$25 gift card for Amex prepaid card with $200 load

speedbird71 said:   odd that they send out a gift card. you'd think they'd find a way to deposit the $25 on your prepaid card to encourage you to use it. Isn't that the point of all this?

Or the point is to have you accidentally throw out the gift card or lose it and forget to use it so they can keep the whole $25 while still holding onto your $200 until you use it and then making their cut on the merchant fees.

Here's probably a dumb question, but do pre-paid cards cause a hit on your credit? Also, can they help start/rebuild a person's credit?

jschuman said:   Here's probably a dumb question, but do pre-paid cards cause a hit on your credit? Also, can they help start/rebuild a person's credit?

I do not see how this would help a person build credit. Personally What I have done in the past to help my friend rebuild his credit was to sign up for any available credit card he could, use the card like cash and pay off 90-95% percent of it each month leaving a very small balance. Pay the interest off the small balance then pay it off a week later. Within a year he was able to get his credit score from 590 to 630 eligible enough to get a VA loan.

That is correct. I think it takes about 5 days for the funds to be transferred from the bank when you fund the $200.

LJRand said:   FYI, I tried this last time this deal was posted and never received the bonus cards. Called AMEX and was told that this is a targeted offer and you have to receive a mailing from them or you are not eligible.

Not sure why you keep posting this. You posted it on the first page too.

It's not targeted people, don't worry about it.

strange, AMEX site seems to say 1 per person? (1 named person, so 1 per person in the house? I have 5 people so each kid gets one?)

Offer expires on June 30, 2012. To receive a $25 American Express® Gift Card ('Gift Card'), you must load $200 or more at the time you order an American Express Prepaid Card ('Card'). Card orders must be received by 11:59 PM ET June 30, 2012. Limit of one $25 Gift Card per new Card User named on a Card. Offer valid for all new Card orders with a single $200 load, including additional/supplemental accounts associated with an existing Card purchaser's account. Card must be active when offer is fulfilled. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Limit one (1) offer per Card. After qualifying for this offer, please allow 6 weeks for the $25 Gift Card to be mailed to the Card purchaser. American Express reserves the right to refuse or to delay the delivery of Gift Card if it has determined or suspects that fraud has been committed in connection with the Card or this offer. American Express reserves the right to terminate the offer at any time if it determines, in its sole discretion, that causes beyond its control have destroyed or severely undermined the integrity, administration, security, and/or feasibility of the offer. Gift Card terms and conditions apply.

junjunxu said:   Still haven't got $25 bonus for opening a prepaid card with $25 load offered last time. Anyone got yours?

Same here. Never received it.

junjunxu said:   Still haven't got $25 bonus for opening a prepaid card with $25 load offered last time. Anyone got yours?

I got an email several months afterwords saying I was ineligible for the $25 load bonus.

Squeezer99 said:   junjunxu said:   Still haven't got $25 bonus for opening a prepaid card with $25 load offered last time. Anyone got yours?

I got an email several months afterwords saying I was ineligible for the $25 load bonus.

Was there a reason why?

1 card per person - an individual can fund and manage 3 cards including their own
a $200 load will result in a $25 gc so you as the manager can get three $25 gcs for loading $200 on each of the prepaid cards that you are managing

go to www.americanexpress.com without signing on= open to the public
click on Prepaid Cards at the bottom and the promotion details will be shown = not targeted

Do you know if you need to put the cards in 3 different names to receive the 3 $25 bonuses?

Ordered one new card for me and then one for the wife. Wonder if I can buy one for my son...he's a little young though! Also, I didn't see the fine print that says you can order three total (master plus two under the account) and get the gift card. Looks like it just says one per named card holder. So if the limitation is one card buyer can only have as many as 3 cards in the account, that makes sense.

yes the cards have to be in 3 different names for 3 different users.. but the 'purchaser" can be the same for all 3 cards. For example: i am the purchaser for 1) my card 2) spouse card 3) parent card.. etc..

From what the details say, the three cards must be for three different people. You cannot fund three cards in your name and get the $25 on each. If funding for children, please note that the terms and conditions indicate that people must be 13 years of age to use an AMEX prepaid card. If you decide to get them for younger kids, you run the risk of being told you cannot use the card (of course, if you are at the ATM withdrawing your money, I'm not sure who is going to be looking at the name on the card ... but you will have to lie about the age of the cardholder (I'm assuming) for AMEX to accept it in the first place). I funded three, one each for self, wife, and daughter. Used the same email address for all of them, but different names and accurate birthdates.

Yuyak said:   GWBush said:   So no dormant fee or transaction fee? It doesn't look like it. On the front page it says "You can only spend what you load on the Card. So you’ll never pay an overdraft fee, or a monthly fee, or a purchase fee... you get the picture."

I guess AMEX just makes money via the transaction fee they charge merchants?If you try and use an ATM more than once a month, there's a $2 fee. There's also the merchant fee if you need to reload using Green Dot purchase. So no automatic fees, but they are there if you're careless.

thanks

OrionTHX said:   jschuman said:   Here's probably a dumb question, but do pre-paid cards cause a hit on your credit? Also, can they help start/rebuild a person's credit?


I do not see how this would help a person build credit. Personally What I have done in the past to help my friend rebuild his credit was to sign up for any available credit card he could, use the card like cash and pay off 90-95% percent of it each month leaving a very small balance. Pay the interest off the small balance then pay it off a week later. Within a year he was able to get his credit score from 590 to 630 eligible enough to get a VA loan.

I know this thread is not in Finance (where the discussion would at least be relevant) and is OT, but don't ever recommend any friends to do the bolded part, as it wastes their money on interest charges and does nothing to build credit. None of the credit scoring models take into consideration how much money you let the credit card company take out of your pocket.

brooke789 said:   Ok -- so each of us can do 3 cards under our own name. For example: (1) Me (2) DH (3) child

Can my DH then create his own acct and use the same 3 people? For example: (1)Himself (2) Me (3) child
No, See bolded text.
emp1 said:   The 3 maximum comes from the FAQ page, it can only be one per name but you can purchase for someone else and get the $25 GC too. I think that also answers the question of why they give you a GC instead of $25 more on the prepaid card.

How many Cards can I order?
An adult over the age of 18 may order and manage up to three American Express Prepaid Cards in total (including if one is purchased for him/herself). Each American Express Prepaid Card User can have only one Card in his or her name.

https://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/dom/us/en/persona...

Do you have to load with direct deposit or can you just load with Vanilla reloadable pack?

thanks

theedge103 said:   Thanks OP, ordered one for me and my wife.. gonna have some dinner with that free $50!

What form is the gift card given? I thought it was an Amazon gift card.
I want to get in on this, but skeptical because some have said they did not receive the $25 bonus last time around.
Is this concern valid? Basically, just have to try my luck huh?