thegasguru

No such luck. I've been using my AN for nearly a year, and just got the dreaded red letter "The card entered is unable to be used. Please contact the institution shown on the card for assistance." I was being very careful with that account (because of the issues I cite in the next paragraph). Loaded $1000 once a week, always did a couple of swipes before I did a billpay, and then at least one more swipe after the billpay. Still got closed. Granted, the swipes were usually $5 or less (prepay at the gas station, pack of gum, etc), and the billpay was for nearly $1000 each time - so I agree with the post above: looks like AN has tweaked their metrics to identify unprofitable customers, and they close them down. They're running a business, and have a right to refuse service to whomever they want - but seems like deceptive practice not to disclose in the T&C what kind of activity is acceptable and unacceptable. I was using the card exactly as defined in their T&C. But maybe their T&C should have an entry that says: "oh, and by the way: we need to rack up a minimum of $100 a month in service fees, or we'll close you down."

On a related note, I had 2 other AN accounts closed a few months ago, where I was doing load -> billpay in an infinite loop. Pushed the load over the max (before I learned what the MoneyPak limits were), and got reported by GreenDot to AN as having "suspicious behavior". AN unfroze my accounts, but I could never do any more MoneyPak loads, because GreenDot apparently had banned the SSN associated with those AN cards.

FullMoonMadness

To clarify my data point, I added the payee last night. I logged out, then back in, and everything was okay. I plan to give it a couple of days before logging in again.

However, given myndreamland's comments, I am feeling compelled to try billpaying my money out when I get my next CC bill and closing the account.

BBPlaya13

Same. If a swipe every now and then isn't going to placate them then best to get my money out now

cuebert

I don't use referral codes. The only commonality between the accounts I've been using is the browser (cookies) and IP address. Since it looks like everyone has been shut down at the same time the use of the same browser and IP address do not appear to have been factors in the accounts being restricted.

mintcilantro

so to extrapolate, if I swipe BB/GB a few times, that probably wouldn't help if and when they decide to purge us. As a business, they should have a customer profitability metric and I don't think we can game that. Thankfully there are enough of these opportunities that we can move on. It's sad that they will continue to rip off the underbanked and those unable to read fine print.

cuebert

It's sad, but that's what they will do whether or not we are around to make better use of their systems.

FullMoonMadness

BB/GB may not use the same metrics for profitability.

The funny thing is I had intended to use my AN card on the occasional swipe, despite the $1 fee. But if you can't do that to make them happy, it's not worth the hassle.

Pencegeri

Yes. I had legit purchases from Walmart and K-Mart.

Marathon Man

bancorp oversees many things.

Account Now
Achieve Card
InComm (Vanilla everything including Visa GCs and Reloads)
MIO, MVD, MetaBank

and more.
I mean I think I have this right. lol

Anyway a lot of this is similar to when MVD started shutting masses down and in the end only BB lets you really do your thing with buying VRs and loading them. The others eventually shut you down (Netspend, etc).

Now AN is doing it. Someone leaned on someone and said end it.

It's all politics. GreenDot (who owns MoneyPak) is probably in some tug O war with Bancorp and so that's the issue. It'd be like if your iPhone didn't want to support something made by Adobe but Droid does. Same thing.

We are living in a time in history where things CANNOT get done BECAUSE of progress!

cuebert

I sent an e-mail requesting the status of the account I am trying to re-open and was sent this reply:

Dear cuebert,

Thank you for your email message, and I'm sorry this is still an ongoing issue for you. I researched your account and can see that on the 17th of June we removed the funds for a check to be processed to you. It generally will take 10-14 business days to receive the check.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Thank you,
AccountNow/Customer Sservice [sic]

It looks like everyone is getting cashed out.

Marathon Man

Looks like thatll happen to us too then

pier11

I received their call yesterday informing me that they've got my documents and ready to send me check. I argued that I never requested check and want access to my account. They said it will go to management then... Waiting.

ma91pmh

i had not used my accountnow much at all. i had found another pre-paid which i preferred, it had a monthly fee but there are other benefits i like. anyway for kicks i logged in to accountnow to see if i'd been closed anyway and found i had loaded $1000 which i'd completely forgotten about talk about finding money down the back of the sofa! bill payed it right out... doesn't say much for my spend tracking lol

tuscanyx

I called today and was quoted 5-6 weeks for the check. I asked her if she meant days and she said weeks. Hopefully I misunderstood her due to her accent

myndreamland

Was that your first communication with them or just a follow-up? I'm kinda lazy to call in and go through all the hoops just to have my accounts closed eventually, given that there was only a minimal dollar amount in them now.