thank you Bill & Frequent Miler!
So far I’ve visited or called 12 OD stores (in different parts of the country), and none of them carries Vanilla Reloads.
Don’t call…you have to arrive in person. They typically don’t actually look hard for the item as it’s not a item number on their inventory. I’ve been to many stores that actually had them but they say on the phone that they are out.
@Phil: Thanks. I’ll keep trying in person, if other folks still find OD stores that carry Vanilla reloads.
[...] was about. Below we have compiled that information into a completely superfluous post repeating useful bits of what other bloggers that you follow have already told you. We are a points and miles blog, after [...]
I tested out Blue Bird bill pay with my mortgage & car payments. Both have been received by respective lenders on the date indicated by Blue Bird. It looks like ODs in LA area are out of Vanilla as well. My husband & I check the one by our work and the clerk said people have been asking for them. One even bought 10 at one time.
I’m just so hesitant to push the thresholds of this by paying my mortgage and large bills. I love chase, and all their signup bonuses, UR points, and everything else! I would hate to lose all that. I think I’m going to stick with lower spending than most people that are using BB and maybe add 1-2 more bills that a card can’t be used for, i.e. college loans, car loan. Please don’t ruin it for the rest of us. Let’s keep this deal alive for as long as it can be!!!
@Joshua I agree!! My mortgage & car payments are still less than the recommended $2,500 monthly spend on the Ink card. We’ve been diversifying OD purchases by using different cc’s to meet sign-up bonus requirements.
Teri: Thanks for the update!
Chris D: I don’t think there would be any problem with using a Sapphire card or any other 1X (or even 2X) card.
Brian: Great info. Too bad about the Feeder packs in away. On the other hand, it shows that Amex is totally committed to Vanilla Reloads which is a great thing.
@FM Vanilla Reloads are only good if OD have them in stock and let you pay with a cc. Keeping my fingers crossed.
FM, if Amex is totally committed to the vanilla reloads, one really has to wonder if they will start expanding the sale of those at more and more places. Time will tell I suppose. If another office store or grocery stores (while unlimited 6% cash back is still available with the Amex BC Pfd!) joined in, that would be great.
Has anyone put together a good list of cc with office supply category bonuses? C AA biz cards are good for 2x. I have another which gives me 9x, but afraid to ruin that one…obviously 5x for ink. DS biz is good for 5x as well. I know there are more. What else?
Anyone else having a problem adding a mortgage account to BB billpay? I tried adding both my mortgages (WF and GMAC), but both give me an error of invalid account number.
BB’s ‘Add Payee’ screen is a sham. Without any pattern or reason, It allowed me to add some payees and erroring out on others. Change in an alphabet here and there seems to change its behavior. The customer service is not upto the par in taking care of simple items such as these.
Boooo Amexp! You could do better than that.
With no ODs within 150 miles, I’ve been largely left behind in the 5x game. Even so, I’d be happy with a a product that gives me 1x for mortgage payments. Has anyone found anyone else that even sells vanilla reloads? My local drug store sometimes lets me buy green dot refills with a credit card, which gets me 6x on a Hilton card, but I don’t think I can reload this card with green dot.
Curtis: Yes, that’s true! Already, you can buy them in some drug stores and gas stations (success varies store to store). Many people have reported luck buying them at Walgreens, for example. In my case, I succeeded at only 1 out of 3 Walgreens stores that I tried.
jkm1317: Amex SimplyCash 5% back for first $12K per year. I’m dying to know where you get 9X!
SITM: Most people who get the error about the invalid account number get it cleared up by fixing the zip code. Make sure the zip code is not yours but the biller. Try the 9 digit zip without the dash
Larry: There are plenty of good options for loading green dot packs. If you want Vanilla, try Walgreens. Not all will let you buy with credit, but some will.
Has anyone successfully taken vanilla reloads from one store (unloaded) and taken them to OD and loaded them?
NB: Vanilla reload NOT working!!! Vanilla CSR Yvette claimed the reload cards are NOT for AE BB – ONLY for AE pre-paids!!!
I was able to use Vanilla Reloads on my AMEX BB. Loaded four, $500 Vanillas. Make sure that you are loading to a REGISTERED, PERMANENT BB Card.
B-Rad: not me. I wouldn’t recommend it unless the store manager from which you take the cards gives you the OK
.
Ronald: the Vanilla CSR is wrong. They probably just haven’t been trained yet with regards to this new product. Double check that you have a permanent card (with your name on it) and that it is really activated. If so, try waiting 24 hours before applying the reload card. It definitely should work
HELP ANYONE!!!
