Jan 3, 2015, 3:13 am
Last edit by: CWAL
Welcome to Manufactured Spending. If you are new here, please spend some time reading before posting. Most likely your questions have already been answered multiple times. Consider deals that you share. These threads are searchable by Google. A volatile deal may be worth holding close to the vest.
Hints
1) On FT, topics are heavily consolidated. Sometimes the title of the thread and first few posts may not properly reflect the broad range of discussion inside the thread. Be sure to visit any thread relating to the product or service you want to learn more about because you might be surprised by how in depth the discussion really is. High "View Count" and "Replies" are good indicators of active "master threads" on a specific topic.
2) Use Google to search FT. It works a lot better than the built-in search.
Important Rules
1) MSing is very YMMV. It varies by store, manager, and right down to the cashier working at the moment. That being said, always be nice and courteous in the face of rejection. The biggest secret for success is to lay low so you can try again.
2) DO NOT spend more than you can afford. START WITH SMALL AMOUNTS TO TEST THE WATER! As an example.. don't start with a $5000 purchase of VGCs if you can't afford to float that much! Instead, buy one and try it, and scale up once you are comfortable with a new method. It's easy to lose track, or get robbed, when you are handling so much money. Getting a refund is NOT always possible.
3) DO NOT ask employees, cashiers, customer service representatives, etc... about how to MS, or about things you read on this forum. The information you read here are very specific, unknown, legal uses of products or services. Most employees, cashiers, and even managers do not know about them. At best you'll get bad information. At worst you'll create a lot of unnecessary misunderstanding.
4) It bears repeating that there are no guarantees. you could easily buy $10,000 in gift cards or some other instrument, only to discover that your method for liquidating them vanishes the very next day. MS is not "normal" financial activity ("normal" being defined by the banks), and thus is often perceived as "suspicious" even if it is legal.
5) never underestimate the risk of criminal activity. gift cards can easily be stolen, loaded onto a compromised account, loaded in a debit card skimmer, or even fraudulent (e.g., an already used card put back on the rack).
If you have a question that does not seem to fit anywhere, or you have not found an appropriate place for it, post it here.
- A helpful note from seat17D about some of the inherent risks of MS
Hints
1) On FT, topics are heavily consolidated. Sometimes the title of the thread and first few posts may not properly reflect the broad range of discussion inside the thread. Be sure to visit any thread relating to the product or service you want to learn more about because you might be surprised by how in depth the discussion really is. High "View Count" and "Replies" are good indicators of active "master threads" on a specific topic.
2) Use Google to search FT. It works a lot better than the built-in search.
Important Rules
1) MSing is very YMMV. It varies by store, manager, and right down to the cashier working at the moment. That being said, always be nice and courteous in the face of rejection. The biggest secret for success is to lay low so you can try again.
2) DO NOT spend more than you can afford. START WITH SMALL AMOUNTS TO TEST THE WATER! As an example.. don't start with a $5000 purchase of VGCs if you can't afford to float that much! Instead, buy one and try it, and scale up once you are comfortable with a new method. It's easy to lose track, or get robbed, when you are handling so much money. Getting a refund is NOT always possible.
3) DO NOT ask employees, cashiers, customer service representatives, etc... about how to MS, or about things you read on this forum. The information you read here are very specific, unknown, legal uses of products or services. Most employees, cashiers, and even managers do not know about them. At best you'll get bad information. At worst you'll create a lot of unnecessary misunderstanding.
4) It bears repeating that there are no guarantees. you could easily buy $10,000 in gift cards or some other instrument, only to discover that your method for liquidating them vanishes the very next day. MS is not "normal" financial activity ("normal" being defined by the banks), and thus is often perceived as "suspicious" even if it is legal.
5) never underestimate the risk of criminal activity. gift cards can easily be stolen, loaded onto a compromised account, loaded in a debit card skimmer, or even fraudulent (e.g., an already used card put back on the rack).
If you have a question that does not seem to fit anywhere, or you have not found an appropriate place for it, post it here.
