Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

Tag: American Express

Where Can I Get an American Express Serve Card (You Can Apply @ WalMart)?

Welcome to our site! Our editors have been covering the credit and debit card space for a total of 30+ years and we are proud to have been featured by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc. Your input is invaluable and we’d love to have your opinion as to whether the Chime Bank debit card is a good deal (see below) – this site is powered by you!

Related Visa Card to Compare to AmEx Serve (like Serve but with less fees):

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Please Note! This article was published in 2013 and is being keep for historical purposes. Please click here for our current review of the American Express (AmEx) Serve Card.

In October of 2012 American Express and Walmart teamed up to launch Bluebird, a low-fee card meant to attract people unhappy with traditional checking and debit account fees. On April 21^st of this year, Walmart and AmEx announced that they were joining forces again, this time to make the American Express Serve prepaid card available for sale at 4,100 of the retailer’s stores nationwide. The card will cost $1.95 and be sold at checkout lines and in Walmart MoneyCenters.

This announcement instantly gives AmEx an attractive bragging point in the increasingly competitive prepaid debit card industry. By making Serve available at thousands of Walmart stores, AmEx has has created the largest free cash reload network in America. In addition to Walmart, it is now possible for Serve customers to add cash to their Serve accounts for no charge at 19,500 locations, including CVS pharmacies and 7-Eleven locations.

Customers can now go to the cash register at any of those locations and add as little as $20 or as much as $500 to their Serve accounts. This ubiquity is important, says Madeline Aufseeser, a senior analyst at Aite Group. “American Express Serve is making it even more convenient for consumers to add cash to their accounts so they can use those funds to quickly and easily manage their personal finances,” she says.

This expansion of Serve is just the latest effort by AmEx to better serve the millions of so-called “unbanked” or “underbanked” Americans, who either don’t have a traditional bank account or are unhappy with what they do have. “By offering American Express Serve alongside Bluebird at Walmart, we’re expanding our portfolio of products to meet the needs of more Walmart shoppers,” says Dan Schulman, group president of Enterprise Growth at American Express. “Bluebird is a great option for the “unhappily banked” who are looking for a true alternative to the fees and hidden charges often associated with debit and checking. With Serve, our full service reloadable prepaid account, we can now provide the nearly 70 million Americans who are unbanked or underbanked a simple and affordable way to move and manage their money.”

To go along with its expansion of the availability of Serve cards, AmEx is also launching an advertising campaign to highlight the benefits of its signature prepaid product. The TV ads are shot in a documentary style and are meant to highlight the struggles regular Americans who are either ignored or underserved by the traditional banking system face to make simple financial transactions.

April 22, 2019
Walmart Card Cash Offers Home For Unwanted Gift Cards

We all know that even Santa Claus misfires from time to time. And the rest of us well-intentioned gift givers are even worse, known for holiday faux-pas such as presenting caffeine averse friends and relatives with a $50 Starbucks gift card. As of Christmas day, though, a program called Walmart Card Cash gives holders of unwanted gift cards from over 200 retailers a chance to exchange them for a Walmart e-gift card that can be used both in stores and online.

Here’s how it works. Visitors to the Walmart Card Cash website can view a list of the cards that the world’s biggest retailer is willing to swap for one of its own gift cards. It includes a who’s-who of the nation’s best known brands, such as airlines like Jet Blue, American and Southwest as well as restaurants like Taco Bell and Olive Garden and even other large retailers like Target. After you select the type of gift card and enter the card’s balance, you receive an instant offer of how much store credit Walmart will give to exchange the card.

Although the site boasts that consumers can get up to 97 percent of the face value of the card, most exchange offers are not that generous. For instance, a $200 Home Depot gift card will fetch $172.20 while a Target card of the same amount brings in $193.20.

Walmart Card Cash is a partnership with the discount gift card marketplace CardCash.com and is in a test phase, meaning that it will be available for the first few weeks of 2015, and possibly longer if the response is strong. According to an article in Kiplinger, the payout rate offered by Walmart Card Cash is more generous than other gift card exchange sites like GiftcardZen.com and Cardpool.com, though those sites offer cash to people redeeming their unwanted cards while Walmart provides store credit.

