This was just fraud prevention's thing. It happened with me as well but not for target amex. When I reloaded two cards for $1K simultaneously, but my another purchase at grocery store was declined and 2 minutes later I got a call from fraud department with questions about purchases.

I will share some facts here that may help some with all the speculation.
I know someone who works for Amex so I checked this card out since the little woman (same as GF, SO, Wifey ect LOL) and I each got two when we went to Sannibel Island and the Keys before Xmas.

The 5k per 28 day load limit is Real but you have to remember somethings.

For one this limit is PER SS # not per card so if you have 2 cards I was told it is $2500 per card per 28 days load limit which I think is stupid and should be 5k total so we can do 4k on one and 1k on the other if we want but I was told it is not by a credible person and my load attempts proved it out and were denied when I had 2k loaded to each card and tried another 1k on each card.

So my conclusion and at least what I am going to do is to load only 1k loads to pay the least in fees and load each card twice a month at the same time to save on gas and my time going to Target only twice a month. This third load for $500 each would not be worth the exta load fee and gas and time for me when combined with the RISK of PUSHING Another Card to the LIMIT all the time and Risking Shutdown of Another Card especially with it being Big Scary Amex who like CHASE is critical to our sucess in this Hobby.

If it were BOA or Citi I might do it since I don't need them but not Chase or AMEX who I need very much.

I am finding I love this Target Amex since Target employees are only prompted to not take Target GC's and are so much nicer and well you know not Walmart people LOL.

Not likely. AEFT loads are recorded as a purchase. Unless they asked for copy of receipt, they wouldn't know what you bought. And worst case, if they start not counting this for min spend/points, all you would be out is a few dollars in fees. So downside risk is minuscule.

Totally agree - the financial risk is minimal. The reason I am pointing this out is that when people are planning their minimum spends, they need to make 100% sure they are receiving the "spend" points, so that they know "the spend is counting" towards their minimum spend requirement for the bonus points.

This is EXACTLY how my mom does it - goes to Target twice a month, usually around 11am when not very busy. She tends to go to Customer Services, who seem very well trained on what the Amex Target card is, and how to quickly do the reloads.

She has it down now to a fine art - short bus ride, in and out of the store in under 10 min, and a short bus ride back home - done and dusted in under and hour.


My mom also comments that everyone she has encountered at Target are very nice and helpful - the one time I went with her (I live in UK at the moment), the cashier did not know what to do - I got a real kick watching my 79 year old, non tech savy mother, "training" the cashier how to step by step load the card.

At the end, the cashier thanked my mom for "giving her training the company did not" - found that amusing.

I've been trying for weeks to get a permanent Target Amex for both myself and my wife -- the identity verification system is a complete joke, and customer support is utterly useless in figuring out what the issue is.

A couple of questions for you folks who either had no trouble to begin with or ultimately resolved the address issue:

1. Did your IDs and cards have middle initials and/or names? It looks like the Target Amex doesn't support middle names, so that could potentially be a mismatch.

2. Did those of you with apartment numbers enter them on address line one or two? Did that match with what your ID has?

3. Does the zip code on your ID have 5 or 9 digits? It again looks like the Target Amex doesn't support 9 digit zips.

4. Did you abbreviate Road to Rd, Street to St, etc? Does that match what's on your ID?

These questions ought to be irrelevant, but here they're clearly not -- this is the most ridiculous 'verification' system I've ever encountered.

Funny thing though since I posted the info I noticed that I have loaded 3k to one of the cards in 30 days so that puts a hole in the Amex persons story. Gotta love when they don't always know what they are talking about. This card is at least in my opinion much safer like BB than any INCOMM product with all their account closures.

My mom had issues with this - she has a NY State "Non Drivers" ID - which had not expired but was 8 years old. I found out that in 2010 NY State changed the way they did Drivers IDs. I suggested that my mom apply for a new Drivers ID - when that arrived, I amended the address details on Amex Target to be EXACTLY like the drivers ID (so, for example 284 Ocean Ter3H) instead of 284 Ocean Terrace (Line 1)
Apt 3H (Line 2) - note NO SPACE between Ter and 3H.

Well after I amended the address, within 24 hours, when I logged in, I got confirmation that my moms account had been verified - a few days later BOTH her permanent cards arrived.

Hope this helps - good luck

When I got my first AFT card, I didn't scan my ID, and instead did it step by step with the cashier. I gave her my driver's license #, but the address I asked the cashier to put was my college address instead of my permanent address. When I got my second card I just scanned my ID and it was sent to my permanent address. Haven't had any issues, except that I haven't been able to register both cards on one account online, which really isn't an issue, I suppose.

Guys I am trying to work out a system to get get the most points, if I read correctly what people are doing are buying Visa gift cards at OM or OD using reward cards such as Amex Business or Chase Ink to get 5%-6%, then using the gift cards to load there Target Amex, then withdrawing $400 free once a month then the rest buy VR cards at cvs and loading them to BB? somebody said they unload them at a costco atm for only a $1 fee per I would like to verify this as well :), please guys if you can PM me any helpful information I would really appreciate it, thank you!

can you reload amex for target with Amex gift card?

amex prepaids work to load AFT, never tried a amex gift card

I am not sure how this benefit, its like going prepaid to prepaid...

You got a PM

YES:)

@forextrader:
Can you PM me also with that information? and please also clarify if I can load visa/mastercard gift cards on AFT or not as I have a bunch of them now.