I tend to forget about my Netflix bill and it over charges my account if I’m not careful. Will this solve my problem? Will BB charge me a monthly fee after Novemeber 4 to have Netflix take money out automatically? If there are no funds in the account can Netflix still take it out, which will over draw my checking account, like it does now? Sorry I’m a single mom and know very little about this stuff, I just thought this might help my situation of forgetfulness.
Jessica: Since Bluebird doesn’t charge any fees except for ATM use under certain circumstances, I think that using your Bluebird account would solve your problem in that you won’t get charged an overdraft fee. Instead, the Netflix payment will be declined if you have no money in your account and you risk Netflix shutting down your account.
I just load $500 each to my BB and my wifes with my WF PP and withdrew a total of 1K with no fees!!! I guess BB has some interesting uses.
@FM — just got my BB card, and it appears to be a dud! Does it have PIN debit capabilities? Have you been able to make debit transactions with it? Doesn’t look like it’s possible, which makes it only marginally more useful than the old AMEX due to the bill pay feature. Even that doesn’t work well for me, refuses to recognize my mortgage account saying it’s incorrect. My pay-power card had no problems with that.
frequent churner: I haven’t tried the PIN at a register yet. It didn’t work to pay taxes online because it has fewer digits than a visa/mc debit card. For your mortgage, make sure you’re putting in the zip code of your mortgage company correctly
I am building my bb card to 2k, need few more hundreds to pay my mortgage, But i am worried if i will get in trouble with this or not because this mortgage payment will be my 1st transcation on BB..and take close to 85% balance.
what do you think?
CHRIS: No one knows for sure, but my best guess is that you’ll be fine. Amex is marketing this as a checking account substitute so it should work for things like that.
It seems that Vanilla is no longer allowing the Vanilla Reload Card to reload the bluebird. When you try online, it is denied (with an error code 90). If you call in, customer service tells you the only vanilla card that will work on the bluebird is the bluebird feeder pack. (they also will deny that the vanilla card ever worked to reload the bluebird.) According to the script they now have, the only cards that will work to reload bluebird will say bluebird on it.
The problem is that American Express isn’t up on this. As of now, the website still says Vanilla Reload Network cards are an acceptable way to reload. And BB customer service will also tell you the same, and then refer you to the vanillareload.com or the number on the back of the reload card (neither of which will let you load now) Anyone else have this same experience?
Kelly: I have no problem using vanilla reload packs with bluebird. It is the feeder packs that are no longer supported
Just loaded the Bluebird with Ice cream. No issues whatsoever.
so… If I have the original AMEX prepaid can I join it with the new BB card
Charch: I haven’t found any way to do that
For people having problems registering their mortgage account (mine is GMAC), be sure to use the mortgage company’s zip code and enter the full 9 digit zip code.
So I finally got my Bluebird Card by mail, so I’m ready to do some tests on my own. I’ve added Bluebird on my Paypal account as a primary checking. Yes you can find the “account number” other than your card number once you’re logged in to Bluebird. It took Paypal 2 days to verify, but once it was done I was ready to transfer some money. I’ve started with $62.50. It took another 2 days for it to show up on the BB account balance as available. It was marked as “direct deposit”. Since I’m member of Costco, I first stopped to get some gas. Knowing that Costco accepts AMEX I swiped my membership card first followed by Bluebird. Transaction declined. I ended up buying some gas and pay for it with my regular bank debit card which is “MasterCard”. Next I went into their warehouse to pick up some food items. Total $18.56. This time Bluebird was accepted. I left Costco and stopped at another gas station, this time an independent one called USA Gasoline. I swiped Bluebird and it asked me if it’s a credit or debit transaction. I’ve indicated “debit” upon which the card was declined and said to get assistance from attendant. Instead I’ve cancelled transaction and swiped again as credit. This time I’ve got approval. I’ve purchased $15.11 and left.
When I got back home and logged in to Bluebird to see if they show up. They don’t. And even though I’ve spent a grand total of $33.67 Bluebird shows “Available $0.00 – Total Balance: $62.50″. I can’t help it but wonder if they cannot keep track “live” of what is going on and they lock the entire balance every time you make a credit transaction you’re in big trouble. Unless they learn to behave as a debit card with instant adding and subtraction, I better stick with an other card that accepts pin.
Maxo,
I found BB keeps track live of your available balance, but it takes a while for the transactions to appear online (1 to 3 days).
