Last week I described the beginning of my quest to find the perfect Visa gift cards (see “The hunt for perfect gift cards, part 1“).  As a reminder, here are the characteristics of the “perfect” gift cards that I’m searching for:

• Low fee as a % of total value.  The ideal gift card would have a fee equal to, or less than, 1% or its maximum value.
• Ability to earn credit card category bonus points (see “Best Category Bonuses“).
• The ability to earn store reward points (such as fuel points) would be a big plus.
• Ability to set the card’s PIN quickly and easily.  I would like to be able to pickup the gift card at one store and then drive over to Walmart to load it to my Bluebird account with minimal fuss in between.
• High denomination.  Bluebird cards can be loaded up to $1000 per day (and $5000 per month) at Walmart.  If I’m going to visit Walmart anyway, I’d like to load the full $1000 each time.  The fewer gift cards it takes to do this, the better.  In other words, a $1000 gift card would be ideal (but I’ve never seen those in stores), and $500 gift cards are really good.  Cards with lower values are much less attractive.

In part 1, I visited Kroger, Speedway, OfficeMax, and Sears.  At that time I found that Visa gift cards from all four merchants worked fine to load Bluebird.  Overall, the gift card from Kroger was the best deal because I earned fuel points along with the purchase.  And, the OneVanilla card I bought at Speedway was the most convenient because it did not require a PIN to be set in advance.

In the comments of my previous post, a reader named Chris said:

I would like to add that you do NOT have to add a pin to the “Kroger” gift card. Just go to CS at Walmart give them your BB card and then swipe the card as debit, enter any pin and load. It sets up with the first pin too. It even asks if you want cash back!!

If that’s true, that would be huge.  Gift cards from Kroger would be both a fantastic deal and incredibly easy to use.  So, for the second part of this quest, I returned to Kroger to try this out.  I also bought $200 gift cards from Staples and Office Depot to see how those compared…

Kroger

I bought the same $500 U.S. Bank Visa gift card that I had bought before.  Again, I earned 500 fuel points for the purchase.

My goal was to see if I could use this card as a debit card at Walmart without first registering a PIN.  I went to Walmart’s MoneyCenter Express ATM (see “Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM“) to try to use the card to load $500 to my Bluebird card.  When it was time to enter my PIN, I made one up.  The machine tried to authorize the transaction, but it was denied.  I remembered that some gift cards use the last four digits of the card number as the default PIN so I tried again with those numbers, but once again the transaction was denied.  Ugh.  I then called Visa at 866-952-5653 to setup a PIN.  Once done, I tried again.  Again, the transaction was denied.  I then used my phone’s browser to register the card online.  And, I tried again.  Denied again.  Frustrated, I gave up on that card for the day.  I’ll try again this week.

Office Depot

My local Office Depot sells Vanilla Visa gift cards in denominations of $200 with a $6.95 fee.  I bought one and paid with a card that offers 5 points per dollar at office supply stores (see “Best Category Bonuses“). 

Since this was a Vanilla gift card sold by the same company as the OneVanilla card I had bought previously at Speedway, I thought that I would be able to use this card without first setting a PIN.  At Walmart, I went to the MoneyCenter Express ATM and attempted to load $200 using a PIN that I made up on the spot.  Success!

Staples

Just like Office Depot, Staples sells Visa gift cards in denominations as high as $200 with a $6.95 fee, but these are issued by MetaBank.  I bought one and paid with a card that offers 5 points per dollar at office supply stores (see “Best Category Bonuses“).

I wanted to see if this card could be used without setting a PIN in advance.  At Walmart’s MoneyCenter Express ATM I attempted to load $200 using a PIN that I made up on the spot. Denied.  I tried again, but this time I used the last four digits of the gift card’s 16 digit number.  Success!

Summary

My experiment to use the U.S. Bank gift card bought at Kroger without pre-setting a PIN was a failure, but I don’t know why.  Even after setting the PIN, I wasn’t able to use the card.  I’ll have to do more experiments with these cards to try to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  If you have experience with these cards, please let me know what you’ve found!

My experiments with gift cards from Office Depot and Staples were successful.  The gift card from Office Depot could be used with any made-up PIN (for the first time use), and the gift card from Staples could be used with the last four digits of the card number as the PIN. 

Let’s look at how the office supply store gift cards rate with each of my criteria:

Low Fee

$6.95 for a $200 gift card is definitely not a low fee at 3.48%.  $500 gift cards have fees close to 1%.  However, $100 gift cards generally have 6% fees, so these are right in the middle.

Category bonus

With the right credit/charge card (see “Best Category Bonuses“), 5X at office supply stores is the best category bonus available.  This goes a long way toward making up for the relatively high gift card fees.

