October 30, 2012
The American Express for Target card that I wrote about yesterday is hardly revolutionary. Compared to the generic American Express Prepaid cards, the Target Amex has higher ATM fees and much stricter limits (for example, the card may only be used within the U.S.). Compared to the new Bluebird card, the Target Amex doesn’t compare at all. It doesn’t have bill pay, you can’t move money out to your bank account, and there are no plans to allow check writing. However, the Target Amex has one awesome feature that the others don’t have: you can load this card in-store with a credit card.
To get your own American Express for Target card, please see my post “How to get the American Express for Target card.”
Fees and Limits
The Target Amex card has the following fees and limits:
- $3 per reload in-store
- $3 per ATM withdrawal after the first free withdrawal each month. Note that ATM owner fees apply as well.
- Number of cards: Each person is allowed up to two cards. Only one may be purchased in a day.
- Maximum balance: $2500 per card
- ATM withdrawals: Limited to $400 per day
Running up spend
There are many reasons you may want to run up spend on a credit card. Here are a few examples:
- Meet credit card minimum spend requirements. Many credit card sign up offers require high spend to receive the full value of the offer. For example, the Ink Bold and Ink Plus currently require $10K of spend in 3 months in order to get the full 50K bonus.
- Achieve high-spend bonuses. Some cards offer bonus points when you reach certain thresholds of spend. Other cards offer airline or hotel elite status. Personally, I use “manufactured spend” tricks with the Delta Reserve and Delta Platinum cards in order to achieve high level elite status on Delta each year (see “Mileage running, from home“).
- Maximize promotions. Some cards target cardholders with temporary incentives (such as extra points) to use their cards more.
Whatever your reason for wanting to run up spend, the Target Amex can be a nice addition to your tool chest. It’s not free (like Amazon Payments), and it’s not a game changer (like Vanilla reload cards), but it’s pretty good. Here are two approaches to using the card to run up spend…
Straight-Up Approach
The simplest way to use the Target Amex to run up spend is as follows:
- Use your credit card to pay for each reload. Load the maximum allowed $1000 each time in order to make the $3 load fee as small of a percentage as possible.
- Find the lowest cost ATMs around and unload the card $400 at a time. Some people have been lucky enough to find free ATMs at their local credit unions. Some have reported finding 99 cent ATMs inside MacDonald’s. Others have settled on the still inexpensive ATM’s in Costco ($1.25 per withdrawal).
If you load and withdraw $2000 per month, and use Costco ATMs at $1.25 per use, your total costs will come to $24.25, or 1.21%. If you don’t count the value of your time into the equation, this can be a very reasonable price to pay to get points!
Indirect Approach
There are many variations of the indirect approach. The basic idea is to get extra points or cash back when buying bank gift cards and then use those bank gift cards to load your Target Amex. For this post, I’ll focus on a simple cash-back strategy for buying Amex gift cards at a discount:
Buying Amex gift cards at a discount
I’ve had this post planned for weeks, but coincidentally, Frugal Travel Guy reminded the world about this trick yesterday (see “A look back and ahead at Bigcrumbs.com“). The idea is to go through the online portal BigCrumbs to buy American Express gift cards and receive 1.4% cash back. Here’s how:
- Sign up for BigCrumbs. (If you would like to contribute to Frequent Miler, please consider using this referral link — I’ll earn a small bonus each time you get cash back).
- Search BigCrumbs for “American Express”. You’ll find two options: American Express Gift Cards – Business, and American Express Gift Cards – Personal. Click through either one.
- Order gift cards for yourself. Except when special promotions are going on, each card has a $3.95 fee, so your best value is to buy one $3000 card at a time. You will also be charged $8.95 for 2nd Day shipping.
- Pay with your credit card. Note: do not do this with Citibank cards since it has been reported that Citi treats these purchases as cash advances! In my experience, both Chase and American Express treat these as regular purchases. If you’re unsure about your bank, consider buying a small denomination card first to test the waters.