- A helpful note from seat17D about some of the inherent risks of MS
New to Manufactured Spending? Start Here (2015)
Jan 9, 2015, 2:02 pm
#31
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
First off - thanks to everyone for answering the questions in here.
I have read all of the wikis and my main question is what is the preferred way to drain your account after doing loads and having a couple thousand in your Serve? I know the available ways, but people mostly talk about the ways to add, not necessarily how they're getting 1000s OUT of the account.
I have read all of the wikis and my main question is what is the preferred way to drain your account after doing loads and having a couple thousand in your Serve? I know the available ways, but people mostly talk about the ways to add, not necessarily how they're getting 1000s OUT of the account.
Jan 9, 2015, 2:41 pm
#32
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 22
Wouldn't using the Serve card for 'regular spend' where I could just use the original CC itself (and not deal with buying VGC with CC > loading > using Serve card) sort of defeat the purpose of MS?
Or did you just mention that so that the account is not just filled with deposits and withdrawals?
Jan 9, 2015, 6:00 pm
#33
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 6
Acronyms Everywhere
Hi guys,
After rummaging through as much information as I could I still need a bit of help with making my initial spend on my new Southwest Credit Cards to get the 50k RR.
in the simplist terms without too many acronyms about VR or MC or ACH, or the dozens of other acronyms I am not familiar with, can you help me with the following:
I signed up for serve and I have softcard preloaded on my phone. I understand I can load up to $1500 a month straight from the app, which is great, but I still need to build up $2500 to meet the total initial spend.
I need to do this quickly as my travel date is middle March, so I need to get my statement close date right at the start of the month and have made my initial purchases by said date.
My plan is to use the serve to pay off an older credit card, so I know where all the money is going.
I just have to get it from point A to point B while still qualifying for the miles.
Do I need to buy Gift Cards with Debit Pin to take to a store and load onto the Serve card, or can I load in store directly from the credit card?
If I can afford to float the capital for a month, is it simpler to load as much as I can online from the card itself and then go buy the rest in gift cards that I then hold on to until the following month when my $1500 online load ability resets than to deal with a store?
I'd prefer to avoid as many gift card activation fees as possible, and I would like to avoid the mess of trying to "pull one over" on a cashier altogether if there is an easy way around it.
I considered signing my wife up for a second Serve card and loading each of the Chase cards onto a different serve card, is that plausible, or is Serve a "one per household" sort of thing?
I am sure that these questions are probably answered in the 550 pages on the Serve thread or the other MS thread, but I was hoping to catch some helpful person in a good mood to keep me from spending hours searching.
Thanks for the help!
After rummaging through as much information as I could I still need a bit of help with making my initial spend on my new Southwest Credit Cards to get the 50k RR.
in the simplist terms without too many acronyms about VR or MC or ACH, or the dozens of other acronyms I am not familiar with, can you help me with the following:
I signed up for serve and I have softcard preloaded on my phone. I understand I can load up to $1500 a month straight from the app, which is great, but I still need to build up $2500 to meet the total initial spend.
I need to do this quickly as my travel date is middle March, so I need to get my statement close date right at the start of the month and have made my initial purchases by said date.
My plan is to use the serve to pay off an older credit card, so I know where all the money is going.
I just have to get it from point A to point B while still qualifying for the miles.
Do I need to buy Gift Cards with Debit Pin to take to a store and load onto the Serve card, or can I load in store directly from the credit card?
If I can afford to float the capital for a month, is it simpler to load as much as I can online from the card itself and then go buy the rest in gift cards that I then hold on to until the following month when my $1500 online load ability resets than to deal with a store?
I'd prefer to avoid as many gift card activation fees as possible, and I would like to avoid the mess of trying to "pull one over" on a cashier altogether if there is an easy way around it.
I considered signing my wife up for a second Serve card and loading each of the Chase cards onto a different serve card, is that plausible, or is Serve a "one per household" sort of thing?