Store Rewards

Neither Office Depot nor Staples give rewards for gift card purchases.

Easy PIN setup

It doesn’t get any easier than this.  No need to register a PIN with either card.  With the Office Depot card, use any PIN you want.  With the Staples card, use the last four digits of the card number.  If you forget which is which, simply always use the last four digits of the card number and you should be good to go.

High Denomination

These cards are in the middle of the pack again on this score.  They’re not nearly as convenient as $500 gift cards, but they’re twice as convenient as $100 gift cards.

Relative value of office supply gift cards

If you don’t mind dealing with $200 cards, then the main problem with the gift cards from Office Depot and Staples is their relatively high fee.  Suppose, though, you use some of the points earned to pay yourself back at one cent per point.  Would these cards still be a good deal?  Here’s the math:

• Buy $200 Visa gift card for $206.95
• Earn 5X:  5 X 206.95 = 1035 points
• Pay back fee with points: -695 points
• Points remaining: 340
• Points earned as a multiple of $200 spend: 1.7X

That’s pretty good!  This means that you can buy and liquidate Visa gift cards (through Bluebird) for free and still earn 1.7 points per dollar.  That’s a better earning rate than you would get from buying gift cards at a grocery store with most credit cards, but there are better deals (depending on how you value each type of point earned).  Here are a few examples:

• Earn 5X at grocery stores (and drug stores & gas stations) for the first year with the special Citi ThankYou Preferred offer.
• Earn 6% cash back at grocery stores with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card (capped at $6K per year in spend).
• Earn 2X at grocery stores with the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card.  This is only a better deal than the office supply options if you earn fuel points for your purchases (as I did at Kroger).

Conclusion

I have more work to do to figure out what’s going on with the U.S. Bank card from Kroger, so there’s really no news right now on that front.  As to the $200 gift cards from Office Depot and Staples, I found that they are quite easy to work with, and a really solid way to earn extremely valuable points if you don’t mind dealing with their lower denominations.

What have you found that works well or that doesn’t work at all? Please comment below.

Early this week I set out to find the perfect Visa gift cards.  Now that Visa gift cards can have PINs (see “Gift card PINs“), they are once again a great way to buy points cheaply and/or run up spend to meet minimum spend requirements or big spend thresholds.

Here are the characteristics of the “perfect” gift cards that I’m searching for:

• Low fee as a % of total value.  The ideal gift card would have a fee equal to, or less than, 1% or its maximum value.
• Ability to earn credit card category bonus points (see “Best Category Bonuses“).
• The ability to earn store reward points (such as fuel points) would be a big plus.
• Ability to set the card’s PIN quickly and easily.  I would like to be able to pickup the gift card at one store and then drive over to Walmart to load it to my Bluebird account with minimal fuss in between.
• High denomination.  Bluebird cards can be loaded up to $1000 per day (and $5000 per month) at Walmart.  If I’m going to visit Walmart anyway, I’d like to load the full $1000 each time.  The fewer gift cards it takes to do this, the better.  In other words, a $1000 gift card would be ideal (but I’ve never seen those in stores), and $500 gift cards are really good.  Cards with lower values are much less attractive.

I visited Kroger, Speedway, OfficeMax, and Sears.  I expect to do more exploratory trips to other stores in the near future, but for now let me describe what I found…

Kroger

At my local Kroger grocery store, I found a Visa card from U.S. Bank loadable up to $500 with a $5.95 fee.  Even though I could have paid with a card that earned a grocery store category bonus, I paid with a generic Amex gift card just to see if it would work (it did).  I was happy to see that I earned 500 fuel points from the purchase!  Each time I fill up my tank at a participating gas station, I can spend 100 fuel points to save 10 cents per gallon.  I tend to fill about 12 gallons at a time, so I would save $1.20 per fill-up.  With 500 fuel points, I could fill-up my tank 5 times, so the fuel points earned are worth $1.2 x 5 = $6 to me.  That’s pretty convenient since it exactly cancels out the $5.95 card fee!  If you have a larger fuel tank, you could save even more.

This was my first time setting a PIN on a gift card, so it took me quite a while.  First, I registered the card online using my iPhone’s browser.  I hoped that there would be an easy way to set the PIN online, but if it’s there, I didn’t find it.  Next, I called the number on my gift card activation receipt, but I was told to call Visa at 866-952-5653 instead.  At that number, after navigating through a few voice prompts, I was able to set my PIN over the phone.  If I had started with the correct phone number from the get-go, I could have set the PIN in two minutes altogether.

Later in the day, at Walmart, I used this gift card to load $500 to my Bluebird card without any trouble.

