Topic Wiki

Open Serve: Do 1 of the following:
1) Buy a temporary card. (free in cvs in NJ won’t take cc)($3.95 fee), or
2) Open online. They’ll send you a card. (free)
Note that you COULD have more than one of these: Bluebird (BB), Redcard and serve. 

Loading Serve: Serve does not have any fees to load money.
a) At CVS, 7-11, and Rite Aid ONLY CASH can be loaded.
b) At Walmart GCs …uh Debit Cards (besides Vanilla cards) can be loaded onto Serve just like onto BB. Load limit: $2500/day up to $5000/month
c) At Family Dollar max $499.99/Day, not hard coded, YMMV, Cash or Debit/Gift Card.
WARNING: There are reports of debit cards being drained at FD, and not loading onto Serve, so FD is not recommended.
d) An Amex CC of the serve cardholder can be linked and used to fund your Serve ONLINE. Load limit: $200 per day/$1000 per month
Amex cc loads are not considered cash advance. They DO NOT earn points, or count towards a spending threshold.
e) Debit Cards linked to Serve: $200/day up to 1000/month ONLINE.  But only a permanent DC with your name on it. (NOT GCs)

So your total loading limit per month, if using all 3 methods is $7K.

-Serve has a $1 monthly inactivity fee (waived in VA, NY and TX) that is waived if you use Direct Deposit OR add $500.
-If Serve has a bonus for using direct deposit, use AP.

Using the funds on Serve:
-Free ATM use/withdrawal at MoneyPass ATMs. $2 elsewhere.
-Serve has a Bill Pay feature – same as BB.  You tell them who to pay, and they send a check for you.  You can pay up to 5k of unregistered billers, but 10K of registered ones (registered= those on their bill pay list). Pay your Credit Cards bills as well as many other bills or any person!
WARNING: Do not use the bill pay feature to pay the Credit Card that is linked for online loads.
-money in your Serve account can be withdrawn directly to a linked bank account, which, if done too much, may be seen as risky by Serve, but in moderation should be fine.
Withdraw to your bank https://secure.serve.com/Actions/WithdrawMoney

Make sure the name, address and phone number on your profile match your credit card billing address, or you may get declined.  When linking your credit card at serve.com, the website will only show you the address on your profile, but not the phone number, so this is easy to overlook.  Go to profile, and check/update your phone number there.

Error likely with the Serve account:
When you create a new account and add a credit card, you will be allowed to do the first transaction. After that, your account will probably go into system lockdown until you verify some information. Likely error message for this case is "Risk declined operation" when you try to add money on to the account. You will need to send in (online, fax or mail) a photo ID and a copy of your credit card or statement. Upload your documents here -
https://secure.serve.com/User/SecureFileUpload. Then Call up AMEX Account Protection Services at 1-800-555-4318 and tell them you uploaded the documents and ask them to verify it for you.
« Last edited by Iz on August 18, 2016, 10:36:02 AM »

Author Topic: Amexserve/Softcard  (Read 1405438 times)

Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2100 on: October 22, 2014, 10:00:45 AM »
Why cant u load serve from Israel? I did it the begining of thid month, just arrived back will try to do the rest today.
No one said you can't. But some companies code it as a CA and Amex doesn't give points. No one knows how long it will last with chase.
Read the last few pages.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2101 on: October 22, 2014, 10:03:46 AM »
No one said you can't. But some companies code it as a CA and Amex doesn't give points. No one knows how long it will last with chase.
Read the last few pages.
Amex never gave points regardless of US/Israel and also what company besides chase r u talking about? General conesus is that the pending charge appears as a CA from chase and then posts as a real charge.
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Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2102 on: October 22, 2014, 10:04:42 AM »
BTW any way to check CA limits (online?) without calling chase? I hate calling :)
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2103 on: October 22, 2014, 10:07:28 AM »
Amex never gave points regardless of US/Israel and also what company besides chase r u talking about? General conesus is that the pending charge appears as a CA from chase and then posts as a real charge.
This general consensus your talking about only happened with chase.
It's been coded as CA  with BOFA, CITI and more. Even chase is now coded as 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE', no fee though, for now.

It has nothing to do with US/IL. It's just that in IL, only the online methods are usable.

Although Amex never gave points for Serve, YMMV weather it counts for thresholds.

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2104 on: October 22, 2014, 10:08:17 AM »
General conesus is that the pending charge appears as a CA from chase and then posts as a real charge.
This is a fact that was described it detail many pages back.
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2105 on: October 22, 2014, 10:08:40 AM »
This general consensus your talking about only happened with chase.
It's been coded as CA  with BOFA, CITI and more. Even chase is now coded as 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE', no fee though, for now.

It has nothing to do with US/IL. It's just that in IL, only the online methods are usable.
Right, forgot about those...thanks for clarification
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2106 on: October 22, 2014, 10:10:00 AM »
BTW any way to check CA limits (online?) without calling chase? I hate calling :)
Yes. Main page >> See more information (On the appropriate card)
CA limits will be outlined on the left.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2107 on: October 22, 2014, 10:14:11 AM »
Yes. Main page >> See more information (On the appropriate card)
CA limits will be outlined on the left.
Perfect! Thanks. Now can safely say using the freedom with serve did post as sale and my CA limit still intact .
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Offline kangarruu

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2108 on: October 22, 2014, 10:15:28 AM »
This general consensus your talking about only happened with chase.
It's been coded as CA  with BOFA, CITI and more. Even chase is now coded as 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE', no fee though, for now.

