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Wal-Mart, Amex take on banks with Bluebird debit card

Wal-Mart, Amex take on banks with Bluebird debit card

Old Feb 22, 2013, 2:50 pm
  #7501  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Texas
Programs: AA Gold, Starwood Gold
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In the past three months, I have paid off Chase, BofA, and Citibank with BB, BUT the VR reloads have not been the only charges on the account and I also pick up other items when I buy the VRs so that they are not all $503.95 (not hard to do when I usually have an item or two I need that day anyway). Many have paid of AE as well and not had problems, but I have been leery of paying AE with Bluebird. Your call on that one (and the others) as well.

Originally Posted by particlemn
in the last 4 months i have paid citi, chase(bus and personal) and amex(bus and personal) with BB all of which had VR charges from cvs on them, the VR charges were not the only charges on any of them, i try to spread, i think we here think to critically about these things the banks have many rtansactions and are looking for large problems not small problems,
TravelTexan is offline  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 8:23 am
  #7502  
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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I think that if Amex/Bluebird cares about any of this, they probably care most about the speed at which you load/unload.

I bet the longer they get to hold on to your money, the happier they are, and they couldn't care less that you're paying CC bills with the account else they wouldn't make it so easy.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 8:48 am
  #7503  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Originally Posted by MDWCommuter
I think that if Amex/Bluebird cares about any of this, they probably care most about the speed at which you load/unload.

I bet the longer they get to hold on to your money, the happier they are, and they couldn't care less that you're paying CC bills with the account else they wouldn't make it so easy.
I am not so worried about Amex BB as they don't lose money.
I am more concerned about getting accounts closed by credit card companies such as Citi and Chase cards.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 3:02 pm
  #7504  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Originally Posted by bobfather
Originally Posted by crimsonAA
OK. I've talked to the fraud dept. in the past, but when I called this time to ask about the decline, they said the merchant never actually submitted the card for processing. Could have been a fluke. CVS said alternate tender required for 2 cards, but let me purchase 1. (This was the day after I had purchased two.)
This is not accurate. CVS has no systems in place for declining specific cards, at least not at the store level.

People who have reported that their card has been blocked by CVS have successfully determined that it was actually their card-issuer blocking for fraud-related reasons.
+1
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 3:07 pm
  #7505  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 676
Originally Posted by supergrandslam
Is it too risky to pay off credit card bill that I'm actually buying the VRs with?
(Suppose that about 50% of the bill is from VRs.)

So far I haven't seen any post from who got CC account closed by doing that.
I am thinking of Citi and Chase CC if it matters.
Why would you believe it's risky? Do you think Bluebird has access to the purchase history of your non-AmEx credit card? And even if they did, would they actually look at it? No.

Last edited by Ducati; Feb 23, 2013 at 3:16 pm
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 3:25 pm
  #7506  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Has anyone used BB at Winco? They take only cash or debit cards, but BB didn't work.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 6:13 pm
  #7507  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Originally Posted by Ducati
Why would you believe it's risky? Do you think Bluebird has access to the purchase history of your non-AmEx credit card? And even if they did, would they actually look at it? No.
Again, I am not concerned about Amex BB.
I am concerned that Citi/Chase would close my CCs that I am buying VRs with.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 7:06 pm
  #7508  
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Originally Posted by supergrandslam
Again, I am not concerned about Amex BB.
I am concerned that Citi/Chase would close my CCs that I am buying VRs with.
That is the information from the PURCHASE side if Citi or Chase want to know what you purchase. They make their transaction fee regardless what you buy. As long as you pay off your bill to keep your utilization ratio low, they have no reason to bother you.

