Thank you, and Phantom707 too. I took the "In general" in the wiki's "In general, Mastercard and American Express cards post as purchases." to mean there were exceptions; I just wanted to be sure Fidelity was not one of them.

just thought i'd post this for anyone trying to load their serve cards at walmart around san jose, CA, because within the past year it's been getting harder and harder for me:

the only location with a Kate is the story road walmart, and that Kate has the 9 digit PIN error (as of 08/04)

as for loading at the cashier or money center, it's been getting harder and harder for me. corporate policy says they can only load with bank-issued debit cards now, so you basically have to find a cashier that's competent enough to load your serve card themselves, while at the same time they are not aware of the policy. i've been shot down at three different walmarts, and each time it was because they either noticed the gift card or had to call a manager for help.

Neighborhood Market in Westgate mall - cashier needed an override, manager told me they only accept bank-issued debit cards; was told the same thing by moneycenter attendant
Mountain View - cashier noticed the gift card
Blossom Hill - moneycenter attendant noticed the gift card and cancelled my transaction before i could swipe "we're not supposed to take those any more"; was able to load at a checkout lane but the cashier asked another cashier for help (not a manager, and no override) and i got lucky that neither knew the policy
San Jose (story road) - Kate with 9 digit PIN error; cashier didn't know what to do and called for a manger who asked to see my card

Has anyone tried to load at Family Dollar with a OneVanilla Mastercard? Tried to load $500 at Family Dollar, went through the motions, but after I entered my pin it was declined. Card is fully activated. No one loaded before me. I will add that she scanned some sort of cardboard reload barcode before she had me swipe my Serve card. Any help is appreciated!

I'm done MS'ing for a while and will just let my Serve account sit idle - should I switch it over to a BB card instead to avoid the $1 monthly fee? What will happen if I have a $0 balance? I'm kind of hesitating due to the new Serve Green/Blue rules.

Mine was dormant for several years, and the monthly fee was charged and credited back each month as I had a zero balance. I'd definitely be concerned about doing this with an existing account now, as they may close it and require you to open a new Green one.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll test the waters and see what happens for a while. If they close my account, I'll just switch it over to a BB at that point. (hopefully they don't change that one)

There seems to be issues with the Vanilla network today, see this Redbird page for more info and post 9545 for specifics.

i've had my account since early 2008 and it's sat idle for long periods of time with a $0 balance, fees never charged. from my experience, it seems you're only charged the $1 fee if you have a positive balance below $500.

The wiki is a bit vague...can someone tell me if you can load another $500 on a temp Serve card after loading the initial $500 and registering for the permanent card? Didn't work this morning but may have been the vanilla network problem earlier.

Are there any general rules of thumb for not repeatedly sending bill pay checks to yourself? I was planning to mostly liquidate this way. I really don't have many options to send checks to without disturbing ongoing payments that are running smoothly. I can transfer to my bank account, but I try to minimize those.

How about bill pay to credit cards instead?

Thanks. For some reason I was thinking that could get your cc accounts shutdown faster. I'd be curious to know what others use as their primary method to liquidate from serve.

? I have been paying my credit card accounts with serve for years. Of course, I don't pay back the same card with serve that I used to load my serve account in the first place.

I do, and I've been doing it for year (singular).

I'm assuming that is always done over the phone, but I did find the ability to bill pay a few listed cc options as most common in my area. They include Citi Cards, American Express, Bank of America Credit Card, and Chase Credit Cards. I'm assuming you can bill pay and pay over the phone at Citi and maybe some of the others to spread the pay.

If Citi via phone is the only option for this, that's cool. I can divert some spend that way.