I am sure that these questions are probably answered in the 550 pages on the Serve thread or the other MS thread, but I was hoping to catch some helpful person in a good mood to keep me from spending hours searching.
Thanks for the help!
Jan 9, 2015, 6:03 pm
#34
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
Thanks for the reply.
Wouldn't using the Serve card for 'regular spend' where I could just use the original CC itself (and not deal with buying VGC with CC > loading > using Serve card) sort of defeat the purpose of MS?
Or did you just mention that so that the account is not just filled with deposits and withdrawals?
Wouldn't using the Serve card for 'regular spend' where I could just use the original CC itself (and not deal with buying VGC with CC > loading > using Serve card) sort of defeat the purpose of MS?
Or did you just mention that so that the account is not just filled with deposits and withdrawals?
Jan 9, 2015, 6:27 pm
#35
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
Hi guys,
After rummaging through as much information as I could I still need a bit of help with making my initial spend on my new Southwest Credit Cards to get the 50k RR.
in the simplist terms without too many acronyms about VR or MC or ACH, or the dozens of other acronyms I am not familiar with, can you help me with the following:
I signed up for serve and I have softcard preloaded on my phone. I understand I can load up to $1500 a month straight from the app, which is great, but I still need to build up $2500 to meet the total initial spend.
I need to do this quickly as my travel date is middle March, so I need to get my statement close date right at the start of the month and have made my initial purchases by said date.
My plan is to use the serve to pay off an older credit card, so I know where all the money is going.
I just have to get it from point A to point B while still qualifying for the miles.
Do I need to buy Gift Cards with Debit Pin to take to a store and load onto the Serve card, or can I load in store directly from the credit card?you need the non vanilla VGCs with PIN to load to Serve. you CANNOT load Serve directly with CC at any store; with Serve-SC, you're limited to $500/day up to $1500 a month per account.
If I can afford to float the capital for a month, is it simpler to load as much as I can online from the card itself and then go buy the rest in gift cards that I then hold on to until the following month when my $1500 online load ability resets than to deal with a store? There is a $1.5K limit/month using CC. As to buying GCs to hold on to for future loading, I wouldn't advice it because we never know when rules on loading at the stores are changed, i.e, what's working today may not work by tomorrow. Check what happened to Vanilla VGCs which are now a PITA to load at WM.
I'd prefer to avoid as many gift card activation fees as possible, and I would like to avoid the mess of trying to "pull one over" on a cashier altogether if there is an easy way around it.
I considered signing my wife up for a second Serve card and loading each of the Chase cards onto a different serve card, is that plausible, or is Serve a "one per household" sort of thing? Serve account is one per SSN, not per HH, so your wife can register for her own Serve-SC account
I am sure that these questions are probably answered in the 550 pages on the Serve thread or the other MS thread, but I was hoping to catch some helpful person in a good mood to keep me from spending hours searching.
Thanks for the help!
After rummaging through as much information as I could I still need a bit of help with making my initial spend on my new Southwest Credit Cards to get the 50k RR.
in the simplist terms without too many acronyms about VR or MC or ACH, or the dozens of other acronyms I am not familiar with, can you help me with the following:
I signed up for serve and I have softcard preloaded on my phone. I understand I can load up to $1500 a month straight from the app, which is great, but I still need to build up $2500 to meet the total initial spend.
I need to do this quickly as my travel date is middle March, so I need to get my statement close date right at the start of the month and have made my initial purchases by said date.
My plan is to use the serve to pay off an older credit card, so I know where all the money is going.
I just have to get it from point A to point B while still qualifying for the miles.
Do I need to buy Gift Cards with Debit Pin to take to a store and load onto the Serve card, or can I load in store directly from the credit card?you need the non vanilla VGCs with PIN to load to Serve. you CANNOT load Serve directly with CC at any store; with Serve-SC, you're limited to $500/day up to $1500 a month per account.
