Month: June 2015

Amex Serve at FD

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In the last few days, I have visited to many Family Dollar stores. Some stores allow debit card load, and some don’t. I keep receipts of reload to remember which store allows debit card load for the future. A result was better than I expected. I have visited 15 stores and found 7 stores allow debit card load. 4 out of 7 are the store I found additionally with these visits, and the rest are the store I visited last year and confirmed they still allowed debit card load.

loading amex serve at family dollar

I’ve used VGC by Meta bank and Bancorp so far. I haven’t used MCGC by US Bank that I couldn’t use at Walmart a few days ago. There are many other stores I haven’t visited yet. I will go and see if they allow debit card load.

As for online debit card load, I decided not to call Amex. According to some forum posts, it seems it’s better not to call to draw their attention. Although I received an email from Amex regarding of a linked debit card, my Serve account doesn’t show any error message. It looks OK to load online. But to be cautious, I will wait for a few weeks. I gave up loading this month.

Amex Serve at WM&FD experience

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The closest Walmart store from my home has a kiosk. A month ago, (when I decided to switch from Redbird to Serve) I visited to see if a kiosk was in a good shape. At that time, it was working well. To make sure, I actually swiped my reloadable prepaid cards (Mango and PayPay prepaid) and proceeded until it prompted me to swipe a card of payment. And then I canceled because I just wanted to make sure it was working, and for both cards, it charges $3.74 reload fee.

Today, I visited there to load Serve with VGCs and MCGCs. My plan was to use five GCs. But, a kiosk was not working. The kiosk was surrounded by many shopping carts and put by a few plastic tapes. It wasn’t turned off, though. A display showed “Approval Needed”. Reportedly, it causes by loading a lot of money in the short period. (According to the forum, the limit is $1999 in 10 mins.) I have seen it frozen many times, but I have never seen it blocked by shopping carts and tapes.

us bank mastercard gift cardThere was no choice. I had to give up using the kiosk and tried to load at cashiers. I used an MCGC issued by US Bank, and it didn’t go through. The system treated the card as credit. A display of PIN pad prompted to sign for a moment and then automatically canceled the whole transaction. I asked a cashier to do it again. I tried to hit the cancel button to change from credit to debit. But other clerk or manager came up from behind and saw me using a gift card. He told the cashier they couldn’t accept gift cards for reloads. I gave up loading today and left the store.

After that, I headed to Family Dollar. The store is very close to Walmart. I have visited once and loaded with a Vanilla VGC. That was about a year ago. As the store I went yesterday, I was worried that they stop accepting debit cards for reloads. But they still allow it. I successfully loaded with $400VGC from Target.

There are many FD stores in my neighborhood. I’m going to visit all stores and see which store accept debit cards for reloads.

I remember that I was able to use MCGC by US bank at a kiosk. But I don’t remember how long ago. Maybe, the system updated to block these cards by now, or it happens only at a register. Or, if I hit cancel on PIN pad right after a swipe, does it give me a chance to choose between debit and credit?

Today, I got a bad news from WM and good one from FD. Since a reload with Vanilla VGC via FD is still working, I went Target.com to buy more VGCs, but they were sold out. However, I found an incredibly great new item. Click here to see it yourself.

My experience with my Amex Serve so far

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I received Amex Serve card yesterday and tried to do something, but there has been no good progress at all.

First, I tried to load with $400VGC at Family Dollar, which I bought at Target.com. The gift card has the same feature as Vanilla VGCs. So, you can’t use it at Walmart for reloads. I visited only one store today. The store used to accept debit cards for reloads, but now they accept cash only. There are three stores I loaded with VGCs last year. I will see if they still accept debit cards for reloads.

Second, I received an email from Serve about the investigation of Debit card I linked yesterday. They always ask you to upload photocopies of ID and Debit card whenever you change linked cards so you can’t use prepaid cards for online-reloads. I linked PayPal Business Debit card and soon received an email that asked me to send photocopies. I did, and here is their response:

Hello

During a recent review of your American Express Serve® Account we noticed you have linked a prepaid card that is not a permitted funding source. The acceptable card funding sources are a bank debit or credit card.

Please contact a Customer Care Professional immediately at 1-800-555-4318 so we can discuss further details on this matter.