Speedway

After Kroger, I stopped at at a Speedway gas station.  They had several reloadable prepaid cards on display, but I believe those require setting up an account in order to get the PIN.  I didn’t want to do that.  The best non-reloadable I could find was the OneVanilla Prepaid Visa Card.  This one is loadable up to $500 with a $4.95 fee.  I paid with a credit card that earns bonus points at gas stations and was asked to show both my credit card and my driver’s license.  Sadly, I did not earn Speedy Rewards for this purchase.

Again, I used my iPhone’s browser to register the card online.  This time, there was an option to manage the PIN, but when I clicked it, it simply said that the PIN would be set the first time I made a PIN based purchase.  In other words, whatever PIN I type in when I first use the card would be the PIN that could be used from then on. 

Later in the day, at Walmart, I used this gift card to load $500 to my Bluebird card without any trouble.  I wondered, though, if the card would work without registering it online at all.  So, the next day I bought two more of these cards and visited Walmart again, but this time without registering the cards.  Both cards worked perfectly!  As far as ease in setting the PIN, it doesn’t get any better than that!

OfficeMax

I used to occasionally buy $200 Visa gift cards at OfficeMax (with $6.95 fees) using credit cards that earn category bonuses at Office Supply stores.  However, when I visited OfficeMax on Monday, the highest denomination cards they had were $100 Visa cards from MetaBank (with $5.95 fees).  Since it is sometimes possible (but not always!) to buy gift cards at OfficeMax with OfficeMax gift cards, it was worth finding out if these cards were any good.  So, I bought one.

Even though I didn’t think it would work, I tried to register this card’s PIN with the same number I had called earlier to register the card from Kroger (866-952-5653).  Not surprisingly, it didn’t work.  The automated system did not recognize the card number.  So, instead, I dialed a number that I found on the paper insert inside the gift card package (888-524-1283).  As with the Kroger experience, the system was fully automated, and after navigating several prompts I was able to set the PIN.  At Walmart, the card and PIN worked perfectly.

Sears

At Sears, I visited the secret gift card rack and picked up a $100 Visa card with a $5.95 fee.  This card looked almost exactly like the one from OfficeMax, except for two differences.  One difference was that this card was issued by University National Bank (as opposed to MetaBank).  Another difference was that the packaging on this card advertised the ability to manage the card with GoWallet (see my post “GoWallet.com simplifies your gift card life“).

I took the card to the register and tried to pay with my ShopYourWay Rewards points.  The cashier was happy to try it, but the system didn’t allow it.  I know from past experience that Sears’ gift cards do work, but I didn’t have any with me so I paid with a credit card that is offering me bonus points this quarter at department stores (hopefully this will qualify).

I started up the GoWallet app on my iPhone and I registered my new card.  I tried to use the QR code scanner to register automatically, but it didn’t work.  I had to type in the numbers.  I had hoped that the app would let me set the PIN, but I couldn’t find that option anywhere.  Instead, I tried calling the number I used with the OfficeMax gift card (888-524-1283).  It worked!  I successfully set the PIN.

Walmart

At Walmart, I used their ATM to swipe reload my and my wife’s Bluebird cards (see “Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM“).  I tried to use more than one gift card in a single transaction, but that attempt failed.  Instead, I successfully loaded each gift card to my Bluebird cards one at a time (with a completely separate transaction each time).

Summary

Each of the options I tried have their pros and cons, but overall I’d say that the cards from Kroger and Speedway were the best.  Let’s look at each characteristic:

Low Fee

The OneVanilla card from Speedway had the lowest fee (1%).  The Visa gift card from Kroger was very close behind with a 1.2% fee.  The cards from OfficeMax and Sears trailed way behind with their 6% fees.

Category bonus

5X category bonuses are available at all of the locations I visited except for Sears, but it is possible to buy Sears’ gift cards at other locations in order to get 5X bonuses, and then use those gift cards at Sears to buy Visa cards.  So, I’d say that all options are roughly equal here, with the caveat that the best category bonus depends on which types of points you prefer and which credit cards you have.  For example, I’m a huge fan of Ultimate Rewards points, so, all else being equal, I would always opt to earn those over Citi ThankYou points.

Store Rewards

In all of my purchases I presented my store loyalty card, but only Kroger rewarded me with points (fuel points, in this case).  Since the points earned are worth at least the amount of the card fee (to me, anyway), the rewards make a big possitive difference in the value of shopping for gift cards at Kroger.

Easy PIN setup

The easiest PIN setup by far was with the OneVanilla card from Speedway since it required no setup at all!  I was able to use the cards at Walmart literally right out of the box.  Awesome.  With the other 3 cards, setting the PIN required the following: dialing the correct phone number; following voice prompts to enter the card number, expiration date, and security number; wading through menus for the option to set a PIN; and then entering the PIN twice.  It sounds worse than it is.  My phone records show that I spent only 2 minutes on each call.  So, none of the options were terrible, but the OneVanilla card was the best.