If I can afford to float the capital for a month, is it simpler to load as much as I can online from the card itself and then go buy the rest in gift cards that I then hold on to until the following month when my $1500 online load ability resets than to deal with a store? There is a $1.5K limit/month using CC. As to buying GCs to hold on to for future loading, I wouldn't advice it because we never know when rules on loading at the stores are changed, i.e, what's working today may not work by tomorrow. Check what happened to Vanilla VGCs which are now a PITA to load at WM.
I'd prefer to avoid as many gift card activation fees as possible, and I would like to avoid the mess of trying to "pull one over" on a cashier altogether if there is an easy way around it.
I considered signing my wife up for a second Serve card and loading each of the Chase cards onto a different serve card, is that plausible, or is Serve a "one per household" sort of thing? Serve account is one per SSN, not per HH, so your wife can register for her own Serve-SC account
I am sure that these questions are probably answered in the 550 pages on the Serve thread or the other MS thread, but I was hoping to catch some helpful person in a good mood to keep me from spending hours searching.
Thanks for the help!
Jan 9, 2015, 7:22 pm
#36
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 1
It seems the manufactured spending well has run dry. I used to by vanilla GCs from CVS. I would also transfer money via Amazon Payments.
I recently signed up for a card from Fifth Third Bank and I need to spend $500 to get a $150 statement credit.
I was thinking of using Serve to do this but an quick search says some cards show up as a cash advance so there would be lots of fees.
What do you guys think of paying yourself with cards via Paypal here or Amazon Local? There's a 2.5-3 % fee.
Any suggestions? Will my Fifth Third Bank card read as a cash advance on Serve?
I recently signed up for a card from Fifth Third Bank and I need to spend $500 to get a $150 statement credit.
I was thinking of using Serve to do this but an quick search says some cards show up as a cash advance so there would be lots of fees.
What do you guys think of paying yourself with cards via Paypal here or Amazon Local? There's a 2.5-3 % fee.
Any suggestions? Will my Fifth Third Bank card read as a cash advance on Serve?
Jan 10, 2015, 9:00 am
#37
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
It seems the manufactured spending well has run dry. I used to by vanilla GCs from CVS. I would also transfer money via Amazon Payments.
I recently signed up for a card from Fifth Third Bank and I need to spend $500 to get a $150 statement credit.
I was thinking of using Serve to do this but an quick search says some cards show up as a cash advance so there would be lots of fees.
What do you guys think of paying yourself with cards via Paypal here or Amazon Local? There's a 2.5-3 % fee. PP fees are too steep for me, I won't mess with ALR for MS purposes.
Any suggestions? Will my Fifth Third Bank card read as a cash advance on Serve?
I recently signed up for a card from Fifth Third Bank and I need to spend $500 to get a $150 statement credit.
I was thinking of using Serve to do this but an quick search says some cards show up as a cash advance so there would be lots of fees.
What do you guys think of paying yourself with cards via Paypal here or Amazon Local? There's a 2.5-3 % fee. PP fees are too steep for me, I won't mess with ALR for MS purposes.
Any suggestions? Will my Fifth Third Bank card read as a cash advance on Serve?
Jan 10, 2015, 1:49 pm
#38
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 6
So I just saw a post that has me confused and I am hoping someone here can clarify.
I signed up for Serve at https://serve.com/softcard/ I assumed this signed me up for the softcard version with the $500/day $1500/month online load limit. But now I am reading on a travel blog that in order to have the increased limits you must register for Serve through the Softcard App.
I know I can wait for the physical cards to show up and just test the limit, but I was hoping someone here could clarify this with me so I can remedy my mistake more quickly if I am in error.
Can anyone confirm if the website registration at the /softcard url is a softcard registered Serve account, or do I need to cancel this account and re-register through my phone?
If I have to re-register, can I go and buy a temporary card at the store and register it through the app so I don't have to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail before I start loading the $500/day max?
Thanks again for all the help!
I signed up for Serve at https://serve.com/softcard/ I assumed this signed me up for the softcard version with the $500/day $1500/month online load limit. But now I am reading on a travel blog that in order to have the increased limits you must register for Serve through the Softcard App.
