Had a weird experience today at WM trying to load Bluebird and Serve. I have been going to this Neighborhood Walmart for over a year and have never had any problems. However today i tried to first load $600 on to BB with 3 payments of $200 each. For all 3 cards swiped i got an approved message but upon final authorization to load to Serve it gave an error to the cashier and nothing got loaded to BB. I then tried one more time the exact same approach with exactly the same result. Hence third time I tried to load just $200 without doing split payments and even that failed. Fourth time I decided to try loading Serve instead of BB and just $200 and it went through. This made me believe something was wrong with my BB and then for the fifth time I tried to load $600 on Serve with split payments and this time i got an error similar to the first 2 attempts with BB.

With the conflicting data points it is very hard to draw any conclusion. Has anybody experienced similar problems at Walmart?

Usually when this happens it is your fault: you went over your daily limit, you went over your monthly limit, you used a subaccount card to load and so on.

Citi AAdvantage BP option
 

Hi all,

I have a grandfathered softcard and will be adding my new Citi AA card for min spend. Question is which Citi option to select for the BP setup, is it Citi Cards or CitiBank Credit card. This is NOT TYP but AA platinum CC.

Thanks in advance

citibank credit card

Success at RA loading ONE VIP using a OV VISA debit card. The cashier did ask to see the name on the debit card and my DL before loading. I did have one OV VGC that failed to load a few months back to Target REDcard, and when I called to get a replacement they sent me a card with my name on it. So that's the one I used.

My wife has an RA account, and the cashier asked to scan my account number first (before loading). She said this would get us Plenti points. Also, the register printed a few RA coupons, such as save $4 if you spend $40 by Dec 24.

I loaded at 3 diff RA last night and didn't think of entering my RA info. I don't care about the $4 off $40 coupon, but Plenti points would be nice.

re: loading Serve at Dollar General
 

Found a DG store near me, with a clerk willing to try the load. However, he didn't think it was possible with the store's registers. Indeed we both looked at his menu, and none of the 9 items looked like the prepaid loads. We tried 2 options unsuccessfully, then decided to abort when another customer came to the checkout.

Has anyone succeeded in loading Serve at a DG? If so, what would be the right buttons to press for my checkout clerk?
TIA

I don't know how your RA are in your area, but here, they made me miss the WM experience. It was so awkward at both, needed a manager both times, front line persons pushing for cash only. It might be OK for 1 or 2 cards but that doesn't cut it for me. I'll keep sludging to WM for now.

Anyone else able to do volume? Say load the max 2500 or like 5
or 10 cards from Staples?

I can't pay bills over $2500 online, there's a prompt to call the 800 number. Anyone experiencing this?

I just paid a $4k+ bill on 11/23. i haven't tried to pay anything this week though.

Load one, say thank you and walk out. Easy peasy. I have zero interest of turning a store into "cash only".

No issues over $4k. Have you gone over your monthly limit for billpay by chance?

Gotcha. So when I check on Serve and it tells me I've loaded $2000, it's $2000 loaded for my statement so far, right? And now that it's December, I can load up another $5000 since the limit is based on calendar and not statement date?

So theoretically, Serve could tell you you have loaded $10K on your statement since two calendar months could fall within your statement range?

Yes. Completely ignore statement periods. They mean nothing in terms of loads. It's all about the calendar.

Anyone have any idea if it's easy to change from one type of Serve to another? A buddy just signed up for one and inadvertently signed up for a Blue rather than a VIP.

Found this helpful comment today:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/25649577-post9.html
Curious now if the same procedure would work when loading from a non-vanilla GC (e.g. metabank)?

There's no product change process. Your friend will have to cancel the Blue and reapply for the OneVIP.

After having success earlier this week loading my Serve card at Rite Aid, I tried to load a Bluebird card there using the same procedure. No luck. It generated an error message that the manager had to clear (not something I was thrilled about, but at least they didn't think I was a crook or anything). I then used the same Vanilla gift card to load my Serve with no problem.