High Denomination

Kroger and Speedway sell gift cards with denominations as high as $500.  This is a convenient amount since it only requires two transactions to load a Bluebird card to $1000 at the Walmart ATM.  Dan’s Deals says that at the checkout lane you can use up to 3 cards per transaction, so it’s possible to fill up a Bluebird card with one transaction and two swipes by going to a live cashier.  With the $100 cards from OfficeMax and Sears you would need to do four separate transactions in the checkout lane, or ten transactions at the ATM.  Either way, that would be painful.

Conclusion

The Kroger and Speedway stores near me offer $500 Visa gift cards, and I consider each to be good deals.  The OneVanilla option at Speedway (and also at many other stores) is better if your main goal is convenience.  Being able to skip the step of registering a PIN is great.  If overall cost is your main concern, then the Kroger option is better as long as you can make good use of the awarded fuel points.

There are many other gift card options out there, including $1000 Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall.com, $200 gift cards at Staples and Office Depot, and more.  I’ll continue to investigate and report on other options, but I welcome reader contributions as well!  What have you found that works well or that doesn’t work at all?  Please comment below.

Now that it is possible to set PINs on Visa gift cards, my interest in reloading Bluebird at Walmart has been rekindled.  Until now, I’ve found it to easier and more rewarding to load my Bluebird account with Vanilla Reload cards.  Now that giftcards have PINs, though, Walmart swipe reloads have become a fantastic way to turn gift card balances into cash (see “Gift card PINs“).

On Monday, with four gift-cards and two Bluebird cards in-hand, I headed to Walmart.  I wasn’t looking forward to the idea of trying to explain to a cashier what I wanted to do, so I looked for an automated solution.  I decided to try out Walmart’s “MoneyCenter Express” ATM (see photo below).

I couldn’t find an option to reload Bluebird cards, but I remembered that Bluebird was essentially an upgrade to Walmart’s older MoneyCard solution.  So, under the heading “Card Services”, I selected “Walmart MoneyCard”:

The machine prompted me to swipe my MoneyCard.  I swiped my Bluebird card instead.  I then followed the prompts to reload my card.  I selected to pay by debit card and then swiped my gift card and entered my PIN.  The payment was accepted and a receipt printed out showing the old and new balance on my Bluebird account.  Success!  As expected, no fee was charged for the swipe reload.  I then repeated the process with 3 more gift cards across two Bluebird cards (mine and my wife’s).

Keep in mind that swipe reloads are limited to $1000 per day and $5000 per month (across both Vanilla Reloads and swipe reloads).

While I still don’t enjoy driving out of my way to Walmart, the ability to reload Bluebird via Walmart’s special ATMs makes the process quick and easy.

The miles and points community is abuzz with talk about the fact that some Visa and MasterCard gift cards now allow you to setup PINs so that they can be used as debit cards.  Here’s why we care… 

Background

Last week a reader reached out to me with exciting news.  He had bought a $500 Visa gift card at Safeway, and along with the receipt was a piece of paper saying that these cards can now be setup with PINs.  The notice was explicit that the PIN could not be used for ATM withdrawals, but it did not exclude other ways of getting money from debit cards (reloading Bluebird, buying money orders, etc.).  Not long after receiving that email, a new thread was created on FlyerTalk with similar information (here).  Then, on Saturday, Million Mile Secrets published a well researched post on the topic: Breaking News: You Can Now Use Gift Cards For Cash Back, Loading Bluebird, and Buying Money Orders!

Why we care

There are many ways to get points and miles when buying bank gift cards. The problem has always been figuring out what to do with those gift cards once you get them.  Sure, you could use them for everyday spend, but in many ways they’re inconvenient.  Most of us would rather turn them directly into cash, if possible.  Now, with PIN numbers, there are several ways to convert bank gift cards to cash (or to pay bills that usually can’t be paid by credit card):

1. Pay for Bluebird swipe-reloads at Walmart.
2. Buy money orders.
3. Pay bills at the Walmart Money Center.
4. Get cash back at certain stores when paying with a debit card.
5. Get a cash advance at a bank.

Details about most of these techniques are in Million Mile Secrets’ post on this topic.  Note that these are ideas that might work.  I have yet to personally test any of them.