Every transaction I’ve done has had an immediate impact on my available BB balance. I know gas stations often put a hold on a set amount from your card, like $75, until the transaction goes through. I suspect that is why your available balance now shows 0. I’m pretty sure when that transaction shows up in a day or two those funds will be released and you will see you have indeed been debited just $33.67.
Jack, thanks for the reply. Almost all credit and debit cards show immediately all pending transaction when you check online. Visa or MasterCard doesn’t tie up $75 for 3 days for a $15 dollar purchase. Unfortunately AMEX is not part of any clearing gateway that handles debit transactions. I thought BB looked like a good deal, but they lie in their ads when they call it a debit card. Merchants have to pay full fees based on credit not debit. It would be a constant struggle to find places that accepts them with a pin transaction if anybody accepts them at all.
[...] I highly recommend reading through the official Bluebird member agreement, which is actually pretty easy to read through. Fellow blogger Frequent Miler is also an excellent resource- he’s been experimenting with prepaid and reloadable cards for months, so check him out for more information on Vanilla and Bluebird. [...]
Hi,I just wanted to post that I added my Bluebird direct deposit account to my paypal account, verified the small amounts deposited into the Bluebird account…..I had 14.50 in my paypal account then I withdrew it to the Bluebird direct deposit account and it did go through this morning. It shows up as a direct deposit so I am hoping that when I start withdrawing money at the ATM that I won’t have to pay the ATM withdrawal fee.
Tara: Thanks for the info! I had the same experience. Remember that you’ll have to do a direct deposit within 30 days prior to each ATM use to keep it free
maxo: Thanks for your update about Bluebird. I agree that it will be difficult to use it for day to day use if they don’t update the info immediately. Hopefully Amex will fix this issue soon.
Has anyone tried withdrawing money from MoneyPass ATM? According to bluebird.com my local Walmart has MoneyPass ATM that allows free withdrawals without direct deposit until Nov 4. When I went there, an employee directed me to the money center. So I tried using their ATM but with a $1.50 charge. It seems like no one at WalMart knows what MoneyPass ATM is even when I showed up the website.
Has anyone had any experience loading with Vanilla reloads purchased at Dollar General? There are no OD stores near me, but there is a DG right down the street. I stopped in today and saw the Vanilla reloads hang tags, but it doesn’t have a pin on it. The girl said she needed to swipe my prepaid card in order to load it directly. I don’t have my BB card yet so I can’t try that. Has anyone done this or run into any issues at DG? Thanks!
Teri: I haven’t tried yet
.
Bex A: Several people have tried, but to my knowledge it hasn’t worked for anyone. I tried loading a Mio card and it would have worked, but their register was setup to only allow cash not credit
Thanks, the thread on FT didn’t have too many comments about DG specifically but it didn’t sound like they had any luck either. I’ll try it once I get my BB card and report back!
Only flaw in Bluebird is the direct deposit. If your employer sent the direct deposit Thursday then you will have to wait 1 business day before fund is there. If your employer sent it Friday then u wont get paid till Monday 2pm EST per BB rep. I was like I get paid Friday not Monday. Will let u know when the DD kicked in. My other account already has the DD in there already like my WalmartMoneyCard. So if u plan in getting this card consider direct deposit first.
[...] Bluebird lands. Questions answered [...]
Reporting back…actually got my BB in the mail yesterday so I tried loading with a Vanilla Reload last night at Dollar General. Talk about getting a girls hopes up…we tried it and it “went through.” Was about to pay and on up popped a “card # invalid” message on the cashier’s screen. No go at Dollar General
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. ST debit at WM here I come!
It looks like OD is now taking inventory of VRs. I took 2 VRs (with permission from mgr) from the one near my work to use at two different OD near my house this weekend. The first OD got an error saying that they have already reach floor limit while the other one said that the VRs were stolen and actually wrote “stolen” on the card. So for those who were thinking of taking extras to be used in the future, you can scrap that thought
I have tried several times, but the Vanilla Reload that I got from an OD cannot be loaded onto my BB. Called both AXBB and Vanilla to no avail. Said only can be loaded onto the regular Amex prepaid. Any advice to get it onto my BB?
Also, have you seen this on the front page of bluebird?
https://www.bluebirdmoney.com/
Terms changing Dec 8.
Chris G: The info you got on the phone is wrong. Double check that your permanent Bluebird card has been activated properly. If that doesn’t work, wait 24 hours and try again. The site bluebirdmoney.com is for an old version of bluebird that is going away. The new bluebird site is bluebird.com.
