As you've probably read on every points and miles blog out there, American Express and Walmart have recently released
the Bluebird card.
1 miles / 2 dollars in debits, ATM withdrawals don't count, haven't tried to swipe at a walmart to add to
a bluebird card, might work.
No, I'm not talking about just loading and then cashing out (although this also works to some extent), but using it to load
your Bluebird card.
You can buy a fee - free Home Improvement Gift Card from Office Depot for $ 500 (2,500 points), take it to WalMart, and load it to
a Bluebird card using any PIN you type in (or alternatively buy a Money Order for $.70), similar to the way we use Vanilla Visa gift cards.
I discussed earlier the recent ability to assign a PIN to some prepaid debit cards, making it possible to use them to reload
a Bluebird card at physical Walmart stores — or for use with other... [Read more...] about Which Gift Cards Are Easiest to Use for Manufactured Spending with a PIN?
If you don't have
a Bluebird card, you can order one for free online.
With that being said, I also noted that there are some interesting benefits of
the Bluebird card.
The only strategy that really works for me is manufactured spend using the American Express
Bluebird card for Walmart.
Or should I have handed
him my Bluebird card (which I ordered online but have not transferred and funds to just yet)?
You then load
your Bluebird card with the $ 500 Vanilla reload card online and use your Bluebird for transactions for which you don't usually earn miles or points — such as paying mortgages (using the Bluebird Bill Pay), withdrawing from ATMs, paying other persons, etc..
You load
your Bluebird card (which you can order online) with a points earning debit card at Wal - Mart.
You then use
your Bluebird card to pay for Rent, Mortgage, Credit Card Bills, Utilities, College Tuition, Payments to contractors, etc..
@VULCANICO - You can't load
a Bluebird card at Family Dollar and they don't sell the Vanilla Reloads which you can load online.
This is a great way to help meet the minimum spending requirement on ANY credit card, or even for earning miles and points for transactions which don't usually earn miles and points as long as you buy Vanilla Reload cards with your credit card at Office Depot and load them on
your Bluebird card.
The Bluebird card will be available next week online and in more than 4,000 Walmart stores across the nation.
Does applying for
a bluebird card give you a hard pull on your credit report like when applying for a credit card?
Though you can get
a Bluebird card online, you will not be able to access some of the free features - including free cash reloads, unless you go to a Walmart.
For people who use
Bluebird cards to withdraw cash, there's no fee or surcharge for withdrawing cash from American Express ATMs for only those who have enrolled in direct deposit into the account.
(31 days) I highly doubt that someone will actually do that because even though someone can have 10
bluebird cards, they may not have a limit that high across their cards.
If either of these options are available to you, it can be like making $ 200 / hour if you have several
Bluebird cards and easy access to VRs / Visa gift cards.
Not exact matches
American Express has also tried and largely failed (although it still offers its
Bluebird prepaid
card with... Walmart).
He'd also look at companies that provide alternatives to issuing debit
cards via mobile apps like GoBank, a brand of Green Dot Bank, and American Express and its
Bluebird accounts.
What I recommend is you getting a prepaid
card, I use
BLUEBIRD, add cash to it from your personal account and only add what you think your total cost may be for your order.
The
Bluebird from American Express has long been heralded as a top prepaid debit
card due to having the least fees and being cheap to keep around.
Bluebird is a
card issued by American Express and in partnership with Walmart, and charges has no monthly fees and no costs for activation or inactivity.
Now for those who are thinking of using prepaid
card instead, there's one more alternative to consider: The Bluebird Prepaid Debit Card, jointly launched by American Express and Walmart on October 8, 2
card instead, there's one more alternative to consider: The
Bluebird Prepaid Debit
Card, jointly launched by American Express and Walmart on October 8, 2
Card, jointly launched by American Express and Walmart on October 8, 2012.
Also
Bluebird by Walmart is a zero fee
card the main two problems there is 1 its AmEx and 2 no cash back at a register.