In total, your fees will come to $12.90 or .43%. From BigCrumbs, you should get back 1.4% of $3000, which is $42. After subtracting out the fees, you still gain $29.10 which is a .97% profit!
Liquidating Amex gift cards
Now that you have Amex gift cards that you effectively got at a discount, you can liquidate them by using them to load Target Amex cards and then withdraw the money from ATMs. By going through this indirect approach, your total fees for running up spend will come down to a miniscule .24%!
Scale up
With the options shown above, you can easily “manufacture” $2000 spend per month. Yes, you could go to $2500, but then you wouldn’t be perfectly optimizing the fees since you would have to do a $500 load each month.
One easy way to scale up beyond $2000, is to get a second card. That way, you can go up to $4000 spend per month. Further, if you have a partner you can work with, they could get two cards as well. A couple could manufacture $8000 in spend per month!
Warnings
I’ve cautioned heavily before against doing exactly what I wrote about above. With either the regular Amex Prepaid cards or the Bluebird card, I think it would be a mistake to abuse them by using them just for loading and unloading. Amex counts on you using these cards for real credit card transactions. If you don’t, they have the ability to close your accounts. Just as concerning, loading and unloading cards looks like money laundering. So, you do run some risk of being investigated (even though there’s nothing illegal about the procedure I wrote about).
Everyone needs to use their own judgment about the level of risk they’re willing to incur. In the case of Target Amex cards, my guess is that the fees are just high enough to put us in the clear. What I mean is that Amex and Target probably don’t lose money (at least, not much) when we load and unload cards as described in this post. If true, then they would have little or no incentive to spend resources on monitoring how we use these cards. I can’t stress enough, though, that this is just my educated guess. Use your own judgment about how (or whether) to proceed.
See also
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How much is too much? Once you couldnt use a Target GC to load it this took a back seat for me. But you are still when using BC it makes it a decent earn.
Banks are obligated by law to prevent money laundering, and the feds put a certain amount of pressure on them to prevent at least the obviously criminal behavior. So even if Target is making money from churning, they still do have an incentive to shut people down if their activity looks suspicious. Or at the very least they *will* have an incentive to shut people down at some point in the future when this behavior catches the eye of the appropriate authorities. Where the line between suspicious and non-suspicious falls is the question… All of which is to say, you would be wise to heed Frequent Miler’s advice about not using these cards solely for loading and unloading.
worry about Amex being suspicious with many prepaid cards….I already have the AMEX Prepaid, the AMEX bluebird along with my regular SPG biz and Personal and AMEX hilton honors…think I won’t apply for the Target AMEX card.
I guess I’ll be applying for the target redcard, which gets you 5% cash back on all target purchases. The T&C’s do state the bonus does not apply to:
Target gift cards and prepaid cards
But, worth a shot…
So if I need to meet spend on a visa but shop a lot at costco then I can buy these at target and use them at costco? Is the first load free?
Sil: I don’t think the different Amex prepaid departments talk to each other, but I understand the concern. Also, if you can buy Vanilla Reload cards easily, there really is no point in going with this card.
DealSeeker: I don’t think it will work, but let us know if it does!
Kelly s: Yes, that should work. Good idea. You could also make good use of the cheap Costco ATM while you’re there.
FF- I haven’t had any problems finding Vanilla Reload Cards at OD. I usually just buy one or two(rarely) at a time and leave at least 8 for my fellow Frequent flier pals. I can click to get to my AMEX prepaid account from my regular AMEX website. Loaded $500 on Bluebird to pay for a $25 purchase and then ATM $440 out. Found out I needed to pay off Chase credit card.
I literally just saw a Bluebird Walmart commercial followed immediately by a Chase Ink commercial on CNN. It’s a sign…
About Vanilla — My OD stores don’t have freestanding gift card racks. The gift cards are just on some pegs underneath the cash register (close to the candy) and there are only about 8-10 selections. Has anyone found Vanilla reloads at a store like this? Just wondering if there’s someplace else I should be looking (though I’ve pretty much searched everyplace in the store and asked cashiers).