Cautions

• Not all gift cards are PIN enabled. Be careful about which ones you buy.  Million Mile Secrets was able to setup a PIN with a card from U.S. Bank National Association.  This is the one that has you register at mygiftcardsite.com.  The reader who had contacted me, had bought a gift card issued by Metabank.  This is the one that has you register at giftcardmall.com or gowallet.com.
• Not all stores accept gift cards for PIN transactions.  Again, see the research done by Million Mile Secrets.
• Please use restraint.  If you spend too much on gift cards you may be flagged by your credit card company’s fraud department for possible money laundering.  They could subject you to a financial review or simply close all of your accounts.

Credit card bonus categories

Bank gift cards charge a fee on top of their stored value so buying a gift card with a rewards credit card isn’t necessarily a good deal.  Often the purchase fee will more than offset any gain you get from your credit card.  A great trick is to use a credit card that earns extra points or cash back at certain types of stores.  Here are some of the best options:

• Citi ThankYou Preferred: A special sign-up offer exists that will give you 5 points per dollar at grocery stores, drug stores, and gas stations for 12 months.  See details here.
• American Express Blue Cash Preferred: 6% cash back at grocery stores, up to $6K per year in spend.
• US Bank Cash+: 5% cash back at electronics stores.
• Fort Knox Federal Credit Union Visa Platinum: 5% cash back at gas stations.
• PenFed Platinum Rewards: 5 points per dollar at gas stations.
• Citi Forward: 5 points per dollar at book stores.
• Chase Ink: 5 points per dollar at office supply stores.

In order to reduce costs, always look for the highest value gift cards available since the gift card fee will then be just a small percentage of the overall value of the card.

Opportunities

Here are a few opportunities that jump out to me:

Grocery Stores: Many grocery stores offer fuel points, and they sometimes offer extra fuel points when purchasing gift cards (see “What is a fuel point worth?“).  With the right credit card, it’s possible to earn 5X points or 6% cash back in addition to fuel points!  Not all grocery stores will give fuel points for variable load gift cards, though, so watch out for that. 

Merchant Rewards: Similar to grocery store fuel points, some stores have rewards programs in which they give you a percentage of each purchase back as rewards dollars to be spent in the future.  Try to find a merchant that offers such a program, sells bank gift cards, and gives rewards for gift card sales.  There aren’t many with this combination, but I can think of at least one. 

GiftCardMall: GiftCardMall sells Visa gift cards online with values up to $1000 each and with only a $3.95 fee.  Even after accounting for shipping costs, your total purchase cost of a $1000 card should be less than $10.  In other words, your costs will be less than 1%.  You can eliminate the 1% cost altogether by first buying Amex gift cards via BigCrumbs (for 1.4% cash back), and then buying the Visa gift cards with the Amex gift cards.  If you’re interested, please consider using my BigCrumbs referral link.  You can also go through TopCashBack to Amex for 1.5% cash back, but I’m still waiting for my own cash back to become payable from TopCashBack before I’ll feel comfortable recommending that approach over BigCrumbs.

Rebates and promotions: Every now and then a store will offer a rebate or discount on Visa or MasterCard gift cards.  Watch for those promotions and jump on them when they’re available.

Analysis

Reload cards are still a much easier option for those of us still able to buy them with credit cards.  For others, though, gift cards with PINs can be a great option for meeting credit card minimum spend requirements, buying points & miles cheaply, or working towards big spend bonuses. 

Some of the best opportunities for cashing out gift cards require visits to Walmart.  If you frequently visit Walmart anyway, gift cards with PINs may be a great new opportunity for you.

I have not yet had a chance to test any of the above ideas, so please do your own research before jumping in.

Last week I outlined ways to earn hundreds of thousands of points and miles through gift card churning (see “The art of gift card churning @ #chicagoseminars“).  Today, I have a number of specific updates for people who have taken gift card churning to heart…

Kohl’s triple dip not working

In my recent post “How to maximize your Freedom 5X purchases” I suggested that it might be possible to earn 25 points per dollar at Kohl’s by going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s to buy Kohl’s gift cards with your Freedom card, and then go through the mall again to use the gift cards.  However, a reader reported on Saturday that this trick didn’t work for them.  They received points for using a gift card at Kohl’s, but not for buying a gift card.  One reader experience doesn’t prove that the triple dip won’t work for everyone, but its probably not worth the risk.

PlasticJungle / TopCashBack drops to 2.5%

PlasticJungle is a gift card buyer / reseller.  They’re a great resource if you have unused gift cards you’d like to sell (at less than face value).  And, they’re a great resource if you want to buy gift cards at a discount (which is a great way to save money almost anywhere).  Until recently, a cash back portal (TopCashBack) offered 4% cash back at PlasticJungle if you started from their site.  Cash back is awarded whether you buy gift cards from Plastic Jungle, or sell them.  Recently, TopCashBack reduced the payout to 2.5% cash back.  Accordingly, I’ve updated the post “Gift cards: buy low, sell high, get cash back” which can always be found on my Resources tab:

Walmart gift cards cheaper than usual

Lately, $500 Walmart gift cards have been on sale on EBay for about 5% off of face value (e.g. $475).  That’s pretty good, especially considering that purchases of merchant gift cards on EBay earn EBay bucks, which means you get an additional 1.9% rebate (2% of $475 = $9.5, which equals 1.9% of $500).  The catch is that the sellers don’t ship the cards for a month or more.