Still, for those who want to salvage that holiday present that is more a token of goodwill than it is useful may find Walmart Card Cash to be a gift in and of itself.

January 8, 2015
6 reasons to buy the teacher a prepaid gift card

By Donna Freedman

Teachers get a lot of gifts in December. Some are formulaic: “No. 1 Teacher” coffee mugs, say, or plaques shaped like apples. Some are heartfelt: photos, handmade crafts, cookies decorated by sticky young hands.

Trouble is, teachers have way too many mugs, plaques, scarves/neckties, candles, pencil jars and picture frames. See, they’re teaching 20 or more kids per year and such gifts add up – or, rather, they pile up until teacher donates them to the charity thrift shop.

One thing many educators say they’d love to get is a letter from a student (or his parents) thanking him or her for making a difference. This costs nothing but time, and it’s a lovely gesture. A holiday gift is a nice gesture, too. But in the current mindset of “Experiences, Not Stuff,” why not give a prepaid gift card? Here’s why.

1. It’s payback. Chances are your child’s teacher is spending his or her own money on the classroom. According to a 2013 survey from the National School Supply and Equipment Association, teachers shell out an average of $485 per year on stuff for their students – and 10 percent of them spent $1,000 or more. Yikes!

2. It’s flexible. Sure, you could buy a specific gift card to a bookstore or educational supply shop – but a prepaid card gives the teacher a lot of leeway. She can use it at the hardware store to buy items for the science fair displays, or at the supermarket to buy ingredients for punch and cookies on Valentine’s Day.

Technically she could use it on something for herself. Don’t count on it, though: The Curse of the Teacher leads many instructors to view all gifts in terms of how they might benefit the classroom. (See “$485 a year,” above.)

3. It’s non-offensive. That candle and holder you bought at a friend’s home party is pretty, but the teacher may have limited room for tchotchkes. (She may also dislike candles.) A gift certificate to The Body Shop might never get used because strong fragrances trigger her asthma. Or suppose you offer a mani-pedi gift certificate only to realize later that you have never, ever seen this teacher wear nail polish; for all you know, she took it as a criticism of her appearance.

4. It’s non-caloric. Teachers get a lot of homemade treats as well as gift cards to the doughnut shop or the frozen yogurt place. But you don’t know whether he or she is is on a diet, or has health issues that preclude treats.

5. It’s non-caffeinated. Starbucks cards have become the coin of the realm lately. I even know a dentist who hands them out to patients kept waiting too long. However, not everyone drinks coffee or even tea.
Besides, your child’s teacher may have one of those diet/health issues and the card wouldn’t be a good fit.

6. It’s not a coffee mug! Teachers don’t need more of these. Really. Please.

Guest Author Donna Freedman contributed this article. Donna Freedman writes about personal finance for Money Talks News and other websites and magazines, and blogs at DonnaFreedman.com. This article was revised and jointly written by Curtis Arnold and posted on the Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/curtis-arnold/low-fee-prepaid-gift-cards_b_6336082.html

December 21, 2014
AmEx and Walmart Double Savings Catcher Rewards

The rush to attract holiday shoppers and their dollars started before trick-or-treaters donned their costumes and headed out into the night. On Oct. 27, the checking account alternative card, Bluebird by American Express, announced the launch of a “Get 2X” promotion meant to entice Walmart shoppers with even bigger savings.

Here’s how the promotion works. Walmart customers can already take advantage of the company’s Savings Catcher tool, which allows shoppers to compare the price of items they intend to buy at Walmart with the advertised prices of other national retailers. If Walmart’s Savings Catcher identifies a lower price at a rival store, Walmart customers then receive the price difference on either a Walmart Reward eGift Card or in a Bluebird account. Customers can spend the money at a Walmart store or at Walmart.com.

The new promotion works the same way, although it gives double the benefits to Bluebird cardholders. To take advantage of the deal, which lasts through Feb. 28 of next year, customers can either go online to the Savings Catcher website or use the Walmart app and scan their Walmart receipt.

The Savings Catcher tool works as it normally does and searches for a lower advertised price offered by competitors. If it finds a better price, Bluebird cardholders can click on “Redeem to Bluebird,” which will automatically trigger a deposit of double the savings into their account.

