Bluebird Bank Card - Wal-Mart/Amex Launch Alternative Bank Account

imbatman said:   My assistant has dd on her BB.
Damn, Batman. You even got your assistant in on your points & miles shenanigans. True HH!

dbond79 said:   imbatman said:   My assistant has dd on her BB.
Damn, Batman. You even got your assistant in on your points & miles shenanigans. True HH!

She actually got hers before I knew It existed. When i got mine, i was loading it w vr at the office, she noticed and said she had gotten hers three weeks earlier....I tried to explain to her how to take advantage of it, her eyes would just gloss over. She's happy using it like AMEX wants people to use it.
Strangely, she has pointed me in the direction of useful tools (prepaids and sales mostly) because she's in the demographic of the target clientele.

I need to be able to load this card with CC consistently. CVS is my only hope right now. This product is great if I can make that happen. It's worked well for me so far.

Only thing I care about is the limit on VRs you can load in a month.
Increasing the amount of $$$ you can have in an account 10x means nothing to us churners if the load limit isn't increased 10 fold.

depreshun said:   speedbird71 said:   New to Bluebird: FDIC, 100K balance limit instead of 10K though ice cream limit remains 5K, checkbooks.

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_59/amex-makes-bluebird-...

 

You can order the checkbooks until 05/21/13 for free. After that, they are rather spendy. Select "100" from the dropdown box instead of the "50" default. Select "my account > order bluebird checks"

I worry about physical checks. Imagine if they put your account on hold while you have checks floating out there in the real world...

ArthurDent said:   KYBOSH said:   I worry about physical checks. Imagine if they put your account on hold while you have checks floating out there in the real world...Checks are pre-authorized, just like bill pay.

I thought they were sending you a checkbook like a traditional bank...

I better reread the press release.

imbatman said:   
I should rephrase. Does anyone here use DD?

I send a nominal amount per paycheck. I am not sure why, since I never use the ATM. I thought I might when I started it, and I thought I might use it abroad for fee-free withdrawals. Which I may still, though I'd am not sure what the pin is at this point.

Ivanist said:   Has anyone used the Bluebird checks yet? I keep getting the pin not match when trying to pre-authorize a check. Their system is a POS. Very frustrating...

I've been using my phone and it seems to work fine. Also, the checks are technically "certified" because there's a number that you can call to verify the authorization code that makes a stop payment on the check impossible, which makes these checks very useful for when somebody demands "certified check" and "no money orders."

I just called the CS about ACH pull since my mortgage company is giving me a little trouble paying additional principal. When I send the electronic payment from BB to the mortgage company, the payment always sits as a credit even if I put additional principal on the memo. The CS told me that no ACH pull. FDIC-insured didn't change it.

mimi6789 said:   vagrants said: I just called the CS about ACH pull since my mortgage company is giving me a little trouble paying additional principal. When I send the electronic payment from BB to the mortgage company, the payment always sits as a credit even if I put additional principal on the memo. The CS told me that no ACH pull. FDIC-insured didn't change it.

I also have found that ACH pull does not work on BB. However, ACH push works very well. Not just on mortgage payments, but on other payments as well.

When I tested the ACH pulls and when it did not work, sometimes I had to eat the service fee due to failed transfer. I did not want to call CS as the first rule is do not call...

You can call if you have a legit concern. Don't call for "churning" concern.

Edit: If you call for a "churning" concern, try to make a story legit. I'm not gonna swallow fees unless people pay for me to find it out. It's all about social engineering to get the information. Oh, yeah, also, if enough people call in for the same issue, BB might learn and change things like non-FIDC-insured to FIDC-insured.

Ivanist said:   bppcomplete said:   Ivanist said:   Has anyone used the Bluebird checks yet? I keep getting the pin not match when trying to pre-authorize a check. Their system is a POS. Very frustrating...

I've been using my phone and it seems to work fine. Also, the checks are technically "certified" because there's a number that you can call to verify the authorization code that makes a stop payment on the check impossible, which makes these checks very useful for when somebody demands "certified check" and "no money orders."

Thanks for the info. Finally got my issue resolved. It was due to the fact that my pin started with a "0"...can't start with a "0". Oh well...time spent and lesson learned.

Let me guess next three digits are 123!.

SegaRob said:   am i crazy or did the limit get cut from $6k per mo to $5k?

Crazy. Always been $5k for Vanilla/W-Mart reloads.

Are you loading the 5k and just leaving it there? Digital theft is possible with any card - why would BB be more or less of a target? Are you using it at lots of shady venues?

SegaRob said:   hm. anyone been stuck holding on to these cards for a little while? im worried it might stolen (not physically, but digitally). i guess i could open a 2nd account under someone else. any other ideas?

I lost count and bought 1 too many last month. You can scratch the pin (make sure you have all 10 digits, if you don't, you have problems) and try to load it. The screens at VR .com should show you the amount, and then when you try to post it you will get an error code. (180?)

In my opinion if you were able to see you had all ten digits (there were problems in Atlanta), no evidence of tampering with the scratch surface, and the aborted attempt to post shows the correct amount you are safe to put it someplace safe and wait till next month. Save the receipt with the card.

The odds of some one doing a brute force hack with a number generator is pretty remote. Anyways, that is what I did and it worked out fine.

so is it $5k limit per calendar month, or per a rolling 1-month period?