The news came in today with dozens of people being shut down on their Bluebird or Serve cards. As we documented a couple months ago, Amex is shutting out those who use their prepaid cards for purposes of manufacturing spend (MS).
- RIP: The End of Serve & Bluebird & SoftServe for Manufactured Spend + What’s Left
- What Percentage of Serve & Bluebird Accounts Were Shutdown?
Today, March 4, Amex axed the next bunch of accounts. Even some who didn’t do much MS had their accounts closed, apparently due to minor amounts of MS.
Note that many (but not all) of the shutdown accounts reported on Reddit are those who opened an account since November 2015. This is consistent with what we wrote in the previous post that many of those who weren’t closed initially had to do with the fact that the cards were just recently opened. Apparently, Amex gives some time from account opening before reviewing the accounts and shutting down the ‘abusers.’
In practice, today’s news is significant because it means (unsurprisingly) that Amex is serious about this whole thing, and that the previous shutdowns weren’t just a thinning of the ranks.
RIP
Funds loading blocked today; 4/12. Opened after closed Red bird in Feb; only loaded in Mar and Apr. Maxed out 5K in monthly loads yesterday. Was this the trigger?
after my serve one vip was shut down, I signed up for a bluebird. i received my card on 3/12 and today got an email saying it has been shutdown so it looks like they may be reviewing accounts more often than we originally thought.
Apparently my Bluebird is still open, I went to my Walmart, they entered in $500 for the Visa gift card I have. Cashier asks to see the card, I hand him the card, and says they can’t take prepaid gift cards. I told him I’ve done this before and he said it was the previous cashiers’ faults. Now I have $1,00 in Visa gift cards. What are my other options for loading them on my Bluebird? Thanks!
*$1,500 in Visa gift cards.
Try another Walmart, postal money orders or supermarket money orders, or find the rare working kiosk. If all else fails Kiva or tax payment ($2.50-$2.69 per card, although you can only do two per processor, but you can pay $1000 for an “extension” and $1000 for 2016 taxes to be filed in 2017.)
Got 2 old serve shut down in Jan. No go for reapplying BB, one vip, and new serve after 30 days
Has anyone tried opening an amex card after having bluebird shut down? Just curious.
Yes, I opened the SPG personal card no problem – instant approval
Had my serve for a little over a year now. didn’t use it heavily since online cc loads were discontinued back in April. The only thing I did recently was $1200 of spend on a new Amex and then a bill pay to a different cc.
Was shut down on the 4th.
Yeap, mine was shut down on the 4th as well. Though it was opened in August of last year and escaped the first wave of shutdowns since it was dormant. I maxed out the 5k of reloads in Jan and February and was able to meet SR for 4 new cards so I’m thankful to it regardless.
got my bb loading terminated too – card still open, with zero balance. No activity since January. Had under 10 loads dating to end of last year..but they were all $500. should have used the card for small spend…
well..time to close and employ another strategy.
So such small amounts and still being shut down. This has to be automated and isn’t just on large sums. I wonder if using the card a handful of times each month for small purchases would throw the system off.
No, I was doing 10-15 small purchases a month – and direct deposit – and was shut down today
mine got shut down today too. i had a serve one vip and never had a bluebird. can i apply for a bluebird and just use it until i get shut down? thanks.