The “Get 2X” promotion is a way to give Bluebird cardholders even more bang for their bucks, says Daniel Eckert, a senior vice president of Walmart Services. “Millions of customers are using Savings Catcher to ensure they are getting the best price on their everyday purchases. Now thanks to American Express, they can get even more back when using their Bluebird Card,” he says. “Bluebird is known for saving people money and now coupled with Savings Catcher, it’s going to put real money in customers’ pockets.”

November 20, 2014
Survey: Americans Need To Get More Financially Fit
It can often seem like there are a bewildering number of things to do in order to stay financially fit. Don’t borrow too much money. Create a budget and stick to it. Save for retirement. Squirrel away money for your children’s education.

Now add this to the list of to do’s required in order to be financially fit: Be clear on what your credit status is. It may seem like something that can be easily relegated to the bottom of your pressing financial concerns, but that notion is misleading. Having good credit, after all, is a prerequisite for qualifying for a mortgage or a car loan or even a credit card. Furthermore, lenders look at your credit – usually your credit score – to determine how risky it is for them to hand money over to you. If you’re deemed a big risk, you either won’t qualify at all or you’ll have to pay a sky-high interest rate.

Sadly, a new survey conducted by the financial services company Capital One found that when it comes to credit, Americans are not nearly as financially fit as they need to be. Indeed, the survey discovered that a great deal of education needs to take place for many of us to improve our financial IQ, at least as it relates to credit. Among Capital One’s findings were:
- About one-third of Americans surveyed believe that a credit score only matters when they need to buy a house. This misconception is particularly pervasive among young Americans. Almost half of those under 35 who were polled believed this to be true.
- The survey also pointed towards widespread confusion about the factors that go into determining a credit score. For example, over a quarter of respondents mistakenly believe that having one late payment on a bill will not damage their credit. Another 24 percent of those polled wrongly believe that age is a factor in a credit score, while 19 percent asserted that where they live is considered.
- Although it’s free and a very smart thing to do only 30 percent of respondents had requested a copy of their credit report in that past year. Doing so allows consumers to check for and correct any errors that may be harming their credit. By contrast, 66 percent of respondents had their car’s oil changed and over half had been to the dentist.
- Despite all of this, the survey also found that 81 percent of parents believed that their kids would have better credit than they do by the time they reach their age.
September 3, 2014
CFPB To Police Prepaid Debit Cards
In yet another sign of the mainstreaming of prepaid debit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced this week that it would begin accepting complaints from Americans encountering problems with these increasingly popular financial products. Although the market for prepaid debit cards has been steadily expanding and attracting big name financial players like American Express, consumer advocates have expressed concern about a lack of regulatory oversight.

The CFPB is in the midst of developing proposed regulations targeted at prepaid debit cards, which should be released in the coming months. In the meantime, the CFPB, the federal government’s consumer watchdog for all manner of financial matters, is urging Americans who have run into problems with prepaid cards to get in touch. “By accepting consumer complaints about prepaid products and certain other services we will be giving people a greater voice in these markets and a place to turn to when they encounter problems,” says CFPB director, Richard Cordray.

In its statement announcing the move, the CFPB outlined the specific issues consumers should alert it to, including:
- Trouble managing, opening or closing an account
- Incorrect or unexpected fees
- Overdraft issues
- Frauds, scams or unauthorized transactions
- Advertising, disclosures and marketing practices
- Adding money and savings and rewards features
The CFPB already accepts consumer complaints about a wide range of financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, consumer loans and bank accounts. The CFPB complaint process works like this: After receiving a complaint, the CFPB expects companies to respond within 15 days and outline the steps they plan to take to address the problem. The CFPB also expects some sort of resolution to all complaints within 60 days. Consumers who do submit a complaint receive a tracking number and can follow the process on the CFPB website.

Complaints about prepaid cards can be submitted through the CFPB website. In the same announcement about accepting prepaid debit card complaints, the CFPB also said that it would begin to address problems with debt settlement and credit repair companies as well as pawn and title loans suppliers.
July 25, 2014