One reason that discount Walmart gift cards are interesting is that Walmart sells Visa gift cards online and will let you pay with gift cards.  The best value, currently, is to buy $200 Visa or MasterCard gift cards for $206.88 each.  This amounts to a 3.44% fee.  However, if you pay with a Walmart gift card that you bought at a 6.9% discount, you are still well ahead!

OfficeMax tightens up

In the posts “10% off everything and 7% off everything else” and “How to buy points for free” I described a few great ways to leverage the American Express OPEN Savings program now that those savings apply only to online orders at OfficeMax.  The trick involves buying OfficeMax gift cards online (for 10% cash back) and then upgrading them in-store (e.g. use them to buy better gift cards).  I haven’t had any trouble upgrading at my local OfficeMax, but a number of readers have reported that their OfficeMax stores don’t allow it.  In fact, fellow blogger Delta Points tells me that his OfficeMax used to allow it, but has recently cracked down.  If you’re thinking of trying this technique, consider starting very small to check whether your local OfficeMax store is upgrade-friendly.

American Express and Walmart today announced a new prepaid card called Bluebird (see press release here).  This replaces a product with the same name that American Express had beta tested through Walmart earlier in the year.  The new Bluebird prepaid card will be available next week.

What is it?

Bluebird is a prepaid American Express card very similar to the prepaid American Express cards I’ve written about many times before (for examples, see “One card to rule them all,” “How many Amex prepaid cards can I have?,” and “Amex Prepaid cards for foreign travel.”  Like American Express’ other prepaid product, BlueBird has no fees other than $2 for ATM withdrawals.

How can you get one?

Starting next week, you can either buy a .temporary card at Walmart and then upgrade to a permanent card, or simply order the card for free from www.bluebird.com.

How is it different?

Here are some features that appear to be different between Bluebird and the regular old Amex prepaid card:

• ATM Use: With Bluebird, if you setup direct deposit, then all ATM withdrawals are free from MoneyPass ATMs.  Otherwise all ATM withdrawals incur a $2 fee (plus ATM owner fees).  With the old prepaid card, the first ATM use per month is free, then $2 per withdrawal afterwards; and ATM owner fees always apply.
• Bluebird has no fee “electronic bill pay.”  We’ll have to wait to see what exactly this entails.
• Bluebird explicitly allows funding via debit card for $2 per load.  it will be very interesting to see if we can load from Vanilla Visa debit cards.
• According to the cardmember agreement, Bluebird allows loading from Vanilla Reload packs, but it is unclear to me whether this agreement has been updated with the new card’s features.  UPDATE: I called Amex and they confirmed that this card will be reloadable with Vanilla Reload cards.
• Bluebird allows person to person payments (like Amex’s Serve product).
• Bluebird will have a mobile app for managing your money.
• Additional features: “In the first quarter of 2013, Bluebird will be adding additional features, such as more options to deposit money and check-writing capabilities.“

Important: bluebird Card Closure Notification

It appears that everyone (including me) who bought a prepaid Amex at Office Depot and upgraded it to a permanent card has received an email from Amex saying that their old bluebird account will be canceled.  The email looks like this:

I’m pretty sure that this email is a mistake.

American Express did have an old Bluebird product that is being shut down, but it is not the same as the product bought at Office Depot.  So, I think the email is a mistake.  I expect that we’ll get apology emails soon.  If it turns out that this isn’t a mistake, it will be a great opportunity to cash out since American Express is offering to send people checks for their balance.

UPDATE: I called Amex and they confirmed that this appears to be a mistake.  They are currently investigating.

UPDATE 2: I just got this email confirming the mistake:

More about Bluebird soon

As more information comes out about Bluebird, I’ll do my best to keep you informed.  Overall, I see this as similar to, but even better than what we have today as long as Vanilla Reload packs can be used.  Even without Vanilla Reload cards, though, I think this product is ripe with possibilities.

This is interesting.  It appears that, at some Walmarts at least, you can forcibly shut down their cash registers simply by using an American Express Prepaid card.

