Month: June 2015

Goodbye to Redbird, Say Hello to Serve again

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Closing Redbird

The last transaction of Redbird just completed. It was a withdrawal of remaining balance to my bank account. It appeared in my bank account history. So, I logged in Redbird account for the last time to close the account.

Background: Reasons for closing

My local Target stores have their own rules to restrict types of payment for reloads. Some stores had the rules before the change on May 7th, some stores had ones after the change. In most stores in NYC, you can’t load Redbird with prepaid debit cards. (I have never loaded at stores in Manhattan and Bronx. So, I don’t know their rules before and after the change. Click here to see more details of my local stores)

Procedures for closing

I used to have Serve. I closed last year to open Redbird. The way of closing Redbird is the same as Serve. You can find a button for closing all the way down in Profile page.

closing redbird

 

Choose a reason for closing and left some note.

reason for closing

Just like Serve, Redbird showed this crying face.

goodbye to redbird

Registration of Serve

Soon, I went to Serve.com and finished a registration. They sent an email with a link for verification. After the verification, I can log in my Serve account. I tried to do some things, but nothing is possible until activating the card. They give this message in all pages.

must activate the card before doing anything

According to the email, the card will arrive in 7 to 10 business days. There are a lot of things to do after the card arrives.

  • Activate the card
  • Link PayPal Business Debit card – I have two cards. One is linked to my PayPal account that balance is always zero and set PP Extras credit card as a backup funding source. I couldn’t use this one for online-reload of Redbird. I was able to link, but the transaction never went through. So, I have been using the other one that is linked to another PayPal account in which always have some balance. It may be the same result, but first I try to use the first one for Serve because I could get a reward from not only PP debit card but also PP credit card.
  • Load VGCs from Staples, BBY, BBB, and supermarket – All these are issued by MetaBank. You can register your name, address and set PIN as you like. There is no worry of decline when you load at Walmart ATM.
  • Load VGC from Target – It has the same features as Vanilla VGC. It charges $6 purchase fee per $400 denomination card. The fee is a little more expensive than $500VGCs, but you can buy it online with any payment methods except for TargetGCs. Since it is a Vanilla VGC, you can’t use for reloads at Walmart. But you may be able to use at Family Dollar. When I had Serve (first one before opening Redbird), I had loaded with Vanilla VGCs sometimes. I need to check if it still works.
  • Check Amex Offers – Currently, I can’t see any offers. The message is here, too. I need to activate the card first of all.

That’s all for now. Among three Amex prepaid cards (BlueBird, Serve, and Redbird), Serve is the only one with which you can link credit card for online-reload. But a card has to be Amex, and Amex-issued credit cards can’t earn a reward through online-reloads. To earn a reward, you need a non-Amex issued Amex credit card. And I don’t have it yet. I am going to apply Fidelity Amex credit card in a near future.

I hope the card arrive soon so I can have enough time to load fully this month.

Earn Cash Back on Discover 2nd Rotating Category 2015

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Discover it card offers 5% cash back on restaurant and movie theater’s purchases of up to $1500 in 2nd quarter (April, May, and June.) The offer will end in a few weeks, and I have earned almost nothing in this quarter. That’s because I don’t spend that much on these categories, and those stores (restaurants and theaters) don’t sell 3rd party gift card. They do sell their own gift cards, but you can buy them with more than 5% discount from eBay, GC Exchange sites, etc. That also means that you can’t sell their gift cards for good prices. So, I haven’t been doing anything for this category bonus. But thing’s changed now, and it may be possible to earn cash back effectively.

2nd quarter 2015 discover category bonus

Discover is now offering “Double All Cash Back” promotion for both new and existing cardholders. They double all cash back you earn for the next 12 billing cycles. Here is the fine print.

Double First Year Cash Back:After the first 12 consecutive billing periods that your new account is open, we will double all the cash back rewards you’ve earned and apply them to your account in the next billing cycle. You’ve earned rewards when they have posted to your account by the end of the 12th consecutive billing period. You will not receive Double Cash Back if your account is closed or no longer in the cash back reward program as of the award date. This promotional offer may not be offered in the future.

discover double all cash back

Please note that you need an enrollment over a phone or chat by July 31st if you are an existing cardholder. I did it over chat, and my bonus started on June 12th.

Now, rotating category cash back is 10%. However, you can’t expect to sell restaurants gift cards for 90% of face value. You have to accept significantly lower price when you sell. But, what if you can buy gift cards through Discover Deals?

discover 2nd 2015 category bonus lists

A website shows a lot of places you can earn 5% rotating category cash back. There are a lot, and these are not all.

discover deals and 2nd 2015 category bonus

 

Go to Discover Deals. Filter by category. There are only 11 offers, eight restaurants and three entertainment. Among them, there is only one store that offer cashback. It’s Fandango. (The others stores offer either instant savings or statement credit. They won’t be doubled.) Here is the fine print.