Thanks a lot.

you may want to consolidate many small cards into one. You can witdrawl from AFT, can't do that with a temp amex pp, buy the amex pp at OD with ink(5x).

I hope this is only isolated incident with stupid customer rep + her supervisor.
I have been successfully loading AFT with visa gift card in the past and normally I go to the checkout stand. However, today I went to the customer service counter.
I am denied because she told me i cant load gift card to gift card. I told her I did this many times and it is not like 10 gift cards, it is 1 gift card + credit card.
So, she called her supervisor, and her supervisor was telling the same thing while pointing something to the computer (I cant see the computer screen).
I dont want to argue so, I just go.
This is in bay area target.

Fyi, i was just successfully loading my DW and my AFT last Monday with combination of 5 visa gift cards

The screen says they cannot accept TARGET gift cards. Hopefully it was just that one cashier.

How long does it take to verify info online? I need my PIN before the month is out so I can make my $400 monthly withdrawal.

I think it took about three weeks for mine. I don't know what company does the verification but they were not in a hurry to verify my info and get me my card when I did it. I'd pretty much given up and assumed I wasn't going to get it and then it showed up in the mail.

I withdrew $1600 this month. Is this a lot? Prob 1-2 regular transactions in between each withdraw.

Why would you withdraw that much? Doesn't Amex charge you $3 for each after the first free one?

At least it eventually came through. This card might as well be made out of uranium considering how difficult they're making it for me to get one.

Do you remember what the online system displayed during that 3 week period? From my hours of screwing around with the site, it seems to show one message initially while it's verifying, which includes something like "you'll get your PIN in 7-10 days". Then, within 24 hours, if (when) it fails, it changes to a different message (which says nothing about a PIN) and the EDIT button appears that lets you change your address. Before that changes occurs, there's no EDIT button. When you change your address, it goes back to the first message and the cycle repeats. If you leave the second message alone, it just sits there and you get a "verification failed" letter like 3 weeks later.

So far I've basically been running as many address variations through it as I can think of, trying a new one every time the second message and the EDIT button reappear. I'm quickly running out of variations...

I got the card back on December 23. I immediately went online to complete setting up my account. I was verified the next day (indicated on my online dashboard). I was able to use the temporary card to load at Target and withdraw from ATMs (PIN available online) up until two days before receiving my permanent card (a week later).
Sorry to all those who are having trouble!

Creating an account
 

Is anyone having challenges creating their online account? I have tried with the Temp and it won't let me go past the create username/password screen. Every time I hit submit, it just refreshes the page without any error message. I've tried using different usernames and different passwords. There is no way the username has already been used.

I got the permanent card today and the same issue. I guess I'm just stuck calling in to see if I can create an online account.

I got the EDIT screen. I did like you except I only tried a couple variations then thought "screw it I guess I won't get one of these" and quit logging in and then a couple weeks later the card showed up. I don't know if my actions had anything to do with what happened. Maybe I got lucky on my last edit and matched what they had in their system.

I've had my permanent card for about a month. This is what my dash looks like:
http://i46.tinypic.com/2qcnotd.jpg
Though my card is the personalized one, I was able to load and withdraw through ATM with the starter card. Can those with the temp card see settings for ATM access? View their PIN? I think that is ultimately the gauge of whether you are verified or not (ability to see PIN, ATM access settings), because my dashboard still has the part about verification, and an edit screen.

Well it looks like it only took a day or two because I can get my PIN online and change my address.

The closest Costco is 20miles/30mins away from me which would negate the cheaper ATM fee. Is there a list somewhere with ATM surcharges?

Once you've passed verification, you have a PIN and can use your starter card at an ATM. If you haven't passed verification, you can't, so the card is basically a worthless gift card.

Not that I am aware of. My local Walmart is my cheapest at $1.50 for a max $300 withdrawal. Most of my other ones are $3.00.

I created a spreadsheet here with "IF" formulas on Google Docs showing how to get about 28,000 miles per Target AMEX card. My wife and I have 4 cards between us and we are planning to get about 110K miles this year with Target AMEX. Hope it helps!

Can the AMT be used to load BB at WM with its PIN? Can you do purchases with the PIN and get cash back or is the PIN only good for ATM use?

PIN is only good for ATM use.

Damn, thanks.

I have some bad news: my purchase of a AFT card at a Target store ran into problem today. After everything was scanned, filled out, and paying for the card (with $495 load amount) - second spit out from register mentioned an error message and to call Amex. This was my second AFT card purchae (first one was 3 days ago and it works fine).

Amex CSR said no value on card, card was not "sold properly", to fax in lots of documents for their investigation - upto 10 business days.

Lesson learned - wait for permanent card to come in mail before loading large amounts to AFT; buy temp card with minimum load amount. And never buy GC/reload with another GC; at least with CC there is some hope of transaction dispute.

I bought my temp card with $500 from my CC and no problem. What were you using to load the $495 with?

So has anyone find a Target in the NYC/NJ area that actually has the temp cards? I've been to at least 4 of the stores that are on the website saying they have them but no luck at all.

Roms,
Your spreadsheet is interesting. Aren't there also $3 ATM fees from Target for every withdrawal after the 1st one in the month? And aren't all ATM fees subtracted from the card itself, leaving you with balances that don't round to $100 or $20, which makes it hard to remove all the money via ATM?

Yes to all of the above.