Thanks,

The American Express Serve Team

“we noticed you have linked a prepaid card that is…..” This isn’t correct. PP debit card is not a prepaid card. I used the card for Serve’s online reloads last year. I’ve been using it for Redbird online-reloads until I closed my account this month. Do they confuse it with PP Prepaid MasterCard? Or they only accept debit cards issued by major banks now?

I have two reward-earning debit cards. One is PP debit card, and the other one is Discover Cashback Checking Debit card. Discover debit card can earn 10 cents per transaction, up to 100 transactions per month. If you want to earn maximum rewards with this debit card, you have to make (100) $10-online-reloads every month. It would be obviously an abuse against both Discover and Serve. So, the only choice for me is to use PP debit card. I will call Amex tomorrow to see if it was a mistake or a new rule.

And I also need to go to Walmart and other Family Dollar stores tomorrow. While I was waiting for Serve card, there are many prepaid cards piled up. I hope ATM works good and find FD store that still accepts debit cards for reloads.

Amex Serve card arrived, enough time to load fully this month

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I received Amex Serve card yesterday. This is my second card. It has a new design (see picture below.) I closed Serve account at the end of last year and opened Redbird. Redbird had been a great tool for MS until May 6th. But now, I can’t use it for MS at any Target stores in my neighborhood. So, I closed early this month and re-opened Serve.

amex serve card

I activated the card and linked my bank account and debit card. For a bank account, I need to wait for probably a few days to see a small deposit that Serve will make to my bank account. And then I will need to verify it. For a debit card, I linked PayPal Business Debit card. The debit card is linked to my PayPal account in which its balance is always zero. I set PayPal Extras MasterCard credit card as a backup funding source. When I use the debit card, an amount is automatically charged to PP Extras credit card. However, it didn’t work with Redbird, I think that’s because a type of transaction is not a regular purchase, rather like a cash advance. So, PayPal declined transactions, I guess. If you have enough money in your PayPal account, it goes through.

I thought I would be the same result for Serve, but I just wanted to try adding $200 with PP debit card that is linked zero-balance PayPal account. As I thought, the website showed the same error message as Redbird. And soon after, I received an email that told me to upload copies of my ID and the debit for a security reason.

link debit card with serve account

When I have money in your PayPal account, there was no problem to online-load both Serve and Redbird. Although the transaction is only a transfer of your money from PayPal account to Serve account, you can earn 1% cash back from PP debit card.

Serve sent an email that I need to upload photocopy of ID and debit card. During the investigation, some features can’t be used. Whenever you change linked cards, they always request photocopies. Usually, the investigation will be done next day.

I see some changes on the website from last year. Amex Offers are visible on the website. You can see a list, details of offers and add them without leaving for Twitter or Facebook. However, you’d better check all of them because numbers of offers are different in websites. Currently, I see 35 offers at Serve.com, but there are 49 offers at Facebook. So, check all of them not to miss good offers.

amex offer at serve dot com

Discover Double All Cash Back and Q2 Bonus Category

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Background

2nd quarter of Discover will end in 10 days. I don’t spend much on these categories (restaurants and movies), and usually, these GCs can be purchased from GC resellers with more than 5% discount. So, I hadn’t even tried anything to earn bonus rewards until I enrolled in Double All Cash Back promotion. Now, a category bonus reward is 10% cash back. Although there is not much time left, I tried to find a way to earn Q2 category bonus reward.

discover double all cash back

Transaction in a statement

As a test, I bought $50 e-gift card. A category of the transaction is Travel/Entertainment. I don’t know if it’s eligible for Q2 category bonus. As for Discover Deals, I received a cashback confirmation email a few days after the transaction. Hopefully, both category bonus and Discover Deals cash back will be posted and then doubled. When everything goes well, I can make a profit by buying and selling gift cards.

cashback from dd for fandango gc purchase

Physical or Electrical Gift Card?

I didn’t know much about Fandango. But at least I knew it was the website you could buy movie tickets online. And I thought their gift cards were used online only. For that reason, I assumed that Save Ya would accept e-gift cards for sale. That was a mistake. They need you to send physical gift cards for sale. Cardpool accepts e-gift cards, but payment is 5% less than a payment of physical gift cards sales.