May be use the United card, spend 25k,and get a bonus of 10K.
cost will be: $3 x 25 $1000 cc load = 75
ATM fee : 25K /400 = 63 withdrawal x 1.25 = 79
total cost : 154 for 35K United miles
Another tip about citi and/or others classifying purchases as cash, every time I get a new card, when i call in to activate it i also do 2 other things.
First i verify the sign up bonus and requirements, and lastly ask that the cash advance be set to $0 negating any chance of having a cash advance.
Can you reload the Target AMEX at any Target? Even Targets that do not sell the Target AMEX card?
Can you reload the Target AMEX at any Target? Even Target stores that do not sell the Target AMEX cards?
Can you use Amex cards to purchase Amex gift cards? Any problems?
Enjoyed your presentation in Chicago a few weeks ago. Thanks. Have since gotten a Bluebird card and loaded it a few times with Vanilla from OD using Ink Bold.
After reading yesterday’s post, I went to Target tonight to get Halloween candy and while there got an Amex for Target prepaid card. Like you said, they were only available near one cashier. The cashier had to swipe my license and then confirm my zip code. After that, I had to enter my SS #, home phone, date of birth, and then confirm my address. The cashier, a high school kid, got nervous when I had to keep entering information and called over the head cashier who told him to just keep following the prompts on the register.
Finally, I was able to swipe my SPG AMEX to pay for the initial $500 load and the $3.00 load fee was taken off with a coupon (good until 12/31/12) attached to the Amex for Target card.
As you said, the probable best feature of this card is being able to load it with any credit card.
I’m sorry to say that FTG doesn’t deserve your call out in this post. He sent out an e-mail with almost exactly your information but his own links to profit. Too bad the blogosphere has no ethics. Good luck to you as you try keep up some standards.
@JoC — Your math is off. You only get 1 free ATM withdrawal per month. After that, Amex charges $3. In addition, you pay whatever fees the ATM owner charges.
If I don’t have access to Vanilla Reloads, would this or Serve be the better option?
tly: serve is better, but is much more limited in how far you can run up spend. You could do both
Just picked one of these up. In reading the enclosed terms and conditions there is a major limits:
“May load $1k at a time, max $2.5k balance, max $5k per 28 day period. ATM withdrawal $200 per week”.
However the online card member agreement states:
“you may use the Card to obtain up to $400 US per card, per day”
Contradictory.
Can you get a AMEX Target card without giving away your SSN? If yes, then one can get as many cards as one likes…
Can you get cash back at Costco when going thru checkout when using the Target Amex? If so, that, plus a trip to their ATM would be a good way to unload. I go to Costco a few times a month – and it’s literally across the street from my local OD…
russell: I’ve done $400
AndroAsc: I don’t think that’s possible
jim6: I don’t think that would work
If you get two cards, can you use the same SSN? How does online access work. Will both cards show up in your profile or you would need to make a different profile for each?
nep301: Yes, use the same SSN for two cards. They’ll show up together online.
FM, you mentioned in your earlier post that Citi cards do NOT charge Target AMEX as a cash advance, but here you say that Citi charges GC purchases as cash advances. Why the discrepancy?
Dave: Citi doesn’t charge a cash advance at Target for loading up the Target Amex, nor do they charge for buying Vanilla Reload cards, but people have said that they do charge a cash advance fee for buying Amex gift cards online, for example. Sorry for the confusion.
FM, most of my spend requirement for the Citi HH is made up of VR and Target AMEX purchases. You’re confident these will count toward my spend for bonus pts?
Dave: I’m currently doing the same thing so I certainly hope so!
[...] Using the Target Amex card to run up spend [...]
Save on shipping for Amex gift cards. AFLQ42012 through EOY. Sorry FM that I couldn’t use your BC referral link; I had signed up once before.
