There is no $4.95 monthly fee on the blue Amex Prepaids.

You cannot do MOs or CB since it cannot do pin-purchases. It is basically a credit card with ATM ability.

Thanks for clarifying no monthly fee (found out I had a recurring small monthly charge from MyFico.com I had cancelled)

Thanks for the MO/CB info. Sounds very similar the AEFT card, but different load capability with VR/GD vs CC/GC

Are you sure that you have the American Express Prepaid?

Definitely.

Agree, no monthly fee (edited my first post above). I mistook a recurring charge for some sort of fee by Amex. I hadn't set up my online account and was just using the last 5 transactions from their phone support w/o knowing who the charge was from. When got online access, saw it wasn't a fee from Amex.

New data point: Target I've been going to for months now block (non-Target) giftcard reloads at the POS end.

I've also encountered this.

Did you mean that register now blocks usage of Visa/AMEX/MC GCs for loading Target Amex?

The same happened to me yesterday. I was trying to load 20 mastercard gift card, but the cashier didn't allow me. All she said is you can't load a gift card with gift cards. She wouldn't concede, even after 10 minutes explaining to her that AMEX target was not a "gift card" cause it had my name on the front of the card. She told me that another cashier was just scolded for doing this one day before.

Then, I said to her, "nevermind, I will use my credit card to load this time", and I tried to slide a $500 value gift card first;-). Darn, she insisted to see my id first and to match it with my "credit card". So I gave up, and used a true credit card instead.

I've also never had any issue before when loading AMEX target with Visa/Mastercard gift cards in the same store. So, I guess it will become harder and harder to load with Visa/Mastercard/Amex gift cards.

Corrrect. Not that I wasn't allowed by the cashier, but that when I swiped my Visa GC into the register, it wasn't accepted.

oh boy, I sure hope this isn't the case.... if so I'm up s*** creek without a paddle

I just unloaded 20 MC gift cards at my local Target. All went through without a problem. Checked my amex balance and it shows $1000 was added.

Target refused to load card
 

Stopped by local Target and customer service desk. They refused to load the Target Amex card, would not even attempt a scan to see if computer would take it, and said they stopped reloading the card in November of last year.

I get that story every time I reload. I tell them (very kindly) that's its not a gift card and ask them to just try it. Then-low and behold- it works! And yes, I use vanilla gc's to pay. They usually seem delighted that they me happy and even when they call a 'manager' the manager walks away saying they learned something.

My guess is that something is wrong with your Visa GC. Otherwise, there is no difference between Visa GC and regular CC. Did you try credit card?

I called the number on the back of the card to ask why my local Target refused to load my Target Amex card. I got India. She put me on hold. I hung up.