I would like to thank Astrophsx for sharing his discovery of this card at
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16822687-post409.html .
The "American Express for Target" reloadable prepaid card is being tested in Atlanta, Baltimore (reportedly includes DC and much of Northern Virginia), Chicago, Denver and Miami metropolitan areas.
Fees:
Reload: $3, reloadable by Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
ATM Withdrawal: $2
Annual: $10 (works out to ~0.1% for depositing 1k every 5 weeks in the scheme discussed below)
Limits:
Maximum reload $1000/card/day (based on $3/reload, cheapest fee = 0.3%),
Maximum reload $5000/person/28 days [Thanks, MyTravels, for the correction.]
Maximum ATM withdrawals $200/card/week (based on $2/withdrawal, cheapest fee = 1%).
Maximum cards/person: 2, cannot be opened same day.
Maximum card value: $2,500
One application: load $2k into two cards, withdraw $400/week at a no-fee ATM for a cost of ~1.4% + lost interest over a month + your time visiting a no-fee ATM (.3% for deposit + 1% for withdrawals + ~.1% for annual fees = ~1.4%).
URL's:
http://www.americanexpress.com/target
https://www212.americanexpress.com/d...00d0faad94RCRD
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1100165/
An unusual feature of this prepaid card is that it is reloadable from other Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards. blase at FlyerTalk reports being able to purchase a $500 card with a British Airways Visa, and sf3895 at milepoint reports being able to reload it with a prepaid Visa card.
This card is linked to your social security number, so I suspect that, within the limits of financial privacy laws, AmEx might remember everything you do with it forever.
That said, I would be curious to know if anyone loaded this card from an AmEx gift card purchased via the bigcrumbs 1.6% rebate or bought an AmEx GC via bigcrums using this card.
Other ideas:
1. In addition to being rechargeable online, this card can be recharged at participating Target stores, which might make reloads look like ordinary shopping at Target, maybe reducing the chance that a credit card issue would try to reclassify the transaction as a cash advance, or start mysteriously cancelling your AmEx GC orders, etc. Recharging in the store might also make the program look better to management if it seems to pull customers into Target stores. However this is all very speculative.
2. The relatively low load fee and high maximum value might occasionally have other applications, such as combining or cashing out other gift cards.
Please feel free to post problems, information and your bright ideas about using this card. I plan to try to summarize by editing this message on an ongoing basis.
Edited 7/31/2011: Thanks to MyTravels for pointing out that the $10/card annual fee would add about 0.1% to the costs of depositing $1k per card every 5 weeks, and that the maximum reload per person per 28 days in the terms and conditions is $5k, not $4k. I am sorry I don't know a way to change "1.3%+" to "~1.4%" in the thread subject. Also, thanks to BeachMiles for noting "Baltimore test area includes Washington DC and much of Northern Virginia."]
Edited 8/3/2011: Thanks to blase at FlyerTalk and sf3895 at milepoint for reporting success with buying the card using a mileage earning visa and reloading with a visa gift card, respectively.