Recalculation

If cash backs from DD and category bonus are posted and then doubled, e-gift cards are like 30% off price. Cardpool offers 70% for Fandango GCs. So, if you buy and sell e-gift cards, you can’t make a profit. If you buy and sell physical gift cards for 75% of face value, you can make a profit although physical gift cards charge a $1.95 fee. So, around 3% will remain in Discover’s reward. There is $1.95 fee per card and no discount even if you order multiple gift cards.

Physical Gift Card Order

I decided to keep $50 e-gift card for myself and order physical gift cards for resell. I ordered five $100 gift cards. The total is $509.75. Fandango has a promotion for GC purchase of $50 or more. For each order, I got one $20 promo code to spend at Shutterfly (one for e-code purchase and one for physical GC purchase, total two promo codes.) I don’t know what they are. I will find out later.

fandango gc promotion

Summary

All Double Cash Back promo is great, but the timing is bad. It’s the last month of Q2 now, and there is no way to confirm all cash back before Q2 category bonus ends. Since I received an email from Discover Deals, it’s most likely that cash back from DD will be posted. Q2 category bonus remains unknown. But Discover has many discounted gift cards for redemption. I always redeem the reward for Staples GCs, which is 20% discount. Considering this, I won’t lose money even if Q2 category bonus won’t be posted.

 

My Amex Serve card is on its way!

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amex serve card is on its way

I received an email that told me that Amex Serve card is shipped out. A few days ago, I closed Redbird and re-applied Serve. Here are the posts about the background of this event.

Probably, I will be able to receive the card next week. If it arrived before 26th, I will be able to do five online reloads. As for in-store reloads, I’m not worried because I need at least 2 days for $5000 reloads. Currently, there are five $200VGC and three $500VGC waiting for being swiped at Walmart ATM. And one $400VanillaVGC is to load at Family Dollar. Two more $200VGCs will be added through Staples Easy Rebate next week. I also need to buy two more $200VGC at Bed Bath and Beyond to redeem fully 2nd category bonus of Chase freedom. It’s $3700 in total. For the rest ($1300), I will buy VGCs at BBY or supermarket and use PayPal Business debit card directly.

Triple Rewards on 1800flowers Purchases through July 31st

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Fuel Reward Network has a promotion for purchases at 1800flowers.com. You can earn 10¢/gallon discount on every $50 spent. $50 isn’t a minimum requirement. An amount you spend is cumulative and recorded in your FRN account. Once the total reaches $50, they post the reward to your account.

1800flowers frn promo

10¢/gallon is worth up to $2. So, the reward is equivalent to 4% cash back. If you don’t know about FRN, please click here.

The greatest point of this promotion is that it is not a shopping portal deal, but MasterCard and Visa cards link deal. In other words, you can earn cash back or travel reward from shopping portal site and an FRN reward with a single transaction.

FRN online mall has 1800flowers, but you don’t have to use this portal. There are the better ones. The best rate is 15% from Discover Deals. When you purchase something at 1800flowers with a linked credit card, you will earn 15% cash back and 4%-equivalent in FRN Rewards.

So far, it’s only double. What is the third one to make sense of the title of this post? It’s Shop Your Way. SYW is also a partner with 1800flowers. You can link your MasterCard and Visa cards. When you use a linked card for a purchase, you will earn SYW rewards. SYW offers 20% back in SYW points. Fortunately, FRN and SYW partner program don’t affect each other. You can earn both card-link partner reward. So, it’s now triple.

Plus, you can earn 10% back in Celebration Reward (loyalty reward program of 1800flowers.) And there is your credit reward, too.

What’s more? You can earn all rewards above on a purchase of GCs. 4%+15%+20%+10%+1%=50% A half of expense will be back in a variety of rewards. Their GC can be sold for around 60% of face value to GC exchange sites. By rough estimate, 10% reward will be remain!!!