10% Cashback Bonus on Fandango Bucks at Fandango online

Offer valid on Fandango Bucks gift certificates only. Offer is not valid in combination with any other offers. Must have cookies enabled on your web browser, link to retailer site from the Discover Deals web page, found at Discover.com/deals or through the Discover mobile app, and use your Discover card for each transaction.

Next, go to gift card granny to see if their gift card be sold.

Fandango gift cards can be sold to five different GC exchange sites. And Cardpool, Monster gift card, and Save ya offer the highest rate of 75%. It’s a good sign that Save ya offer the highest because they accept e-codes without reducing payment. Cardpool also accepts e-codes but reduce the payment to 70% for Fandango e-code. Fandango sells both physical gift cards and e-codes. They charge $1.95 fee for physical gift card purchase per card while e-codes has no fee.

Say you do earn both 5% cash back from category bonus and 10% cash back from Discover Deals. The cash back will be double. So it’s 30% cash back in total. And then, when you sell e-code to Save ya, 5% of total purchase will remain in your pocket.

There are some things that are uncertain now.

Q1 Will you receive 5% category bonus?

Not sure yet. I bought $50 e-code. My order is still pending.

Q2 Will you receive 10% Discover Deals cash back?

The fine print says, “Offer valid on Fandango Bucks gift certificates only.” Are Fandango Bucks and Fandango gift cards the same things? I tried to find the answer, but I couldn’t find this term in the website.

Q3 Will Save ya accept Fandango e-code?

You can’t tell whether you can sell e-code until you enter the code and PIN. So, I did and click “Sell My Card!”

saveya fandango ecode

I was wrong. Save ya doesn’t accept Fandango e-codes. So, there are few options now.

  • Buy e-codes and sell to Cardpool for 70% of face value
  • Buy Physical gift cards ($1.95 fee per card) and sell to Cardpool or Save ya for 75% of face value

If a purchase of Fandango gift card is qualified for both category bonus and Discover Deals, (5% + 10%) *2=30% cash back will be posted. When you choose e-codes, it breaks even. When you choose physical gift cards, you will earn around 3% profit although you pay $1.95 fee per card.

My transaction of Fandango e-code is still pending, and I don’t know whether it is qualified for Discover’s cash back. If either one of them is not qualified, I will just keep the code for a regular spending in the future.

Official Announcement from Amex about Redbird Reloads

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I received an email from Amex that announced a change of rules for Redbird reload. Here is the email,

Dear my name,

We wanted to let you know that you will no longer be able to load your Target Prepaid REDCard® by American Express at Target stores with a Target GiftCard or a non-Target branded credit card. You can continue to load your card with cash or debit at Target stores.

You can also add money to your Target Prepaid REDcard® by American Express online through direct deposit or transfer from your linked debit or bank account.

For more information about your Target Prepaid REDcard® by American Express, click here.

At a glance, my first thought was that they banned me from in-store reloads. But I continued to read,and found that it was just about a change of rule a month ago. I checked other blog posts and forums to confirm that it was sent to all cardholders.

closing redbird

A reason I was scared at first is current status of my Redbird. I have loaded $5000 in store and $1000 online last week. And this week, I rushed to unload by spending normally, paying bills. Then, yesterday I withdrew to my bank account to make the balance zero so I can close Redbird.

Target stores in my neighbor (NYC) don’t accept prepaid debit cards. So, I needed to go to Nassau County for reloads since the change. And surprisingly, even two stores in Nassau didn’t accept prepaid cards. I used PayPal business debit card in those stores. (my local stores don’t even accept PP business debit card.) These are enough reasons to switch back to Serve so I can load with prepaid cards at Walmart ATM. Click here for details.

The email says something strange,

……you will no longer be able to load your Target Prepaid REDCard® by American Express at Target stores with a Target GiftCard or a non-Target branded credit card…..

Target GiftCard? You weren’t able to use Target gift cards for reload from the beginning. non-Target branded credit card? It sounds like that you could use Target credit card for reloads, but I doubt it. That’s because the system doesn’t allow to use credit cards for reloads. Even if you can use it, there is no benefit by doing it, anyway.

I received another email. It is almost identical to the first one, just replacing “Target Prepaid REDcard” with “American Express Target Card.” What is Amex Target Card? When I saw “account ending xxxxx” in the email, I noticed this email is regarding of “American Express for Target.” The change from last month has been applied to Amex for Target, too. But I didn’t care. I used this card for a month or so, then I found it useless to me. I haven’t been using ever since. Did they change the name of the card, Amex for Target to Amex Target Card? …. I don’t care that, either.

Now, I am waiting for the last transaction of Redbird to complete. As soon as it completes, I will Redbird and open Serve.