Powered by a partnership between credit
card giant American Express and super store WalMart,
Bluebird is a financial account that provides an attractive alternative to traditional bank accounts while providing all the conveniences and options of high - tech banking.
As I wrote yesterday, one of the best uses of American Express
Bluebird is the ability to pay for transactions which can't usually be made with a miles or points earning credit
card.
There are many different debit and credit
cards which you can use with American Express
Bluebird, so let's take a look at a few different options.
You then load your American Express
Bluebird with the Vanilla Reload
card and use your
Bluebird for transactions for which you don't usually earn miles and points — rent, mortgages, ATM withdrawals, paying bills by checks, etc..
You can also reload
Bluebird with Vanilla Reload
cards which you can buy at CVS, Walgreen's or other locations.
Here's a post on what a Vanilla Reload looks like and how to load a Vanilla Reload
card to your
Bluebird account.
One of the best uses of American Express
Bluebird is to buy Vanilla Reload
cards at an Office Depot with your credit
card.
Walmart's
Bluebird is one of the more popular options among prepaid debit
card users.
I checked around my area and all the Office Depot and Staples are out of the $ 200 fixed about Visa gift
card, only the $ 100 one available but I don't want to buy a lot of $ 100 visa gc because it's a hassle to load them one by one at WM (besides amazon payment, using the gc for regular spending and evolve, since I want to pay my credit
card bills with
bluebird)...... I don't want to be stuck with many GC that can not be liquidated........
Info about the following
cards: American Express ® Gold
Card, Delta Reserve ® Credit
Card from American Express, Platinum Delta SkyMiles ® Credit
Card, Starwood Preferred Guest ® Credit
Card from American Express, Hilton Honors Surpass ® Credit
Card, American Express ® Blue Sky, American Express ® Green
Card, The Amex EveryDay ® Preferred Credit
Card from American Express, The Plenti ® Credit
Card from Amex, Blue from American Express ®, Platinum
Card ® from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes - Benz,
Bluebird, Centurion ®
Card from American Express, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire
Card, and Starwood Preferred Guest ® American Express Luxury
Card has been collected independently by ValuePenguin.
You can buy $ 500
cards for a $ 3.95 activation fee and then load and empty them with a
Bluebird for free.
Relationships such as that between American Express and Walmart to release
Bluebird will probably provide the most opportunity since both banks and merchants will want to entice you to use their
card.
It's pretty clear that
Bluebird from American Express isn't a great
card to help you earn or redeem miles and points for travel, since it does not earn any kind of points when you make purchases.
The next assumption would be that someone foregoes
Bluebird completely and heads for money orders with the cash back
cards.
If you read my blog or any other frequent flyer blog, you likely know that the
Bluebird prepaid
card is one of the best tools for manufacturing spend.
Put simply, you buy Vanilla Reload
cards using your credit
card, load the funds to your
Bluebird prepaid
card, then either cash out to pay your credit
card bill or pay the bill directly from the
Bluebird bill - pay section.
There you can deposit cash or load funds onto your
Bluebird account via a debit
card from another bank.
Then use the online payment system to pay bills those that don't otherwise accept credit
cards with a check from your
Bluebird account.
To make real use of
Bluebird though, you must buy prepaid reload
cards like Vanilla Reload or Green Dot with one of your rewards - earning credit
cards.
I've loaded my
Bluebird with funds from Vanilla Reload
cards that I bought at my local CVS and then paid my mortgage, property tax, my electric bill, and put down a down payment for a vacation rental.
Bluebird may also be more trouble than its worth if you don't have a lot of bills to pay that don't already take credit
cards or you don't carry a rewards - earning debit
card.
Register your eligible American Express
Card or Serve /
Bluebird here Use the same
Card to...
Simply use
Bluebird in conjunction with rewards - earning debit
cards or prepaid reload
cards and you'll earn miles and points on the funds you deposit into your account.