@FM, went to a target to load my newly arrived Amex4Target with 2 Visa OneVanilla prepaid cards, one cashier didn’t know how to do it (she was new probably), another more experienced one said they wouldn’t take gift cards, I told them mine are Visa Prepaid cards, they still wouldn’t accept them, the reason being if the card has no name on it, it is a gift card. Do you have experience successfully loading with OneVanilla prepaid cards? Thanks.
TonyL: Yes, I’ve successfully loaded my Target Amex with Vanilla prepaid cards. I don’t even show the Vanilla cards to the cashier. I just have them ring up the $1000 load and then I swipe my Visa gift cards through the customer facing card reader.
@FM, thanks for the tip, it worked for me today too.
Is it possible to combine multiple Vanilla cards in a single load to reduce cost?
TonyL: yes, you can use multiple MC/Visa/Amex gift cards to pay for a single Target Amex load so I recommend doing the full $1000 load each time.
@FM, I have three important questions
I have 10 $100 mastercard gift cards from the staples promotion, Do you think they will be suspicious if I load up all of them on the target amex card?
Question 2: when you load up the full $1000 on one card with vanilla prepaid card, do you have to tell them to put in $500 or do you just swipe and the system knows to deduct $500 from the load?
Question 3: Is this a debit card where we can buy MO from walmart?
Looks like Target has nixed the ability to load the loading of the Target prepaids with MC/Visa gift cards. Just tried today and they said it wasn’t allowed, but tried on the register anyway… no go.
Steven Lu: 1) that should be fine; 2) just swipe and the system knows how much is left : 3) no, it can’t be used as a debit card
Carwag25: uh oh! Have you had success before at that Target? I’m hoping this is specific to that store
@frequentmiler: with the initial prepaid card purchase, I used cash at this store, but today was the first time I used a gift card. I might try again tomorrow as I suspect the cashier treated it as a gift card (I mentioned it was a gift card instead of letting them assume it was a credit card).
carwag25: Yeah, definitely don’t mention the gift card thing. Just have them ring it up and then use the keypad in front of you to pay by swiping your Visa gift card.
Easily got one of these last night. Cashier actually scanned my ID to get all my info and then just had to verify on the keypad and input my SSN and phone #. Seemed a bit easier than your ordeal.
I went to Target today and successfully transferred $1000 in Visa gift cards bought at Staples (5 $200 cards) to my Target Amex. It still works in Ann Arbor.
False alarm. Went into the same Target today and added $200 in visa gift cards to the Target reload today. Didn’t mention that they were gift cards and told them I was paying with a credit card… all good to go.
Missing something re scaling up. Why are we limited to $2000 per card per month? Is the max loadable per month only $2500? Why can’t you load $2000, spend/withdraw, and repeat?
I’ve been using this only to meet minimum spends on various cards so haven’t gone beyond $4000 a month anyway (I’ve 2 cards, and I load $4000 all in a single day which really annoys the people waiting in line but eh. I go just before store closing to do this.)
ArizonaGuy: Yes, the max load per month is $2500. If you try to go to $3K in a month, let us know if it works!
OK. I see that a card cannot have more than $2500 on it, as we know. I also see that “not more than $5,000 may be loaded to all Cards purchased by you in any 28-day period using your Funding Source.”
I don’t see that it says you can’t run $5000 through a single card. Granted, two cards easily gets you to $4000. I think I may attempt to load $3000 on a single card this month. Worst case is I get to load just $2500.
Try loading 2 $500 GC today at register, cashier took GC to check with supervisor and came back with “No, you can’t purchase with this card”. Walked away and try again in customer service(return area), lady didn’t know what to do and I told her what to do… success!
[...] checking account and money market and was given the option of using a credit card. I used my Target Amex and put $300 into one account and $200 into the other. It’s possible that some credit [...]
@Jonathan: would you mind sharing what you told the lady to do? In case I got rejected by loading with Visa GC, I will try customer service cashier like you did.
FM…can you load bluebird with amex target?