Amex Business GC Offer returned to Fuel Rewards Network Online Mall

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In 2014, there was the offer of FRN (Fuel Reward Network) 2X then reduced to 1X, then it disappeared. It came back for a while and then disappeared again. After that, there has been no offer for Amex GC purchase. I check the portal site recently, and I found the offer was back. It’s 1X, which is equivalent to 2% cash back.

amex gc is back to frn online mall

As far as I can tell it’s been three weeks in FRN online mall, and may have been around for more than weeks. The offer can’t be found in “Gift Card” category, but there is in all store’s list or by typing “american….” in a search box. Last year, the offer was easily found in “Gift Card” category. Of course, you were able to found in all store’s list or by entering “american express gift card” in the search box, too. But, it’s easier to click “Gift Card” than to type the word in search box. I had been checking the site to see if the offer came back, but I checked only in “Gift Card” category. Weeks ago, I glanced all stores without any expectations and found the offer back although you can’t find in “Gift Card” category.

all gift card offers of frn online mall

1X FRN reward is equivalent to 2% cash back. 1X means that you can earn 5¢/gallon discount on every $50 purchase through FRN online mall. FRN rewards can be redeemed at participating Shell gas stations, up to 20 gallons in single fill-up. 5¢ x 20 gallons = $1.00. $1.00 back on $50 spent. So it’s equivalent to 2% cash back.

Terms and conditions of this offer are the same as other online shopping portals, such as Befrugal and Topcashback. But it seems to be limited to Business Gift Cards. You can’t use promo codes. And the denomination more than $2000 are not eligible for the reward. When you buy the highest denomination, (it’s $2000) you will earn a $2.00/gallon discount.

frn 1x rewards at american express business gift cards

Again, according to terms and conditions, only Business Gift Cards are eligible for the offer. Sometimes, Topcashback offers 2.25%, and Simply Best Coupons offer 2% cash back for Amex Business GC purchases. But they are usually a daily deal. FRN is continuously offering a 2%-cashback-equivalent deal.

If you want to know more details of Fuel Reward Network, please click here.

Until July 31st, FRN has a linked MasterCard or Visa card promotion. With some conditions, you may earn the reward virtually for free. If you are interested, please click here.

Best Buy E-Gift Card Promo with Cash Back Portal Deal

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You may see a lot of Father’s Day’s promotions throughout the web. The promotions are not limited to regular merchandises, you may also see the promotion on gift card purchases. Personally, I just bought Staples and Best Buy e-gift cards and happened to know that there was a cash back portal site for BBY e-GC purchases.

best buy e-gift card promo

Many merchants sell e-gift cards as well as physical gift cards. Some merchants pay cash back for purchases of both physical and e-gift cards, and some merchants don’t pay for either of them. And also some merchants pay only for physical gift card purchases. This may happen because e-gift cards are sold at different sites called Cashstar.

When you enter bestbuy.com and click Gift cards on the top, you are still in bestbuy.com. However, when you click Get Started (left at the bottom of the picture below,) you are taken to the outside of bestbuy.com. A web address is bestbuy.cashstar.com. The same things happen to some other merchants. For example, you enter gap.com and try to buy an e-gift card, you are taken to gap.cashstar.com.

best buy e-gift card link

If you have Amex Offer, you can’t redeem some of them with e-gift card purchases because of this fact. That’s why you see “e-gift cards are excluded” in terms and conditions of many offers. It actually happened to me with Chime Offer. The offer was $5 back on $50 or more spent at Best Buy. I purchased $50 e-gift card, but I couldn’t see $5 credit posted in my account. An hour later, I purchased $50 physical gift card. $5 credit was posted instantly.

Today, I happened to find this “Cashstar” in cashbackmonitor.com while I was checking cash back rate for other merchants. So, I have no idea how it’s been existing. SimplyBestCoupons offered the highest, 2% cash back yesterday. Best Buy’s link was in the section of sale/discount. I clicked the link and bought $150 e-gift card. Soon, I received an email from SimplyBestCoupons, and a pending cash back was posted. So many merchants use Cashstar for e-gift card selling, but merchants offering cash back seem to be limited. I check the website today, and they have updated terms and conditions. Now you can see a full list of merchants that is available for cash back. And the rate is reduced to 1.75%.

simply best coupons cashstar list

What I like about Simply Best Coupons is that they send an email for all transactions very quickly. They send an email and post $0 even when you purchase something that is not qualified for cash back. I bought Starbucks gift card at Target.com on 6/2.

simply best coupons cashstar cash back

As you see, I received $0. So, I’m sure that the item is not qualified for cash back. (As long as I know, there is at least one GC at Target.com is qualified for cash back.) And also, they sometimes offer 2% cash back on Amex Business gift card purchases. The next offer is coming soon. It’s on 06/22/2015. If you don’t have your account yet, please use my referral link to sign up.