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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-money in your Serve account can be withdrawn directly to a linked bank account, which, if done too much, may be seen as risky by Serve, but in moderation should be fine.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 1385737 times)

Offline mimb

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5540 on: January 13, 2016, 03:36:45 PM »
FYI  Maybe a different issue , but one of my VGCs wasn't recognized at all on 2 swipes for 2 days in a row at RA . 

  The guy looked at the card , and wiped it off on his shirt and it went thru the 3rd time . I tend to keep all my VGCs and Serve cards in one pile so maybe something with the magnetic swipe was affected .

I do the same thing so maybe that's an issue, I will try it out and let you know what happens.

Offline Jkhein

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5541 on: January 13, 2016, 04:00:07 PM »
does it make sense that when I chose free reload at RA the transaction was voided by the system but I tried it again with the fee option it went through fine?

Offline yochiek93

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5542 on: January 13, 2016, 04:24:04 PM »
does it make sense that when I chose free reload at RA the transaction was voided by the system but I tried it again with the fee option it went through fine?
Which serve do you have?

Offline joeberg

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5543 on: January 13, 2016, 04:33:29 PM »
Has anyone that was shutdown tried to get reopened?

Offline smaxber

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5544 on: January 13, 2016, 05:04:58 PM »
Has anyone that was shutdown tried to get reopened?
Have not tried yet. When j spoke to CSR they said this card was closed but I could apply for a new one... DROPR?? It's obv worth it to apply but curious if anyone has had succes since January 8

Offline Malachi

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5545 on: January 13, 2016, 05:43:18 PM »
Just went to load to serve in rite aid Lakewood on Kennedy and manager tells me he just got a call from loss prevention that he can't accept  any visa gift cards.
Denny Crane

Offline eli1571

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5546 on: January 13, 2016, 06:08:50 PM »
Has anyone that was shutdown tried to get reopened?
I did, rep said it's a back office decision a team that can only be reached via snail mail.

Offline David Smith

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5547 on: January 13, 2016, 06:08:58 PM »
Just went to load to serve in rite aid Lakewood on Kennedy and manager tells me he just got a call from loss prevention that he can't accept  any visa gift cards.
What are they losing?
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
JTZ

Offline Malachi

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5548 on: January 13, 2016, 06:10:04 PM »
What are they losing?
head scratcher indeed.
Denny Crane

Offline Iz

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5549 on: January 13, 2016, 06:14:10 PM »
What are they losing?
Don't they lose 1% for processing a debit card?

Offline Jkhein

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5550 on: January 13, 2016, 06:45:36 PM »
Which serve do you have?
looks like a regular (silver) not one vip

Offline yochiek93

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5551 on: January 13, 2016, 06:48:09 PM »
looks like a regular (silver) not one vip
That's why

Offline CS91

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5552 on: January 13, 2016, 08:19:29 PM »
Just went back and it worked. Maybe something was wrong with the terminal that I swiped on. Who knows.

Online Barryg

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5553 on: January 13, 2016, 11:15:40 PM »
Just went to load to serve in rite aid Lakewood on Kennedy and manager tells me he just got a call from loss prevention that he can't accept  any visa gift cards.
How did he know you were using a visa gift card?

Offline Malachi

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5554 on: January 13, 2016, 11:36:59 PM »
How did he know you were using a visa gift card?
he didn't. He said are you using a visa gc? I said its a Visa card. He said but let me see if it says gc.
Denny Crane

Offline foseph

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5555 on: January 13, 2016, 11:42:38 PM »
he didn't. He said are you using a visa gc? I said its a Visa card. He said but let me see if it says gc.
U showed the guy ur gc when he asked to see it?

Offline ShlockDoc

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5556 on: January 14, 2016, 07:29:05 AM »
Great blog post on what you should do if you haven't been shut down:

http://www.travelcodex.com/2016/01/best-way-to-load-amex-bluebird-serve-survivors/

Offline Malachi

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5557 on: January 14, 2016, 10:00:17 AM »
U showed the guy ur gc when he asked to see it?
no I just left.
Denny Crane

Offline Malachi

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5558 on: January 14, 2016, 10:09:28 AM »
Great blog post on what you should do if you haven't been shut down:

http://www.travelcodex.com/2016/01/best-way-to-load-amex-bluebird-serve-survivors/
read it. That was exactly my analysis.


Denny Crane

Offline coralsnake

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Re: Amexserve/Softcard
« Reply #5559 on: January 14, 2016, 10:13:46 AM »
Great blog post on what you should do if you haven't been shut down:

http://www.travelcodex.com/2016/01/best-way-to-load-amex-bluebird-serve-survivors/
Ill summarize- since you didn't get shutdown it's because you're profitable for Amex and they like what you're doing. So don't change anything.

Quite speculative IMO since people who did the exact same things as others- some got shutdown some not.
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