Fidelity Amex is issued by FIA (BoA) and earns points. Amex cards issued by Amex themselves do not earn points.

Cards issued by American Express do not get points, but can count for minimum spending, which may be the only useful part.

Also, it someone has an Amex card not issued by American Express (e.g. FIA Amex), that might continue to work and earn points.

Ohhh, I was confusing payment network with issuer. Got it, thanks!

Update the Wiki? Kind of a big deal...

hopefully FIA and other AMEX card issued by NON-AMEX bank will work after 4.16

Won't affect RC due to different co. accepting the purchase and it's registers accept variety of card issuers due to retailer agreement. But, an online system, like serv, owned and managed by an issuer can restrict payment methods to just their own card (in this case they'll still accept your bank issued debit too as well as any amex cc, we assume any amex including FI).

I use a citi issued AA Amex that is effectively 2X due to a retention offer (1k bonus miles for 1k or greater for 16 months). Sounds like this will only increase the redcard shuffle.

Why do people feel that we need to update the wiki so early? We still got another month before this occurs so stop panicking. By adding it now in the wiki in bold will just add a whole lot of unnecessary discussion about the online CC load which frankly doesn't need that much discussion.

It's certainly good info to have by the beginning of April, so that people who space out their loads throughout the month know that they need to get all 5 done by the middle of the month.

Unfortunately I just signed up recently and got the card on Feb 28, so I'm only going to get a total of 11 CC loads out of it.

So... can we make a list of Amex cards issued by someone else?

Someone mentioned the Fidelity Amex. 2% cash back, but requires you to have a Fidelity acount to get the cash back -- seems like a hassle.

I noticed that BoA has the Asiana Airlines Amex (1.5 miles per $1 spent).

The Citi AA cards used to be Amex (?) but now they are MCs. Does Citi issue any Amex's any more?

Any others?

that is sux! :mad:
first no fee cash advance network? amex cc card + serve

BoA Virgin Atlantic
US Bank Flexperks

https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...credit-card.go (it's a MC)

Is there also an Amex? Can you still apply for it? I only see the MC on the BoA website.

There are only a handful of bank or other financial institution issued Amex cards.

http://www1.amexnetwork.com/cardresources/

It is not really up to date though. BoA Accelerated Reward Amex is no longer available but there is an Asiana Amex by BoA.

It would be interesting to have had access to Target internal figures to see if there's a significant surge (and by how much) of people signing up for REDcard now that Serve will discontinue credit card loads.

Don't know if FT does polls, but a poll here would also be interesting, to see how many people have REDcard, Serve or Bluebird on their personal name at this point. I know there's many who have Serve on their name and REDcard on fam/friends names.

I was finally in an area with a Target that sells temporary Redcards today. I literally got mine 10 minutes before finding out serve was shutting down CC loads. All the mental energy that went into deciding to make the switch was for naught..crazy timing.

Thanks for the heads up.

Luckily (or is it poor luck) I haven't started yet. I'd better start looking for other ways to do utilities bill pay with CC. Was a great idea though!

Ha, mental energy.

Well, for people considering this and being in the same situation as you, if they're nearby such a REDcard store they can activate a temp Redbird card with any amount. I sell them online (for people who don't have them locally) and activate them with $1 but you can even activate them with a penny (had this happen to my cards a couple of times because cashier typed the wrong amount), so would literally be no cost in activating it and deciding later on whether to register online for the permanent acct or not. Plus that gets transf to the permanent card.

In some parts of the country Target charges $5 per Redbird temp card at the store, so there's that cost for the undecided ones who are near such stores. Still, being that you can make $100/Redbird in the 1st month alone with a simple cc like Citi doublecash, the $5 (or the fee to buy it online) becomes very small in perspective.

I currently use 3 Redbird accts (the other two on fam names, but I load them with my credit cards) and really enjoy the benefits, so I def have a hard time understanding fellow MS-ers who have been reluctant to get a Redbird because they were't sure of its cc load future. Doing the opportunity cost math would make them feel bad about their decisions :)

In my case, I was 100% on getting the Redbird as soon as I was near a store. Then Softserve was being shut down. I didn't want to switch to Redbird, then have them shut down CC loads, then go back to Serve without softserve (I was assuming I'd be grandfathered in). My opportunity cost was $500/month of armchair MS. But moot now...

The store in which I got mine charged $5. I was going to just do $1 on each and decide later whether to use them, but couldn't pass up such an easy opportunity to MS $1000. I figured they could still sit in a drawer if I decided to keep serve.

:confused: Of course it should be noted immediately. It's a known, impending change to the program--and a significant one at that. The fact that it won't occur for slightly over a month isn't reason to wait.