It has nothing to do with US/IL. It's just that in IL, only the online methods are usable.

Although Amex never gave points for Serve, YMMV weather it counts for threshold ts.

For Citi, has anyone noticed a difference between the Visa cards and MasterCard cards? FT says MasterCards won't be CA, but I don't entirely trust them.

I'm expecting a new Citi MasterCard in a few days, so I can try then if no one else knows.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2109 on: October 22, 2014, 10:16:57 AM »
This general consensus your talking about only happened with chase.
It's been coded as CA  with BOFA, CITI and more. Even chase is now coded as 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE', no fee though, for now.

It has nothing to do with US/IL. It's just that in IL, only the online methods are usable.

Although Amex never gave points for Serve, YMMV weather it counts for thresholds.
FT wiki said US bank club Carlson may be now set to CA with serve... Can anyone verify??
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2110 on: October 22, 2014, 10:17:37 AM »
Perfect! Thanks. Now can safely say using the freedom with serve did post as sale and my CA limit still intact .
We all know it posts as sale. Only the category is 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE'.
The CA limit is only affected while it's pending.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2111 on: October 22, 2014, 10:24:32 AM »
We all know it posts as sale. Only the category is 'QUASI CASH ADVANCE'.
The CA limit is only affected while it's pending.
I think my CA limit is actually zero on this card so that may mean the transaction may not go thru without bumping up my limit...  Let's see! Thanks for all the help. This should be lined out in wiki... The quasi CA vs. Real CA cards... If u confirm the following I will add:

Does not earn miles/points but counts towards spending threshold:
Amex

Posts as a sale, but "pends" as a CA:
Chase (cannot use CC like ink bold which have no CA)
US bank

Posts as CA:
Citi
BoA

And What about Barclay's ?
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2112 on: October 22, 2014, 10:33:40 AM »
Does not earn miles/points but counts towards spending threshold:
Amex
Conflicting reports. Some reported it doe NOT count towards threshold.
Posts as a sale, but "pends" as a CA:
Chase (cannot use CC like ink bold which have no CA)
US bank
With Chase, this is also not true for everyone.

Don't know about US bank.
And What about Barclay's ?
Barclay is good for now. Don't know if it pends as CA, but they anyway didn't let me change my CA limit.

Probably a good idea to look at the FT wiki.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2113 on: October 22, 2014, 10:40:35 AM »
Conflicting reports. Some reported it doe NOT count towards threshold.With Chase, this is also not true for everyone.

Don't know about US bank.Barclay is good for now. Don't know if it pends as CA, but they anyway didn't let me change my CA limit.

Probably a good idea to look at the FT wiki.

I just loaded 500$ with USbank Club Carlson fine. I checked before hand on their site "available for cash advance.... --" I assume this means zero... Went to do the 500$ load on serve and it went thru just fine. The charge says pending, I don't see anything about CA/nothing. My previous charges on the card did the same thing... and ultimately on the site I don't easily see where I can verify that this is NOT a C/A, but it looks like all my other charges and most importantly I don't see any weird fees, so I hope this means I am good...
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2114 on: October 22, 2014, 10:42:56 AM »
I just loaded 500$ with USbank Club Carlson fine. I checked before hand on their site "available for cash advance.... --" I assume this means zero... Went to do the 500$ load on serve and it went thru just fine. The charge says pending, I don't see anything about CA/nothing. My previous charges on the card did the same thing... and ultimately on the site I don't easily see where I can verify that this is NOT a C/A, but it looks like all my other charges and most importantly I don't see any weird fees, so I hope this means I am good...
Never had a US bank card, so can't verify.
But it seems that you're good.

Offline ranhan429

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2115 on: October 22, 2014, 11:03:13 AM »
Never had a US bank card, so can't verify.
But it seems that you're good.

IMHO Club Carlson way underrated/under-discussed on this site... I know Dan isn't a fan cuz it doesn't have the "aspirational value" he looks for... but for people like me with normal spending / unable to do crazy MS from Israel but still like to travel A LOT... it is a great option to stay in lots of very nice hotels for practically nothing (this is surely a quantity over quality option)! I digress... ;D
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Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2116 on: October 22, 2014, 11:09:32 AM »
IMHO Club Carlson way underrated/under-discussed on this site... I know Dan isn't a fan cuz it doesn't have the "aspirational value" he looks for... but for people like me with normal spending / unable to do crazy MS from Israel but still like to travel A LOT... it is a great option to stay in lots of very nice hotels for practically nothing (this is surely a quantity over quality option)! I digress... ;D
I guess I should look in to it myself then. Probably not the best place to discuss it though.
I'll try to keep it mind for the next application spree.

Offline MoGro17

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2117 on: October 22, 2014, 12:35:02 PM »
Can I pay Wells Fargo Home Mortgage from Serve?

I didn't receive my permanent card yet and they don't let me check the payee list online yet.

Offline eli.f

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2118 on: October 22, 2014, 12:40:17 PM »
Can I pay Wells Fargo Home Mortgage from Serve?

I didn't receive my permanent card yet and they don't let me check the payee list online yet.
Yes. It's on the list.

Offline MoGro17

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #2119 on: October 22, 2014, 12:48:34 PM »