raccah

Also make sure to get a referral link and both get 10 bux (you and the refferer)

doubleheader

It is listed and I did click on Verizon. I will go to the Verizon store today and see if they missed a step with the enhanced chip.

nwflyboy

Is Serve "flakey" these days, or has it settled down and become routine?

The reason I ask is because I used to have Serve, back in the days when you could have both Serve and Bluebird. Those days ended about a year and half ago, IIRC, when Serve contacted me - and I think most other double-dippers - informing us that we had to pick one or the other. I chose Bluebird, and have been happy ever since. At the time, I had stopped using Serve altogether, deciding that it was just way too big a pain in the butt to bother with. I found that the website froze and often was unresponsive (no matter what browser I tried), and every time I tried to load with a CC, either the load would fail on the website end, or there would be a fraud alert from my CC company - or both. Every time, I would contact the CC fraud department and say, yes, this was me, yes it's OK to approve that charge, and please don't block future payments to this vendor. Chase (and others) assured me every time that I would have no further fraud alerts when attempting to use that vendor. Then I would go back to Serve and try a load again. 9 times out of 10 it would fail with another fraud alert. Between that, the low online load limits, and the crashy/unresponsive website, it was just more trouble than it was worth, and when I had to close my Serve account, I was actually relieved to be done with it.

Now it seems like Serve has some minor advantages over Bluebird, and it *might* be worth switching. But not if the overall website or loading experience still sucks as bad as it did before.

Is anyone here experiencing a lot of hassles with Serve, or is it now as smooth as one would expect?

Thanks.

skor

Anyone has experience closing a Serve account and then reopening a new Serve account at a later date? Will you have the same Serve account number in this situation?

lad2

Yes. No.

DaveInLA

I manage a BB for a family member and want to change it to Serve (no ISIS), and I DON'T mind the 31 day wait? I read through this thread and the other Serve thread, and all methods are geared toward expediting the process but involve multiple calls. Is it as simple as-- emptying out the BB account, calling to close it, then opening a Serve account 32 days later?

mikex163

Yep, it's that simple.

DaveInLA

I just called BB to cancel my card with the intent of switching to Serve. The CSR said I could apply for Serve immediately. I asked about a waiting period, he said it wasn't necessary. He didn't say anything about change in policy; just that I could apply now. Does anyone know of any change in policy or any other info on this?

heyeaglefn

Yes, it has been this way for at least 2 months.

dingo

Why would one change from Serve to BB? Serve, at least the softcard version, seems to have all the same features as BB and is reloadable with credit cards and has a higher monthly load limit?????

ElPresidente

What answer you get, depends on the rep. 24 hours, 48 hours, 30 days, 31 days, 180 days!

The best info I've been told, is it depend on the activity in your account. Like I had a Billpay Check outstanding that had not yet been cashed. So once that check finally cashed, and the account could be "settled" on the next batch processing run, my BB account was finally able to be considered closed.

Slightly different problem than you, trying to switch Bluebird to Redbird though.

The only reason I'd go back to Bluebird is if I REALLY needed the physical checkbook aspect of it. But I've worked past all the use cases I had for that now.

dingo

So the physical checks is the only bene of BB over Serve? I guess I've never seen the bene of those checks. I've been able to pay everyone that I need to pay using the online bill pay of BB and assume the same functionality exists for Serve.

ElPresidente

The online billpay stuff for occasional uses, means setting up an address and waiting 5+ business days. If you want to write a check for a babysitter, it was frankly convenient to HAND them the BB check as they leave. It is a minor convenience I do miss with Serve.

The other convenience of BB if you shop at WM, is that the Savings Catcher stuff is doubled. So $0.40 off becomes $0.80 if you use the BB to do the purchase. Not a big savings, and I don't shop at WM often.

In any case the trivially easy 1K/mo CC deposit with Serve is worth far more.

zjts

Am I correct that there is no 1K/mo CC deposit with bluebird like there is with Serve? So people are switching to Bluebird for paper checks & to save $ at Walmart, but losing the easy 1K/mo CC deposit?

rabatt

Yes.