Looks like its discontinued.

Has anyone tried loading serve with the new US Bank amex cards? I recently got an offer for one in the mail with an an okay signup offer (20,000 flexpoints after $500 minspend). I initially wasn't interested but might reconsider if I can use to load serve.

I can tell you from experience the Wells Fargo AMEX World Propel card cards points through Serve loads. Been doing it for almost a year. Unfortunately, there is a annual fee with this card (waived in yr 1 for me) so I will likely cancel it around May

Serve - Another Paypal/Amazon payments (2015)
 

at least once a year something happens to make me glad I've kept that citi AA amex open. it's a handy tool in a pinch.

Yes, same with me for my BOA Accelerated Rewards AMEX card. Keep it open for Amex offers & BankAmeriDeals. It gives 1.25 points per dollar which I transfer to Fidelity Amex in my SO's name & redeem.

I don't see anything about the change affecting debit card loads. Just add your CC online as a debit card using the trick.

I've heard that there is or was a Citi Thank You Preferred issued under AMEX. Does anyone know how to get their hands on this?

Also, is the USBank FlexPoints AMEX non-CA cash advance -- does it show up as a regular purchase for recent Serve online credit card loading? I'm pretty sure Club Carlson doesn't work, so I have a hunch this might be the same story for FlexPerks, but I'm not sure.

This actually works? Do they ever ask you to upload a pic of debit cards like they do with credit cards?

Please elaborate... I'm all ears :)

I see a lot of talkers but not doers. Nothing is stopping you from updating the wiki.

On my phone traveling and have no first-hand verification of the change in policy. Thanks for the invite though. ^

*edited to add*

Checked; don't see anything on mobile site.

Who cares about the mobile site, the policy change is clear as day on the normal website under

Help -> Add Money -> Debit Card and Credit Card

Scroll all the way and you will see it.

yeah, which means we will pay cache advance fee on CC.

Who said that? Its 'cash advance' not 'cache advance'. I think the fact that you can't earn points/miles using an Amex CC is enough punishment. I mean I don't see why anyone would use this method anymore if they are planning to use an Amex CC and are NOT trying to use it to meet minimum spend.

Serve - Another Paypal/Amazon payments (2015)
 

Is anyone aware if the amex cc loads count towards the hotel gold status for spending 20k for Hilton and 30k starwood? That would be of some value at least.

From the wording, it appears that the co-branded cards will still be allowed.

The obvious motivation for dropping other cards is that they were paying fees to the issuing banks. I presume that they do not pay a fee, or at least as large a fee to the American Express network for processing the payments.

However, if the Fidelity American Express considers to be accepted, I expect it will get a lot more usage as people drop Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, and direct their loads to their Fidelity American Express cards, or possibly other co-branded Amex cards).

I would expect Fidelity to notice this and stop giving points. BOA (which owns FIA) apparently treats Serve loads as cash advances now (based on my experience trying to use my Travel Rewards card). I would expect the precedent to spread to the FIA cards, and for them to start charging a cash advance fee.

One should watch your statements so you do not get surprised and find that there are large cash advance fees. I believe they are new placing the initial hold as a cash advance, and then the final billing as a purchase. I remember raising my cash advance limit so the card could be used for this, but in doing so I am exposed to a risk that a change in policy would expose me to cash advance fees. I am not quite sure what cash advance limit would permit a few charges to go through, but prevent running up a large cash advance fees. I would hope if there were fees I could point to how they had previously handled Serve loads and get them reversed, but this is not certain.

It is also possible Amex may see heavier use of their cards for loading, and decide they they preferred that those that had newly issue Amex cards make any required spending in a way that generate swipe fees, rather than just to load a Serve card.

I don't think this is going to happen as much as you think. A lot of people will not want to open a Fidelity account just to do this nor will they want cash back. Most people would rather opt for miles than cash back and will not open a CC just to do $1K of Serve online CC loads which can end. Plus there are other options which can provide better rewards.

Yeah, if you don't already havea Fidelity account, this is not really a worthwhile option. 2% of $1000 per month is $20 per month. You are really going to open a new account for $240 per year? $320 if you have softcard? And that's assuming that it lasts a whole year. More hassle and paperwork than it's worth.

On the other hand, if you already use Fidelity, you may as well use the card for this.

Some people (like me) live an hour away from the nearest Target or Walmart. So yeah, for people like me, this policy change really sucks. The opportunity cost of a Bluebird or Redbird were much higher than that of a Softserve.

That makes sense of course. I meant a couple of people whom I'd read posting comments like "I will stick with Serve b/c Redbird is new and might die soon".