They are going to end the beans, and cut out the extra card...less cost easy...

Happy -- I was in a similar spot, but the switch wasn't that bad, and once you have serve you will be no worse off unless you use the checks. And even if you can't find VRs and can't load in store, at least you can load 1k online. So, worst case it's like AP once a month.

I think the reason Amex is competing with its own product -- and this is speculation -- is that Amex saw its relationship with Wal-mart as a chance to get into the pseudo-banking game with a retailer that has massive exposure to millions of unbanked customers. But, in classic Wal-mart fashion, Wal-mart pretty quickly realized it had very little need for Amex. It could simply act as its own pseudo-bank with its own prepaid products. Bluebird has been relegated to lower shelf space than Wal-mart's own cards. So it now is focusing back on its own serve product.

Go read some banking journals, up to 30% of Americans, are either under banked or have no relationships.

Prepaid is a large part there. For Amex. Even if it's a loss, they need to be in the game. This will perhaps drive other card business. Besides, Amex is a bank too, not just processor.

Infrastructure from bob was already there and developed. The Amex prepaid was a mediocre product. Giving serve a second push was a no brainier.

Had a new experience at CVS today. Stopped into one of my regular stores, and discussed how much a day could be put on a CC. The cashier looked at a sheet by the cash register, then asked the on duty shift manager, and they decided i could buy up to 10 VRs a day. I have never bought 5K at this particular store before, so said I wanted 10 at $500 each. It went through with out a hitch. Then the wife stepped up right after me and said she wanted 10 for 500 each. The shift super said 'we can't sell more than ten cards a day to persons in the same family. Really??? Even after the wife told her its her card different name, with a different account number. So no VRs for the wife from that store, this day. After the Super got out of earshot, the original cashier said she would have done it.
An interesting, on the spur of the moment, executive decision.
Oh Well, just another day in the life of a VR chaser.

I've had my wife do 5k right after I did 5k many times, never an issue, like you said another executive decision based on who knows, nothing unusual, wouldn't surprise if they allow it next time.

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can't you just go in separately ? i guess they will suspect you were together but how would they know?

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Another reason to get to know the folks who are selling you the goods. People are happy to help folks they know!

Noob here... but I have a question that I hope someone can shed some info on...

I am on my first month of using Bluebird and using their bill pay feature, and it is working good so far. I am able to locate Vanilla reload cards pretty easily and pay for them using my credit card.

What is the advantage of switching to Serve from Bluebird?

Thanks in advance.

I think the main advantage, as their bill pay is similar, is the ability to load it via CC at CVS without any fees. It saves you about $40 in VR fees/month.

However, no check payments like BB.

another wasted post and reply to said post and turse reply to said post.

Bought my normal amount of VRs this morning and the cashier read the register prompts aloud to herself. One made me chuckle: "Is the customer in the store at the register or on the phone? Purchase of pre-paid reloads over the phone is not permitted."

That happened to me too. He then asked if I was buying them "for someone that I didn't know." Some type of fraud thing.

Spoke to the CVS manager over the weekend. They got VRs in on Thursday AM and i took the last ones saturday night. He said they sold 150 over the 3 day period. Suburb of chicago.