A few weeks ago I received this email from a reader (I’ve abbreviated a few parts and bolded some for emphasis):

Have you heard of any technical problems associated with using the AMEX prepaid credit card at Wal-mart stores? … I’ve had success using it at ATMs and virtually all types of merchants (gas, grocery, retail, etc.) with the exception of Wal-mart.  On two different occasions, when I tried to swipe the card at check-out, it essentially shut down the clerk’s entire computer system.  We moved to a different register thinking the problem was with that specific machine but the same thing happened.  So today, I tested it at another Wal-mart store elsewhere in town… Same story.  I even asked the clerk to manually input the 15-digit code thinking it could be a problem with the physical card; however, same result.  Computer shuts down and we have to move to a different register.

Have any of your other readers mentioned anything remotely similar? I called AMEX customer service but they had no clue.  From the expressions of the Wal-mart clerks, they had never seen anything like this before either. 

When I read the above email, I remember thinking that this was a weird fluke.  I meant to write a post asking if it had happened to anyone else, but I was traveling at the time and I forgot to put it on my to-do list.  Last night, though, I was reminded by a new email from a reader known as Perryplatypus (again, I’ve bolded parts for emphasis):

I recently ran into an interesting issue with the Amex Prepaid at Walmart in two different states Texas and Oklahoma. I tried to make two small purchases like $30 and $20 and the card completely froze up the Walmart register! It actually sent the register into a countdown sequence from 500. It completely locked up the register and both times they had to open new registers to check us out. Then I just paid for my items using my SPG Amex instead. It looks like Walmart has a software issue with this card and I contacted Amex prepaid today to let them know the issues I had. I’m just wondering if you or any of your other readers have had this problem? Also no charges ever appeared for these transactions and the card is still working well with all other merchants.

Reader experiences

Has anyone else tried using the American Express Prepaid cards at Walmart?  What was your experience?

Disclaimer

I am in no way suggesting that anyone should use this card as a weapon against Walmart.

Related Posts and Links

• One card to rule them all
• American Express Prepaid Card FAQ
• Order the American Express® Prepaid Card for free (affiliate link)

If you’re looking to meet minimum spend on a new credit card, or increase spend on a card with bonuses for high spenders, here’s a neat little trick.  For this to work, you need either a Chase Ink card which gives 5X points for office supplies, or an Amex business card with OPEN savings which gives 5% back on purchases at OfficeMax of $100 or more.  See Preparing for Miles for more info about these cards.

Here it is in a nutshell:

• Go to OfficeMax and buy EBay gift cards.  Spend at least $100 each time to ensure you get 5% back with Amex cards.  If you’re using an Ink card, you can optionally go to Staples or Office Depot to see if they carry EBay cards.
• Watch EBay for $500 Walmart gift cards.  These usually sell for $485, which is a 3% discount.  When available, use your EBay gift cards to buy the Walmart cards.  You will get an additional 2% back in EBay bucks.
• When your Walmart cards arrive, go through Walmart.com to buy smaller denomination physical cards using your $500 card.  See Washing Walmart for more info.
• Go through MyDealsAndCoupons to PlasticJungle. Sell your Walmart gift cards to PlasticJungle for 92 cents on the dollar.  In other words, in exchange for your $500 worth of gift cards, Plastic Jungle will give you a check for $460.  Through MyDealsAndCoupons you will earn 3% of the sale price (3% of $460 = $13.80).  This comes to 2.76% of $500.

When you add up your costs and savings, you see that you lose 8% value when selling to PlasticJungle, but you gain 5% from Amex OPEN (or 5X from Ink) and 2.76% from MyDealsAndCoupons.  In other words, cash-wise, you end up very close to even.  Once you add in the 2% back in EBay bucks, though, you actually come out ahead!

Why only $10K?

EBay has a posted limit to how many gift cards can be used per 180 day period.  Supposedly you are limited to $500 in gift cards per purchase, and no more than $5000 in purchases in any 180 day period.  I say “supposedly” because a person on MilePoint reported buying a mutli-thousand dollar ring with gift cards.  It appears likely that EBay doesn’t enforce these limits, but I don’t yet have personal experience to prove it one way or another.

EBay gift card terms & conditions:

No more than a total of $500 in Gift Cards may be used per eBay purchase. Further, unverified PayPal accounts are limited to a total of $500 in Gift Card purchases in any 30-day period and verified PayPal accounts are limited to $5,000 in Gift Card purchases in any 180-day period.

Notes

• When purchasing more than $100 worth of gift cards at a time at OfficeMax, the cashier will need a manager’s override.
• EBay gift cards at OfficeMax usually are available in $25 and $50 denominations.  Yes, it is a bit painful to type in 10 gift card numbers when buying a Walmart card through EBay.  Often the cards start with the same sequence, so copy that sequence to the clipboard and paste in each time to save a little trouble.

