Mods: Feel free to merge with this somewhat related thread if need be.

I just got an e-mail from AmEx announcing their new (?) loadable card called PASS. Details at americanexpress.com/pass, T&Cs linked on that page.

Summary
Load Max - $2,500 per card [3 cards max]
Account Fee - $3.95/mo waived until Oct 1, 2010
ATM fee - $1.50 [network unknown]
Max withdrawal - $200/week

There is a promo going on until Aug 15, 2010 which gives a $25 credit after the first reload is done.

Oh, exploitable!
If you put in $200 every week from now until Oct 1 you could get 13 withdrawals ($19.50 in ATM charges) vs. the $25 credit for a gain of $5.50 and 2,600 MR points/SkyMiles/whatevs. Not massively churnable, sadly; If you kept up the weekly withdrawals for a year you'd net only 10,400 points at 1.13 cpm. But what about U.S. Mint, um, E-gift certificates or other gift card purchases?

Potential Issues
Don't know if purchases/reloads of PASS cards accrue reward points. T&Cs unclear on this point but would it be a cash equivalent? VISA/MC rules for their reloadables allows rewards, right? So did/do AmEx purchases of gift cards, I think ...

We do have a thread on this card:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ng-adults.html

Sadly, we don't have a real Amex forum, only MR, so Amex threads are all over...

More issues with PASS:

1. Not available in CA - and three other smaller states
2. Does not work as debit card - no MO purchases, no cashover at POS terminals

There are couple of threads on PASS at FWF, people already got it; still no answer if it will earn Amex rewards - but based on Amex GCs behavior it should.

Thanks for the link! Overall this is a so-so deal unless more info can be confirmed about this. I don't have kids so unfortunately cannot be the guinea pig. Has anybody actually gotten this card? Did it earn points/threshold?

Any one know for sure whether you earns Amex points for buying these PASS cards?

I just saw this when I logged into my Amex SPG account. It is one of those teen cards. Usually these are dumb, but some like the Discover one let you load money via Visa or MC credit card, (not AMEX), and then you could go to Walmart and buy a money order because the cards have debit card pins, or go straight to a ATM and withdraw the cash. You have to run the math to see if it doable, but when I did it with the Discover teen card, it was pretty easy. Also there is no fee until Oct. You can use your AMEX to load this thing up, so depending on if they are giving points or not, this could be a easy way to rack up some SPG points.

Any thoughts?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ight=teen+pass

Thanks

They are offering $25 credit per card up to 3 and no monthly fee again until October $25. Might be interesting to see if these still earn points, just skimming through a few threads they look like they were back in August. Someone suggested trying to see if one could buy travelers checks at AAA.

Need to double check, but it may be by invitation only.

You do not earn points with the pass reloads using the *wood card. It was working for awhile then all of sudden it stoped earning points.

Any idea about MR points?

In the other threads it made it seem like you could back in August. I guess we'll find out soon. The problem may be in order to get the $25 after "reloading" the cards you may have to have been sent the email with the offer.

That's too bad. I did get one of these cards for my daughter; figured for the free $25, why not. She can use it for a couple of months or whatever,and we'll just cancel long before October.

Still, would've been nice if it had earned some *wood points. Oh well.

I got the offer via snail mail

Well did anyone actually stick to this card/pointing system?

I got 3 last year and used them until they started charging the monthly fee.
At the time I got points for *wood reloads as well as MR reloads....pull $200 per week, per card, out via ATM for $3.50 ($2 fee from amex, $1.50 from grocery store ATM)...did it 8 times...so 4800 points...fees ate up the $25 per card bonus, but it ended up costing: $9 for 4800 points and a slight pain running to the ATM every week to cash out. They sent me offers for it again, but I'm not going to bother, expecially if no points can be earned. Of course you could order 3, get the $25 bonus on each (they had a $50 offer for a while) and just cash it out....total invested $150 ($25 initial setup and $25 reload on 3 cards)...total profit after a couple of weeks- $64.50, after withdrawal fees.