How to avoid BlueBird shut downs. Share your thoughts here.
 

No, my Bluebird account has not been shut down (sorry if the thread title made your heart stop). And I have not heard of anyone actually having their Bluebird account shut down for excessive/questionable activities (unlike Paypal, Amazon, Square, and most of the other players).

What I *have* read about are people speculating about - and worrying about - getting shut down due to various excessive/questionable activities (buying gift cards with an Amex card, then paying off your Amex bill from Bluebird, etc. - variations on "too short a circle" or "Amex can easily see every point in the transaction").

I've started this thread to track reports of such shutdowns.

I'm guessing that this is not happening much (or at all) - yet - but human nature being what it is (many people have a hard time controlling themselves, people get greedy, people don't think things through...) it's probably inevitable that someone crosses the invisible line at some point and will get a smackdown from Bluebird. Surely there are Bluebird Cardinals out there somewhere, so it's going to happen to somebody eventually.

If/when that day comes and it happens to you, I hope you'll share your experience here so others can benefit from it.

Anybody want to start?

Visibility
 

How much can Amex / the other card issuers actually see about our purchases? Do they just see that we are spending $1007.90 buying two scoops of icecream at CVS, or can they actually see WHAT we are buying?

Don't know, and would love to hear from someone who actually does know.

From what I have read elsewhere, "it depends" - in some systems, they only get an aggregate total. In other systems, if they want to bother looking, they can see every individual item. I do not have any direct knowledge of these systems, but that's what I've been told from multiple sources. It would not surprise me if they could see details.

Of course, we have no way of knowing which systems allow the detail view (assuming it's true) and which don't. I always assume they can see everything, so I try not to give them a reason to bother looking.

In any case, I think that if you make regular purchases that always total exactly $1007.90 (to pick your example), it's providing an obvious trigger for some algorithm. It can't hurt to throw in something small to randomize and vary the number.

Ultimately this is just speculation, but it seems like a prudent practice to me (now if I just knew what to do with all those damn slim-jims I've been collecting at the beanery....).

Gotta love that Bluebird Cardinal.^

It's probably too early to see shutdowns. I suspect it will take few more months of *perceived* abuse before we start seeing cardinal action.

I had a feeling you might appreciate that... :D

Cardinal Biggles?

anyone care to share their cardinal avoidance approach to bluebird? feel free to PM.

i haven't bothered to "improvise" a pattern of non-beans usage like many others here have, but i have made a point of avoiding using BB to pay AMEX cards.

I don't think anyone has been shut down no matter what they do. A lot of folks simply load it up and use it to pay their credit cards. The product is so new I think we are in the early introduction and acceptance phase where they just want to get a bluebird in everyone's pocket. Maybe after a year or so they will cull the herd. I think they are following the same introduction as Amazon Payments. Let the kids play the first year, then maybe tell them to simmer down if need be.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Ludicrous

Cardinal Rule #73 - Perceived abuse increases geometrically to the number of blog reports on the opportunity.:p

Cardinal Rule #82 - Whenever anyone says "I don't think anyone has been shut down no matter what they do" it is time for a surprise entrance."

Thread is now open. The OP is looking for constructive comments.

Lets not poke the sleeping dragon....



Feel Free to PM me with Questions or to Bounce off Ideas.

There is a brief discussion of a "locked" Bluebird account starting at post 20 in this thread, but it's not clear if it was permanently closed:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post19883568

Then in post 22 the poster mentions, "They told me they thought there was something suspicious going on."

That sounds similar to this report of a card temporarily locked due to suspicious activity. http://travel-summary.com/bluebird-suspicious-activity/ The suspicious activity in this second case was apparently having the same bank account attached to two Bluebirds.