Monthly Archives: May 2014

Bluebird and Serve Daily/Monthly Limits Reset at 9PM PST

BB to Bills

Bluebird and Serve Daily/Monthly Limits Reset at 9PM PST

This has been known for a while, but I thought I would share again.  All daily and monthly limits for Bluebird and Serve reset at 9PM PST or 12AM EST.  Here are my latest transactions from 10 minutes ago.

Serve Loads and Bill Payments

As of right now, it is technically June 1 in Bluebird’s and Serve’s database, so go wild.

Here are my Sunday errands, so please keep me on track:

  1. Create a blog posts for my San Diego Meet Up next Saturday night.  I need to put together a list to determine how many people are coming so I can make a dinner reservation.
  2. This shouldn’t take too long, but I want to reorganize some of my pages, specifically the pages under the How To Guides and Credit Card tabs.  I want to spread out the pages across these 4 tabs: How To Guides: Miles/Points, How To Guides: Cash Back, How To Guides: Everything, and Credit Cards.  I need to set up redirects so old URLs redirect to new URLs addresses.
  3. Lastly and probably the most overdue/major headache for me is to start catching up on my trip reports.  I am proposing that I do one week straight of nothing besides trip reports.  I made myself a deal that I would post at least 1 trip report per day before I mention any other travel-related news.  This is going to be tough.

That’s it for me.  Have a great Saturday night or a sleepy Sunday morning.

Lesser Known Perks of the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Credit Card

FlexPerks Visa Signature Card

Lesser Known Perks of the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Credit Card

(Hat Tip to the US Bank website – link)

I really like my US Bank FlexPerks Credit Card (besides the fact that it has a Chip and Signature and charges FOREX fees – link), since it is a great way to manufacture spend you way to free travel (link).  In this post, I want to highlight some of the lesser known perks of the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Credit Card, such as the 3,500 bonus FlexPerks you will receive after spending $24,000 in 12 months.

FlexPerks Superior Value

Since the card earns 2x points at grocery stores, I plan on using this card to buy $500 gift cards at my local grocery stores.  Including the $5.95 gift card activation fee, my total will come out to $505.95, which will earn 1,012 FlexPerks Points.  Assuming I bought 48 $500 gift cards over the next 12 months, that would put me across the $24,000 12 month limit.  48 gift cards would cost me $285.60 in activation fees, but would generate 48,576 FlexPerks Points (48 x 1,012).  Adding in to the 3,500 bonus FlexPerks Points, your new total comes to 52,076 FlexPerks Points.

FlexPerks Gift Cards $24,000

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Boingo Preferred Plan for AMEX Platinum, Chase Freedom Refer-a-Friend 20k, and SPG Refer-a-Friend 30k

AMEX Plat Card

Boingo Preferred Plan for American Express Platinum Credit Card Holders, Chase Freedom Refer-a-Friend 20k, and SPG Refer-a-Friend 30k

(Hat Tip to Gary for the heads up on the new American Express Platinum Credit Card Perk)

For those of you with an American Express Platinum Credit Card (Personal, Business, or Mercedes Benz version), there is a new perk available.  American Express and partnered with Boingo to offer free unlimited WiFi at over 1 million Boingo hotspots around the world.  To sign up, click this link.

Boingo Home Page

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State of the Union: Bluebird, Serve, and Go Bank Reloads at Walmart with Gift Cards as of May 30, 2014

UPDATE 6/20/14: Do not use OVGCs or VGCs at Walmart.  Use other gift cards from other banks.
GC WM BB

State of the Union: Bluebird, Serve, and Go Bank Reloads at Walmart with Gift Cards as of May 30, 2014

First off, I want to thank all of you who commenting on my post from this morning ((Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult) and shared their results, both successes and failures.  Based on your feedback, I can generalize what works and what doesn’t.  I have tried to make this as clear as possible, so here goes…

If you have $200 gift cards from Staples, Staples.com, Office Depot, or Office Max, your gift card reloads should work just as they always have.  You can load these gift cards at the Money Center ATMs/Kiosks, at the Money Center Department, or by going to a regular checkout lane.

These gift cards are issued by Gift Card Mall, which uses Metabank, therefore, any Visa or MasterCard gift card issued by Metabank should work as of today (May 30).

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(Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult

UPDATE 6/20/14: Do not use OVGCs or VGCs at Walmart.  Use other gift cards from other banks.

Old Update from 5/31/2014: see the updated results here.GC WM BB

(Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult

According to recent comments on my blog and this FlyerTalk thread (link), it looks like Walmart updated the software on their Point of Sale (POS / cash registers) sometime yesterday, making it difficult to load gift cards with PINs to your Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank card.  The general consensus that I have heard is when people swipe their One Vanilla Gift Card, Vanilla Visa Gift Card, or other gift card, they see an error message on the screen or the cashier tells them that the card is being processed as a credit card, not a debit card.  Continue reading