Why would you worry about paying the bill from BB, which can be funded by a bank account in case you do not know. How would Citi or Chase know what you use to fund your BB account?
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 7:26 pm
  #7509  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Originally Posted by supergrandslam
I am concerned that Citi/Chase would close my CCs that I am buying VRs with.
I've paid Citi, Chase, and AMEX cards that I used to buy VR. I've used it mostly to meet minimum spend on new cards. Buy 5k of VR at CVS, pay same card 5k from BB after I load it up. It's only been what, maybe four months or so that we have been doing this but no problems so far. The only concern I have had is about BB maybe not liking the load 5k, pay 5k in a weeks time.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 9:33 pm
  #7510  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by punjabi2
Has anyone used BB at Winco? They take only cash or debit cards, but BB didn't work.
You have to use a PIN enabled debt card at Winco. I use the NetSpend card and have no problems with it.
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Old Feb 23, 2013, 11:48 pm
  #7511  
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Washington, DC
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Just went into a different CVS tonight that I frequent occasionally not expecting to find any cards as I haven't had luck of late. Well I found the holy grail. Not only one little rack of cards but four racks full of cards. Must have been close to 75 cards! Now I know what its like to feel like a kid in the candy store again.
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Old Feb 24, 2013, 12:59 am
  #7512  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
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Originally Posted by Happy
That is the information from the PURCHASE side if Citi or Chase want to know what you purchase. They make their transaction fee regardless what you buy. As long as you pay off your bill to keep your utilization ratio low, they have no reason to bother you.

Why would you worry about paying the bill from BB, which can be funded by a bank account in case you do not know. How would Citi or Chase know what you use to fund your BB account?
Didn't some people get their Chase AARP shut down for "abusing" (as defined by Chase) the 5x bonus? I didn't get a chance to participate in that deal and don't know all the details, but it seems that if the card issuer is paying out too much in points, they will investigate.
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Old Feb 24, 2013, 9:24 am
  #7513  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Originally Posted by ddallas
I've paid Citi, Chase, and AMEX cards that I used to buy VR. I've used it mostly to meet minimum spend on new cards. Buy 5k of VR at CVS, pay same card 5k from BB after I load it up. It's only been what, maybe four months or so that we have been doing this but no problems so far. The only concern I have had is about BB maybe not liking the load 5k, pay 5k in a weeks time.
I think eventually your credit card issuers will catch on. I would not mess with Chase or Amex since they have the best products and you're going to miss out on a lot of great offers if they ban you. Use moderation, and definitely wouldn't use BB (an Amex product) to pay an Amex card. That's just suicide.
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Old Feb 24, 2013, 12:11 pm
  #7514  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
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This weekend I purchased two cards from my local CVS. No issues with paying with CC, but the clerk indicated that each card needs to be handled as a separate payment (with the same CC).

Didn't really matter to me as everything worked fine, I was just surprised that they wanted to charge is as separate transactions. Anyone else ran into a similar situation? Is this some new policy or just in this one location?
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Old Feb 24, 2013, 12:11 pm
  #7515  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
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CC payment language issue

For those who worry about paying credit cards with Bluebird, consider the following:

I was going through my USAA World Mastercard T&Cs to try and find some info on refunding credit balances. Instead, I stumbled upon this language in the Payments section:

All checks and other payment instruments must be in U.S. Dollars and drawn on funds on deposit in a federally insured institution in the United States (emphasis mine). Bluebird FAQs specifically state that Bluebird is not FDIC insured. Im not sure if they have any other type of federal insurance.

It goes on to state that USAA may accept a non-conforming payment that does not meet this (or a few other) requirements, but that USAA is not obligated to. I have paid my USAA credit cards with Bluebird several times and have never had an issue. I found the above language strange.

I checked T&Cs on other cards after I found this. US Bank was fine payments are accepted from a financial institution in the U.S. Citi had different wording across different cards, but again seemed fine. My two Chase cards say [payments] drawn on a U.S. Bank or foreign bank branch in the U.S. This also sounds a little off for Bluebird as well I dont think it qualifies as a bank.

Any thoughts on this?

And if anyone knows how USAA handles credit balances, feel free to post this as well.
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