Category - Manufactured Spending

Reports are coming in on Flyertalk and other forums that the Stop & Shop and Giant grocery chain is shifting to cash-or-debit-only policy for the purchase of Visa, Mastercard, and Amex prepaid cards. Update October 2016:... Read More →

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:... Read More →

Recently some people have been told that their Simon Mall will stop selling gift cards on March 1st. What is actually happening is a bit more complicated, I’ll let NecessaryIndulgences from Flyertalk explain as they do a better... Read More →

When Plastiq first launched they had a promotional debit card rate of 0%, there was no end date on that promotion but today it has ended none the less. They are now charging 1% for all debit card transactions. The rewards debit card... Read More →

Multiple reports in the DoC comments, Flyertalk, and Reddit indicate that Citi stopped accepting credit card funding for their checking and savings accounts. As of yesterday, it was still going, but it appears that it died today. RIP... Read More →

Multiple readers report that new Staples Easy Rebate prepaid cards are now issued by Blackhawk and are PIN-enabled. The PIN is the last 4-digits of the card, same as all MetaBank cards. [Update 5/19/16: Readers note that the PIN is no... Read More →

The Offer Direct Link (select ‘Plenti’ for all Plenti deals) Buy two Vanilla Visa gift cards at Rite Aid with your Plenti card and get back 800 points, or $8. Offer can be used a max of two times Valid 1/24 – 1/30 If... Read More →

In a recent post, I threw out a number for the amount of Serve/Bluebird shutdowns as around half. A reader took me to task on this, asking where I got that number so I decided to take a better look. Serve Shut Down spreadsheet via... Read More →

Radpad is a service some use to pay rent with a debit or credit card. Debit card payments are free and credit card payments come with a fee. It could be worth swallowing fees to help meet a minimum spend requirement. RadPad – Pay your... Read More →

The Offer – Giftcardmall Giftcardmall.com is offering $2 off the purchase fee of Visa gift cards. Use promo code: NewYou2016 at checkout. The standard fee is $5.95, under the promo it’s just $3.95. You can also go through... Read More →

RIP Bluebird/Serve Serve and SoftServe and Bluebird cardholders just got an email sent out stating that they can no longer add funds to the prepaid card due to unusual usage patterns. The email was sent out to anyone who has been... Read More →

The American Express Serve card is almost fee-free, but it does have a $1 monthly fee if you didn’t load it with $500 within the past month. And the SoftServe card now has a $4.95 monthly fee which is not waived with $500+ per... Read More →

Serve sent out an email earlier today saying that they can no longer be used internationally at the ATM. Just moments ago, Bluebird sent out the same email. Some people found Bluebird useful for international ATM withdrawals since it... Read More →