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Last month I bought a $500 Walmart gift card on EBay.  When it arrived, I was afraid I had been scammed.  Read on to see why I bought the card, why I feared trouble, and how I protected my purchase…

To buy the $500 card, I spent $485 worth of EBay gift cards that I had purchased at Kmart using Sears gift cards.  The Sears gift cards had been purchased at Sears.com through the Ultimate Rewards mall for 10 points per dollar.  Are you with me so far?  When I purchased the $500 gift card on EBay for $485 I earned $9.70 in EBay bucks that can be used for future purchases.  My goal now is to turn the Walmart gift card into about $470 cash.  In the end, I will have spent $30 in exchange for $24.70 in EBay credit ($15 left over from the gift card and $9.70 in EBay bucks) and 5000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth $65.50 in Fair Trading Prices).  Since I’m sure I’ll use the EBay credit soon, my final tally will be to have spent $5.30 in exchange for 5000 Ultimate Rewards points.  That’s an excellent return, but arguably more trouble than it’s worth.  Anyway, you now know why I bought the Walmart card.

The card took almost a month to arrive.  I have no idea why the seller took so long, but be prepared if you make similar purchases!  Worse, when it arrived it looked weathered and used.  The rectangle on the back that hides the pin code had already been scratched off.  I was worried, of course, that I had been cheated.  Had the seller spent all the money on the card already?  I went to Walmart.com to check the gift card balance and was relieved to see that it had the full $500 amount on the card.  

I was still worried, though.  An unethical gift card seller could keep a copy of the card number and pin and, over time, drain the card of its value without the buyer knowing.  I was worried that if I sold the card to a gift card re-seller, as I had planned, they might receive the card with less value than when I shipped it.

Luckily, Walmart is one of the few online merchants that will let you buy gift cards using gift cards.  So, I used the questionable gift card to buy $500 worth of brand spanking new gift cards.  I picked out cute ones, just because I could:

I could have bought one $500 card, but I bought 5 $100 cards instead.  This way I can test out different card re-sellers to see who gives the best cash back and service when selling to them.  Also, some won’t buy cards with more than $300 value, so the smaller denominations are better in that way.  

The cards arrived promptly and in perfect condition.  I’ve sold two already and hope to report back the results soon.

So, there you have it: gift card laundering at its finest.

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A reader contacted me yesterday asking about the best way to meet minimum spend on her American Express business card.  She has $1000 left to spend and wants to buy Walmart gift cards.  Of course she could simply go to Walmart to buy them, but she’d like to save money and/or earn points too.  So, what is the best option?  Here’s the best approach I can think of:

Step 1: Look for discounted Walmart cards

Go to GiftCardGranny.com and search for Walmart.  You may want to uncheck the box on the left that shows Ebay Auctions since these are not final prices.  As of the time of this writing, there are many cards available for anywhere from 2% to 5% off their face value.

Step 2: See if any of the discount cards qualify for additional cash back

Before buying the cards found in step 1, check to see if you can earn cash back by going through a cash back shopping portal:

• Through ShopAtHome, the following offers are available:
  • CardPool.com offers .8% cash back
  • GiftCertificates.com offers 3% cash back
  • GiftCards.com offers 3.5% cash back
• Through FatWallet, you can get 1% cash back for purchases made at PlasticJungle
• Through eBay, you always get 2% back in the form of eBay bucks.

Step 3 (optional): Buy bank gift cards in order to buy the Walmart cards

Through the American Express OPEN Savings program, purchases of more than $100 at OfficeMax result in a 5% rebate!  So, you can go to OfficeMax and buy $200 Visa gift cards.  Once you account for the $6.95 fee per card, you end up with a savings of 1.7%.  You can now use these Visa gift cards to buy the discounted Walmart cards you found in steps 1 and 2.

NOTE: Only do this step if the gift cards you intend to buy are each $200 or less!  If they cost more, it probably won’t be possible to use the Visa cards to purchase the Walmart cards.  Another option is to go through Big Crumbs in order to buy an American Express gift card in a larger denomination.  Through Big Crumbs you will get 1.4% back, but you will have to pay Amex a service fee and shipping.  Truthfully, unless you buy a very large denomination card from Amex (in order to minimize the % loss due to shipping and fees), this option is probably not worth the effort.

Add it up

Through the 3 steps above, it may be possible to save as much as 5% in step 1, 3.5% in step 2, and 1.7% in step 3 for a total savings of 10.2%! This would amount to about $100 in savings!

Other options

In this post I detailed how to go about getting Walmart gift cards with as big of a discount as possible.  There are, however, many other ways to meet the minimum spend on your credit cards.  For some examples, please see “Top ten ways to spend a lot of money and get most of it back.”

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