Last week, I called and was given a different CSR # to call, ending in 7847. They said it is the BB customer care number. Considering I was on hold with BB for over 2 hours today, only to have an Indian call center pick up and say that I’m speaking to the wrong department, I’m not calling back today. When I try and load it online, I get error #90 on the vanilla site, or error #4006 on feedbluebird.
The Vanilla CSR today told me there were specific vanilla reload cards to use with BB. Is that true?
Chris G: No, it is not true. If you bought the Vanilla Reload card at Office Depot then it is the right kind. Can you verify that you have the permanent version of the bluebird (the one with your name on the card)? Also, can you verify that you’ve activated it? If you log into your bluebird.com account does it prompt you to activate your card?
This card has my name on it. I ordered directly from the website when it first came out. When I go through the phone automated menu, it confirms that I have a $0 balance. When I log onto the site, there is no prompt for activation. However, when I did call last week, the CSR mistakenly thought my card was a temp, but after I pointed it out that it wasn’t, he confirmed. Maybe the system has my card wrong? I just ordered a regular AX prepaid, but I’m getting pretty frustrated with the BB thus far. And this is coming from somebody with the patience to book DL partner awards.
Chris G: That’s really strange. Hopefully you can load the Vanilla card onto your AX prepaid if you never get Bluebird working.
Has anyone tried loading it by taking a picture of a check and depositing it through the app? How long does it take? Does it work with personal checks or just accounts cram businesses? Does the type of account have a effect on the time it takes to deposit? The website says with in 5 business days but I want to know about personal experiences.
I recently used my BB to make a payment directly to my Insurance Co for my vehicle insurance. When I checked the BB site, the funds came off of my total (which was loaded onto the BB with two Vanilla Preload), but there was an extra dollar missing. In other words, when the payment was subtracted from the total, the balance was a dollar short. Does BB charge for making a credit payment?
Rusty1: Many merchants will put a $1 hold on your credit card just to verify your card. That’s probably what happened here. The $1 hold will come off in a few days. The holds can be much higher at gas stations and hotels so watch out for that.
[...] Bluebird lands. Questions answered [...]
Is it safe to use an Amex credit card at OD to buy the reload cards? Do I need to stick to non-Amex CC?
PJ: yes, it’s safe
My husband tried the iPhone app to deposit a check I wrote him. The check cleared my account in a day, but it’s now 18 days and it still is not available on his BB account. Daily calls to BB give the same answer…it will clear by 9pm. What a joke.
Is it possible to get money wire transferred into my BB account? And what info does the sender needs to send funds into my BB account? Thank you for the info
Haik: I’m not sure about wiring money, but if you log into your bluebird account and select “direct deposit” you can find your account’s routing number and account number that can be used for ACH transfers into (not out of) your bluebird account.
I know I’m probably too late to get a response but here it goes..
Chris G: Did you ever get your reload problems solved? I’m in the same situation — error 4006. BB support isn’t very helpful: “it should work”.
New BB card. First direct deposit went fine and I was using for purchases for about a day and a half. Then I tried to withdraw cash and the whole thing was locked.
Called BB. They said I would have to speak to an account specialist tomorrow but they can’t tell me why. It’s tomorrow. I spent my entire lunch hour on hold for a specialist without speaking to anyone.
I’m holding again. I have no idea what excuse they could have for holding my money hostage. I cannot make any purchases or withdraw money from an ATM.
Hal: any luck? I’m curious to hear their explanation
In a similar boat to Hal – charges are being denied (car insurance credit payment), atm withdrawals are not working, etc. and when I call it takes an hour on hold to get -anyone- at all. One rep even put me on hold then disconnected me.
Finally escalated to a supervisor over my lunch break today and they repeatedly told me that everything was working fine and that I should be having no problems, which is a blatant lie. Then they changed their story and told me I had to update my Bluebird account using the Bluebird site to even allow for ATM withdrawals at all. Does anyone know if there is a magic turn ATM withdrawal option on button hidden somewhere in the Bluebird site?
I’ve got ~$700 on there right now and am at my wits end just trying to get access to it via credit card purchases, Bill Pay or ATM withdrawal.
Anon: That’s awful. I think that the rep you talked with is confused. There are other Amex prepaid products that have magic “turn on/ turn off” ATM buttons, but I don’t think Bluebird has that. At the top right of the bluebird.com screen (after you log in) is “My Account” and you can go to “Settings”, but I don’t see anything there to turn on or off ATM use. Maybe try changing your PIN
So do we know yet if we can get more than one bluebird card?
without raising any suspicion from Amex of course.