@CHRIS It is doubtful that you can use amex target to load BB. I tried today at walmart, but it failed after I swiped the card and entered the 4 digit security code on front. Next time I’ll try 3 digit code on back to see if that works. But it is unlikely.
I wonder how soon does BigCrumbs give us the cash back. I read on some forums that people had a hard time fighting for the cash back.
ArizonaGuy: I’m looking forward to hearing how that goes!
CHRIS: No, you can’t load bluebird with Amex target
Jon: I’m not sure how long it takes (several months, I think), but I’ve never had any trouble getting cash back from BigCrumbs.
I went to my local Target today and had a problem loading my Target AMEX with $200 AMEX gift cards. I tried 5 of them and each time a screen popped up on the cashier saying that you can’t use this type of payment. The cashier had no idea, in fact I had to walk her through how to load the card to begin with! Then I tried to load it with 5 $200 Visa gift cards and there was no problem at all.
Possible Bottom line: Maybe you can’t use AMEX gift cards to load the prepaid Target AMEX card?
Chris: Interesting! I don’t think I’ve tried an Amex gift card. Anyone else encounter this?
this is different chris
If you have 5 x $200 gift card, how do you pay for the $3 fee?
CHRIS: to pay the $3 fee when you have gift cards totaling to $1000, you have plenty of options: use cash, use a credit card, load $970 instead of $1000 so that the total comes to $1K even.
i tried to use amex gift cards to load my target amex by swiping them and it was a no go. will have to try a visa gift card next time.
[...] few people have reported failing when trying to use these to load the American Express for Target [...]
davina: What kind of Amex gift cards did you have? Where did you buy them from? Thanks
Was able to get $300 out of ATM at Sams Club DFW area.
Attention: Do not attempt to load Target Amex cards with bank gift cards. I went to two Target stores and got turned down. Now, I need to figure out how to spend those cards!
Unless someone can tell me which store(s) in the Los Angeles county area can do so. Once again, don’t buy gift cards!!!
Jon Chan: Did you try to use the bank gift cards as regular credit cards? If so, how did you get turned down? Whenever I do it, I don’t even show the cashier the gift card until after I’ve swiped it.
The cashier asked me for the cards and knew right away that they are gift cards. Moreover, she said this is fraud in doing so. I did tell her that this is a credit card, but she did not buy into this fact. Feel so bad now.
GC does work, just did reload of 2 Amex For Target cards with 3 Visa GC & 1 Debit today without problem.
According to the employee at target, only target GC is not allowed, all other Amex/Visa/MC GC/Debit cards are ok.
I don’t know what to say, TonyL. Which Target did you go? I am in Los Angeles.
Bay area Target store.
Just try it with a different cashier. Go to a different store. Come on, no need to world-is-ending.
So when I go to BigCrumbs, it isn’t letting me buy a gift card > $200? So for $2000 in gift cards it wants to charge me 39.50 plus the 5.95 shipping? Am I missing something?
Alex: it depends which gift card you choose. If you choose the most basic one (in the top, left corner) it should let you get a card as big as $3000.
Same experience as some of the others at Target in Chicago. The cashier refused to load the card with Visa GCs. Tried three different cashiers.
bandana: I don’t understand. Why does the cashier even know that you intend to use a Visa GC? When I load my card I just tell them I’ll pay by credit and then I swipe the Visa gift cards myself. Yes, you have to show them each card after you swipe, but I’ve never had anyone raise any issues with that.
Hey everyone, quick question. I found the prepaid cards at a Target by my house but no one in the store could figure out how to activate them. They tried scanning the two bar codes on the back of the packaging and input an amount to load on the card, but then the whole process failed. Am I supposed to ask them to open the package and swipe the card for the initial load? Thanks in advance.
[...] The Frequent Miler explains the Target Amex card. [...]
Even though there is a $2,500 balance limit on the Target AmEx, you can load up to $5,000 per 28-day period … but having 2 cards in the same name does not increase this limit.