I know I can wait for the physical cards to show up and just test the limit, but I was hoping someone here could clarify this with me so I can remedy my mistake more quickly if I am in error.
Can anyone confirm if the website registration at the /softcard url is a softcard registered Serve account, or do I need to cancel this account and re-register through my phone?
If I have to re-register, can I go and buy a temporary card at the store and register it through the app so I don't have to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail before I start loading the $500/day max?
Thanks again for all the help!
Jan 10, 2015, 3:03 pm
#39
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
So I just saw a post that has me confused and I am hoping someone here can clarify.
I signed up for Serve at https://serve.com/softcard/ I assumed this signed me up for the softcard version with the $500/day $1500/month online load limit. But now I am reading on a travel blog that in order to have the increased limits you must register for Serve through the Softcard App. True.
I know I can wait for the physical cards to show up and just test the limit, but I was hoping someone here could clarify this with me so I can remedy my mistake more quickly if I am in error. you just have to cancel regular Serve account with zero balance.
Can anyone confirm if the website registration at the /softcard url is a softcard registered Serve account, or do I need to cancel this account and re-register through my phone? Cancel current Serve and re-register using your phone app. once you register with SC, scroll down and there will be a link to click to mobile.serve
If I have to re-register, can I go and buy a temporary card at the store and register it through the app so I don't have to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail before I start loading the $500/day max?
I signed up for Serve at https://serve.com/softcard/ I assumed this signed me up for the softcard version with the $500/day $1500/month online load limit. But now I am reading on a travel blog that in order to have the increased limits you must register for Serve through the Softcard App. True.
I know I can wait for the physical cards to show up and just test the limit, but I was hoping someone here could clarify this with me so I can remedy my mistake more quickly if I am in error. you just have to cancel regular Serve account with zero balance.
Can anyone confirm if the website registration at the /softcard url is a softcard registered Serve account, or do I need to cancel this account and re-register through my phone? Cancel current Serve and re-register using your phone app. once you register with SC, scroll down and there will be a link to click to mobile.serve
If I have to re-register, can I go and buy a temporary card at the store and register it through the app so I don't have to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail before I start loading the $500/day max?
Jan 10, 2015, 3:45 pm
#40
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 169
So can any gift card that has pin access be loaded onto a prepaid card? And does that apply to loads at a register or can it be done at a kiosk? For instance, a TIO machine at an Exxon which I believe is a self serve kiosk that is Visa prepaid reload compatible. Thanks for any help!
Jan 10, 2015, 5:56 pm
#41
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 6
Thanks Mamibear. That is what I was afraid of. I cancelled the accounts through the website, easiest card closure EVER. Is it true you need to wait 24 hours to reapply, or can I go into the app and do it right away?
Jan 10, 2015, 7:51 pm
#42
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
DH and I were able to re-register within minutes after closing reg Serve UNLESS policies have changed from last year.
Jan 10, 2015, 9:00 pm
#43
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 169
There we go again! Dozens of threads on this forum and yet too lazy to read even the Wiki which is the top entry on each and every relevant thread...
I give you a free tip - there's 3 interesting prepaid cards and all have their own thread here incl. quite exhausting Wikis: Bluebird, Serve, Redbird
I give you a free tip - there's 3 interesting prepaid cards and all have their own thread here incl. quite exhausting Wikis: Bluebird, Serve, Redbird
Last edited by tcook052; Jan 11, 2015 at 9:56 am
Jan 10, 2015, 9:30 pm
#44
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: New York City + Vail, CO
Programs: American Airlines Executive Platinum, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 3,225
I am in a state that does not have Redbird, although I will be getting one soon. I know that you can only have one, not all three. And when I get my Redbird I plan on doing CC loads only. So excuse my inexperience in not considering those three as prepaids, a ss. Now continuing, are there any other prepaids out there that will allow you to load a gift card onto it? Anyone other than Julian Brennan, thanks in advance...
Jan 10, 2015, 10:01 pm
#45
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 169