If you have a convenient Rite Aid, and don't have convenient access to a regularly functioning WM Kate machine, this is a game changer IMO. It is just so much faster, easier and pleasant to load at Rite Aid over waiting in line at Walmart, and the ability to also load Vanillas (which tend to be a bit cheaper and easier to buy) is an added bonus.

I currently manage 2 BBs and 1 Serve (which is enough MS for me!), and I think I'll convert at least one of those BBs to Serve. Is there any reason not to?

Serve comes with a monthly fee waive-able by DD or $500 monthly loads.

Any reason not to concert both BB to Serve? I don't think the $1 fee is a true deterrent.

In any case, I thought I read somewhere that BB can be loaded at RA as well. But I agree this is a game changer.

I unlinked my old Barclay Arrival from my Softserve account, and now when I try to add another account it says it can only be a 15-digit Amex card?

Anyone have input here?

And on my wife's account, when I try to add a different Arrival card, all I get is "We're sorry, something went wrong! Please try again."

I just tried it now and switched to DiscIT card and then back to Citidcb and it went through w/o issues.

Try again later or switch browsers to see if that'll fix the issue.

Anyone have luck loading at a RA in Los Angeles? If so, which type of serve/bb did you use? If anyone loaded within 15 minute drive of LA, I'd like to know too.

I've loaded with one VIP three times already. No issues even with Vanillas.

One Riteaid this morning has already gone to matching ID with name on Debit card. Feels like the damage has already started....

Does the serve online credit load from amex OBC count to the 6500$ threshold? Has anyone used this method to load 2+ different serve cards from same obc to get closer to 5% cb?

I've previously searched through the thread (and the OBC thread) and saw some people report their experiences. The consensus is that it does not count towards that threshold.

Thanks.

For cards like the citi AA amex, has anyone had an issue loading different serve cards online?

I didn't see anyone mention this in past few pages but I'm getting hit with a 3.74 load charge at WM and FD with the new serve, I guess I can avoid this by switching to the onevip instead?

Either OneVIP or the Green "fee free" serve.

I have the OneVIP loading at WM, FD and DG without the fee.

I just had a very strange conversation with the Serve "Account Protection Services". I received an email saying my account was closed because of a violation of section 15D. When I called they asked if I read 15D, but 15D just says that they can close it for any reason.

I haven't even used my card yet or linked any accounts, so waiting on a call back. The guy on the phone was a complete jerk.

Got a HOST TIMEOUT and attempted two more times that got DEBIT NOT AVAILABLE.

Looked online and found the GC drained and according to the Wiki it will reverse itself, can someone comment on how long it takes?

I just switched back to WM/Serve from RB so kind of getting back into this and the cashier this time had me swipe the VIP card on my end, which the previous cashiers did not.. wondering if she just messed something up, especially at first she thought I was going to give her cash and then pressed something else when I said Debit.

Update: Scratch that, already reversed under an hour.

What to do if cashiers want to see the debit card? Had couple occasions where I had to walk away empty handed.

You can try showing your actual debit card then swipe your gift card or walk away empty handed

How To Link Non-AMEX Card To Softcard?
 

Anyone know which exact steps to take to add a non-AMEX credit card to my Softcard account?

I know in the wiki it says I can add my Visa Credit Card to load money onto Softcard Serve, and yesterday I put in my Southwest Premier Visa CC information and loaded $20 as a test... today however when trying to load $450, I got the "transaction declined, call credit card issuer" and cleared up with Chase that it was an authorized transaction.

Then when I went back to Serve however to load the $450, the "Add Money" button would just take me to the screen where I manage Credit / Debit cards, it wouldn't let me add any money...

So I deleted the Southwest card and tried to add it again.

However this time I'm getting the message "We’re sorry, you can only link an American Express® credit card to your Serve Account."

Do I need to call in and do it over the phone?

Many thanks

While certainly people do this (because they have to I guess!) I feel this is crossing a lined. We like to maintain that we doing nothing wrong when we MS. Showing someone a card (which they have an absolute right to ask for as part of the transaction) and using a different one looks suspicious to say the least. There is no "good" explanation of why you are doing it.

If you're at a register with a physical divider, where they can't see your card when you swipe, you should be good. At my local WM, there are a few registers like this.