From Target AmEx card agreement, “You may load funds to your Cards using your Funding Source until the Available Funds on any Card purchased by you equals $2,500 and on all card purchased by you equals $5,000, and you may load funds to your Cards using Direct Deposit until the Available Funds on any Card purchased by you equals $10,000 or on all Cards purchased by you equals $10,000. Not more than $1,000 may be loaded to any Card purchased by you in a 24 hour period using your Funding Source, not more than $5,000 may be loaded to all Cards purchased by you in any 28-day period using your Funding Source, and not more than $10,000 may be loaded to all Cards purchased by you in any 28-day period using Direct Deposit.”
So, you only need 1 card to load $5,000 per 28-day period at a cost of $15(-0.3%) for reload fees.
Also, free credit union ATMs can be found at many places of employment … check that unfamiliar ATM at work.
Personally, I find its easiest to hit minimum spending requirements by purchasing AmEx gift cards through BigCrumbs (with free shipping and no card purchase fees) earning +1.4% then liquidate through Target AmEx (-0.3%) and free ATMs(-0.7%).
I also found its advantageous to purchase gift cards to become Hilton Diamond with $40K in spend from Hilton AmEx Surpass, which earns +50% more points, before using Vanilla/Bluebird … this gives 4,500 Hilton points for $3.95 fee.
Ben: No, I don’t think they need to open the package. Try a few other cashiers next time.
J-Star: Thanks for that great information. I’ll plan to update this post with those corrections!
[...] Amazon Payments. Other options include loading them into your Serve account, loading your Target Amex, using them to buy reload cards, etc. Unfortunately, all of those approaches can be pretty [...]
[...] stores and opportunities exist in all locations. For example, I expect to make some use of my Target Amex card to help meet minimum spend requirements. Unfortunately, the Target Amex card is not [...]
The stores in my place doesn’t carry these.. can I buy them when I travel to other places that have these TargetAmex?
Can I reload these cards at target at my place where they don’t sell TargetAmex cards?
Thanks
Kris: Yes, you can buy them elsewhere then load them at your local Target
Thanks FM for the reply.
Do you think buying a 3K amex gift card with my amex gold businesscard would work to help meet the spending threshhold?
Also in amazon payments can I use the same gift card in three different accounts (my friends accounts)?
Thanks
Kris: Yes, buying a 3K amex gift card would work to meet the spend requirement on your Amex gold business card. No, I wouldn’t recommend using the same gift card on multiple Amazon payment accounts.
FM:
Thank you for your awesome website. I am currently trying to formulate a strategy, but I trying to find the best way to manufacture spend.
They don’t have the Target Amex within a 300 mile radius from me. I cannot use the WF Debit card, as I have issues with Wells Fargo. I have a BB card, but have had troubles purchasing a VR card at Walgreens. The register would not load it, apparently their system blocks it. I do not have a rewards debit card.
Is Amazon Payments the only other option? I would like not to get anyone else involved if at all possible.
Thanks for all of the info!
Roundabout: If you can wait a while for your money to come back, then I like Kiva as another option. See http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2012/05/31/minimum-spend-requirements-kivalens-to-the-rescue/
[...] Miler is a true master when it comes to gift cards, racking up spend, all things churn-able, and he explains the AMEX for Target thing better than I probably ever could. It’s kind of like Vanilla Reload, and basically just [...]
Can you use the Target Amex to do Amazon payments to avoid the ATM fees?
TV: you can use Amazon Payments that way, but there’s not much point in it. Instead, just use Amazon payments directly with whatever credit card or gift card you would have used to fund the Target card. That way you avoid the $3 load fee and the hassle. Keep in mind, though, that Amazon payments is limited to $1k per month
Is it possible to use the target AMEX & WF debit to load bluebird, if so, is there a transaction limit for the target AMEX and WF debit? I’m trying to find ways to load my bluebird account, in my area its basically impossible to find VR’s and my UFB direct debit card lost its miles earning capabilities.
