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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-money in your Serve account can be withdrawn directly to a linked bank account, which, if done too much, may be seen as risky by Serve, but in moderation should be fine.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 1398034 times)

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4140 on: October 20, 2015, 07:24:15 PM »

Anyone have trouble with closing redbird and opening serve?
I closed online, with $0 in account yesterday.
Tried opening serve VIP today, it says that I still have a redbird and can't open an account.
Call redcard and they'll manually fully close the account for you.
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4141 on: October 20, 2015, 07:26:23 PM »
I recently opened the vip serve card for my wife. When I try linking a pay pal debit card, I get a message that registration is not available for this card.

On my serve account the PP card works perfectly.
Anybody know if this is a new policy, or just a temporary glitch ?
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4142 on: October 20, 2015, 07:55:02 PM »

I recently opened the vip serve card for my wife. When I try linking a pay pal debit card, I get a message that registration is not available for this card.

On my serve account the PP card works perfectly.
Anybody know if this is a new policy, or just a temporary glitch ?
The issue was that the card was still linked to my old red card.
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline CS91

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4143 on: October 20, 2015, 09:45:18 PM »

Offline leaf

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4144 on: October 20, 2015, 10:00:05 PM »
Not sure who the issuer is but they should be.  Other than the comfort of ordering online, what advantage is there? $253 for $250 vgc is probably more expensive than many $500 vgc and more tedious to unload.  Guess if you're near BBB it's worth getting one of theirs. 

Offline Josef.koney

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4145 on: October 20, 2015, 10:13:14 PM »
I got a giftcardmall and theybwere good but that was at least a year ago
« Last Edit: October 20, 2015, 10:39:43 PM by Josef.koney »

Offline CS91

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4146 on: October 20, 2015, 10:39:54 PM »
Not sure who the issuer is but they should be.  Other than the comfort of ordering online, what advantage is there? $253 for $250 vgc is probably more expensive than many $500 vgc and more tedious to unload.  Guess if you're near BBB it's worth getting one of theirs.

Obviously BBB is the one that's worth it but wondering in general if people know if giftcardmall sells the right ones because they have promos every so often that negate the fee.

Offline Welder

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4147 on: October 20, 2015, 10:53:36 PM »
What's the difference between the "VIP One" and the (green) "FREE Reloads" flavors?
"We need more welders and less philosophers" — Marco Rubio

Offline leaf

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4148 on: October 20, 2015, 10:56:38 PM »
Obviously BBB is the one that's worth it but wondering in general if people know if giftcardmall sells the right ones because they have promos every so often that negate the fee.
BTW, BBB is limit 1.

Offline moshewoodmere01

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4149 on: October 20, 2015, 10:58:07 PM »
Per household ;)
Think away the box.

Offline Welder

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4150 on: October 20, 2015, 11:00:35 PM »
What's the difference between the "VIP One" and the (green) "FREE Reloads" flavors?

Aside for the monthly fee (which is more for the green but irrelevant for NY), it appears that the green can be loaded in more locations? Or are they the same?
"We need more welders and less philosophers" — Marco Rubio

Offline Freddie

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4151 on: October 20, 2015, 11:39:10 PM »
Dan, I am going to be mekayem do not hate your brother in your heart right now. ;)
Is it possible that your original main site article about switching from RC back to Serve had links to the wrong kind of Serve?
I just spent a hellish night at Walmart so forgive my nasty mood.

Offline bermo

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4152 on: October 21, 2015, 12:18:51 AM »
Dan, I am going to be mekayem do not hate your brother in your heart right now. ;)
Is it possible that your original main site article about switching from RC back to Serve had links to the wrong kind of Serve?
I just spent a hellish night at Walmart so forgive my nasty mood.
Here's your answer
Actually Dan updated the link to the Onevip Serve, which has free reloads for sure.

Offline Freddie

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4153 on: October 21, 2015, 12:22:22 AM »
Well, it was a little late for me. I already got the stupid smurf-colored cards in the mail.
Lotsa fun at WM I had.  >:(

Offline coralsnake

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4154 on: October 21, 2015, 12:33:46 AM »
Well, it was a little late for me. I already got the stupid smurf-colored cards in the mail.
Lotsa fun at WM I had.  >:(
At least the $$ is still on you're GCs
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Offline David Smith

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4155 on: October 21, 2015, 12:52:25 AM »
At least the $$ is still on you're GCs
Oy vey. Family dollar burnt? Ouch.
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
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Offline Welder

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4156 on: October 21, 2015, 08:41:02 AM »
Aside for the monthly fee (which is more for the green but irrelevant for NY), it appears that the green can be loaded in more locations? Or are they the same?
I believe I am correct. On Serve's website, it shows the locations available to reload the green, which in addition to the standard (CVS, 7/11, FD, WM) include: Dollar General, Rite Aid, 'Plus'...
"We need more welders and less philosophers" — Marco Rubio

Offline sam i am

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4157 on: October 21, 2015, 09:33:27 AM »
What's the difference between the "VIP One" and the (green) "FREE Reloads" flavors?
green has a monthly fee unless you live in NY, TX or VT

Offline Iz

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4158 on: October 21, 2015, 09:39:37 AM »

Offline Zalc

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #4159 on: October 21, 2015, 01:08:02 PM »


I believe I am correct. On Serve's website, it shows the locations available to reload the green, which in addition to the standard (CVS, 7/11, FD, WM) include: Dollar General, Rite Aid, 'Plus'...

True, when signing up for the green, it says over 45,000 locations, but once actually apply it changes to only show you 27,000 (same as one VIP)

What I'm asking is, are there locations where you can load with the green but not the VIP?

Are any of those locations useful for GC cash/debit loads?