Thanh: I’ve tried, but I haven’t found a way to get 2 Bluebird cards.
@Saffron – Unfortunately, I ended up just putting the credit on my regular Amex Prepaid vs the BB.
Did anyone try to deposit their paychecks with the blue bird app yet? I want this card for that reason but I can’t find anywhere that says if it will take a certain amount of days for the money to be available to spend on your card or if it’s instant.
FYI, my local Walgreens has stopped allowing cc for VR purchase. There’s now a message on the register screen requiring “cash tender” for prepaid card purchase. Looks like the store did a manual over-write as I was there last week and the store manager even called the corporate office to confirm that cc is allowed for VR. Hopefully the competitor will not follow suit.
My first ever visit to a Walmart was to try using $50 MasterCard Gift Cards to load Bluebird. The Customer Service Manager was enthused by the project. We tried several ways to get the MC accepted, but were stymied by the lack of a PIN. She then suggested that I buy a Walmart Gift Card with the MCs as she was sure that the Walmart card would work to load Bluebird. I had a $200 Walmart card in seconds, but we could not get it to load Bluebird. After 5 minutes or so, she decided to cash out the Walmart card – which required a manager. A cashier was also interested in what was going in, so in the end we had three employees all trying things out. All three, especially the manager, were trying to get a reload from the Walmart card to go though – they really believed that it should work. In the end, they decided to go the cash route. This required several calls for POS system codes, but finally worked. I handed back the cash, and got the Bluebird loaded. Given their attitude, I’m certainly going to try other options, starting with an eGift card.
Biggles209: great story. Good luck with the next try!
FM: will you receive miles by using debit card to fund BB?
interested to open alaska airline by bofa..but sounds like it will not earn miles…am i correct?
CHRIS: Yes. Million Mile Secrets has the details here: http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/11/12/bluebird-alaska-air-debit-card/
Fm:
Can you clarify for me on this?
I believe i am reading at MMS that you can load bluebird via debit card for 5k/month, $1k load max daily. but if i look at the Faq limit, it sounds like $1k limit/month for debit card.
I am planning to open a debit card that give mile rewards, but if for 1k, it may not be cost efficient.
and if the answer is 5k monthly, this 5k is on top of 5k vanilla reload limit right? so total you can do 10k.
thks!
CHRIS: online debit card loads are limited to $1K per month & $100 per day, but in-person “swipe reloads” are limited to $1K per day & $5K per month. Unfortunately, Vanilla Reloads are in the same bucket as swipe reloads, so you can only do $5K total across both Vanilla Reloads and Swipe reloads.
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@ARC
Please describe step by step how you added BB as a checking account on your Paypal and Amazon payments a counts. Also please tell us why you did that, meaning what you planed on achieving taking that approach. And lastly could you give us an update on it? Thanks a bunch
@Smitty06, could you post a current list for us or email one to me if you don’t want it out for everyone to see?
I’ve just encountered my first problem with BB after using it successfully, (both my wife and I have a card), to pay our bills, college tuition etc. Combined, we have spent about $15,000 per month. We use the card for charges and bill payment and deposit using VR and debit. Last Friday my account was declined when i tried to use it at Costco. Saturday I logged on and I got a dialogue box that indicated I needed to call customer service and offered a toll-free number. I called and spoke to a rep who would tell me nothing except that I needed to speak to protection services and offered to transfer me. When she did I got a recording that told me the mailbox was full. I called back and went through the same process to get again, no result, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor could only tell me that I would have to call back Monday when the office was open. He would not even say what may lead to an account being locked out. I’ll let you know what happens.
Pointsobs,
I am in the same situation as you (to contact the #).
I am told that they need to verify my identity, so they asked to fax SS# or W2.
i did that, and within 10 minutes, my bb works…
However, i am in much smaller scale, only paying mortgage, and view bills…under $4000.
but comparable to my spending usage (merely under $200), the % is off balance…
but i am back in with BB, actually just re open another one for my wife after closing her Serve few months ago.
just an FYI with my experience.
Thanks @Chris. Just called and sat on hold for 10 minutes but with the same outcome. I spoke to their fraud department, she specifically said she looked at my transaction history and saw no reason for the “flag”. Asked authentication questions but nothing further. Just odd that my account and my wife’s were flagged for investigation. Onward we go for as long as it lasts!