Is it possible to use the target AMEX & WF debit to load bluebird, if so, is there a transaction limit for the target AMEX and WF debit? I’m trying to find ways to load my bluebird account, in my area its basically impossible to find VR’s and my UFB direct debit card lost its miles earning capabilities
Phil: you can use the WF debit to load bluebird by taking it to Walmart for a swipe reload. You cannot use the Target Amex to load Bluebird.
[...] Next week, TopCashBack is planning a one day special in which they’ll bump up the payout on American Express Gift Cards to 2% from the usual rate of 1.5%. This could be a great way to get ahead on paying taxes (see “Pay federal taxes by credit card, almost for free“). Or, if “almost free” isn’t good enough, see “Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free.” The rates listed in the latter post are out of date, but the general ideas still work. If you don’t have big tax payments to make, see also “Using the Target Amex card to run up spend.” [...]
Miler, initial loading can only be up to $500?
Thanh P: yes, that’s right
[...] Use Amazon Payment to cash out $1,000 per month from Visa/Amex/Master gift card or Use American Express for Target card to load [...]
[...] Use Amazon payment to liquidate $1,000 of Visa gift cards per month for free. Alternatively, use American Express at Target to load a $1,000 at a time for $3 [...]
So let me see if I understand this correctly:
Let’s say you buy a $2000 Amex gift card for $2012.90. You get 1.4% back from TCB, $28.18. Leaves you with $15.28. (I know 3k is a beter deal, I’m just using 2k as to not carry $ over month to month)
Costs $6 to load $2000. Costs $2.75×3 + $1.25 ($15.5 total) to get $1600 off the card at ATMs at Costco (3 fee paid atm withdrawls and 1 free withdrawal + costco atm fee). Spend the rest as normal for the remainder of the month as to not draw up too many red flags. You should get 2000 Ultimate Rewards points for a total of $0.32. Am I missing something?
i did its actually $4.25 to withdraw the money so you’re really negative $4.82/2000…but a total cost of $0.0024/mile… right?
[...] gift cards (see “Gift card PINs“), or to load and unload Target Amex cards (see “Using the Target Amex card to run up spend“), or to buy free after rebate [...]
If you buy a $2,000 AMEX gift card and load $1,000 will Target charge your $1,003? Leaving you with $997 or can you pay the $3 with cash/another card?
Sam: you could pay the $3 with cash or another card if you prefer. Or, pay with the Amex gift card entirely, then for the next load, pay $997 with the Amex gift card and $6 with another card.
Let me see this.
The straight up approach is using my CC to load the AMEX for Target. That means that if I use lets say my Chase or citi AA or AMEX SPG card, it will show as spending?
Luchex: Yes it shows up as spend
FM, that’s great news.
Thanks
I see that the target amex has a pin for ATM withdrawal. Since the daily withdrawal limit is $400, can you use it as a pin card to, let us say, load your Bluebird. ? I know that Amex cards generally do not have a PIN. Is this PIN for ATM use only or to be use for PIN based transaction? Would they charge $3 if you use it to buy MO or to load your Bluebird?
Thanks FM
I had to try but I had I didn’t want to deposit 1k on 1 cc (SUSPICIOS ROUND NUMBER)but at the same time I didnt want to pay $3 for loading less than 1k. So I remember you saying that you can use many cards on one load. I loaded 640 from amex spg, 140 from chase SW and 323. We’ll see if all go as spend in all 3 cards.
Sorry $323 on visa citi AA .
We’ll see what happens
luchex: No, you can’t use the Target card (or any Amex card) as a debit card even though they have an ATM PIN.
HERE IS SOME INFORMATION THAT CAN BE USEFUL. IT’S FROM THE BAY AREA, IT’S THE FEE FOR WITHDRAW MONEY FROM ALL AND EACH BRAND OF ATM.
http://www.ebtproject.ca.gov/Library/Cash_Access.pdf
Luchex: Thanks!