topic Re: Serve or Bluebird? in Personal Finance

Serve or Bluebird?

mickmatt8 — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 17:33:48 GMT

I have always been fascinated with this idea of making a car payment with a credit card OR even paying a credit card with another credit card but most of the time these options are not available. I recently came across AMEX Serve and AMEX Bluebird. Which is better and why?

Are you able to earn points/rewards for, say, making a car payment or paying a credit card with another credit card?

I have an auto loan in really good standing (I don't owe a payment till next year) but I want to use Serve or Bluebird to make auto payments of 500 a month. Do you think it's worth it? Will I somehow get cashback points?

Re: SERVE OR BLUEBIRD?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 06:25:00 GMT

Redbird aka prepaid Target Red Card

Re: SERVE OR BLUEBIRD?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 06:27:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Redbird aka prepaid Target Red Card

+1 Only disadvantage compared to serve is you cannot credit card load online, have to go into to Target. But has bigger limits.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 07:16:47 GMT

Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

For example
1. Load serve with cc and get cash back
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your cc
3. Pay car payment with checking account.

What the difference?
1. Load serve with cc and get cash back.
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Imperfectfuture — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 10:18:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

For example
1. Load serve with cc and get cash back
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your cc
3. Pay car payment with checking account.

What the difference?
1. Load serve with cc and get cash back.
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.

What, the midnight hour strikes, and we discuss the taboos here? Please cease discussing MS how tos. Back in the day, they allowed me to pay off car with CC.

i suggest you google, there are other boards for this type of discussion.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

ScoreOrBeScored — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 12:46:44 GMT

Let me start by saying, this is NOT MS. I use Amex Serve every month to pay my car note and rent very month.

I use the Bill Pay for my car note. They electronically wire your payee ( Lender/bank/creditor) funds as long as they're

listed in their system. Takes 2-4 days. If they're not listed they will have to mail them a check.

when I use it to pay my rent, I upload funds from My Credit Card then direct deposit funds to checking account.

if using serve, your allowed $1k month for CC uploads. ( 1st of each mo th resets to cycle )

if you use serve thru Soft Card then your allowed $1,500 a month. ( you can have one or the other , not both )

you can use any Capital One product ( even co Branded )

i use my Quicksilver and earn $15 per month on the uploads.

i also use my Barclay Rewards MC & Sallie Mae. And earn rewards for serve uploads.

ive had my barclaycard & Capitall One cards manually reviewed by credit analyst and EO and no one said a word about it.

I will say, using a CC to pay a CC is a waste of time. All your doing is moving credit around. But if it makes you happy then go for it.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 13:00:43 GMT

@ScoreOrBeScored wrote:
Let me start by saying, this is NOT MS. I use Amex Serve every month to pay my car note and rent very month.

I use the Bill Pay for my car note. They electronically wire your payee ( Lender/bank/creditor) funds as long as they're
listed in their system. Takes 2-4 days. If they're not listed they will have to mail them a check.

when I use it to pay my rent, I upload funds from My Credit Card then direct deposit funds to checking account.

if using serve, your allowed $1k month for CC uploads. ( 1st of each mo th resets to cycle )
if you use serve thru Soft Card then your allowed $1,500 a month. ( you can have one or the other , not both )

you can use any Capital One product ( even co Branded )
i use my Quicksilver and earn $15 per month on the uploads.

i also use my Barclay Rewards MC & Sallie Mae. And earn rewards for serve uploads.

ive had my barclaycard & Capitall One cards manually reviewed by credit analyst and EO and no one said a word about it.

I will say, using a CC to pay a CC is a waste of time. All your doing is moving credit around. But if it makes you happy then go for it.

Actually, bobisnotmyname is right. Two things have to be paid, the thing you want to pay, and the credit card, and it makes very little difference which one you use the bank account to pay for. And that understanding makes the whole thing look a little more like MS!

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 13:35:42 GMT

To OP: neither. If all you are interested in is making minimum spend, use a place like chargesmart, evolve or pay your taxes for 2-3% fee. A lot less headache and zero chance to make the bank unhappy.
Even for a 3k minimum spend we are only talking $90 if you rely on these entirely.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

mongstradamus — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:35:03 GMT

depending on your rent and car payment if its under 1000 dollars an month i would just do serve so you don't have to goto either target or walmart. You can do it from home which is very convenient.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

bch238 — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:59:23 GMT

I fund my Serve with my AmEx BCP so I can pay my kids' allowance. They both have Serve cards because (a) it makes paying allowance convenient for me and (b) it teaches them about personal finances. I would think, but don't know, that eventually the credit card issuers will treat this kind of thing as a cash advance with attendant fees. AmEx won't do that because Serve is an AmEx company, they have assured me. I do not receive any points or cash back, just the convenience.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:04:43 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

1. Load serve with cc and get cash back (on your CC).
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.
What, the midnight hour strikes, and we discuss the taboos here? Please cease discussing MS how tos. Back in the day, they allowed me to pay off car with CC.

i suggest you google, there are other boards for this type of discussion.

I fail to see how paying your auto loan with a CC is MS. It is a purchase.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Imperfectfuture — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:52:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

1. Load serve with cc and get cash back (on your CC).
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.
What, the midnight hour strikes, and we discuss the taboos here? Please cease discussing MS how tos. Back in the day, they allowed me to pay off car with CC.

i suggest you google, there are other boards for this type of discussion.
I fail to see how paying your auto loan with a CC is MS. It is a purchase.

But the thread denotes using another prepaid card funded with a reward card (either for rewards or to meet minimum spend), to pay. In my case, I swiped the actual card at the dealership.

if you can't swipe a card at the dealership, or online to pay, then this qualifies as a verboten topic.

Unfortunately, continued debate is not an option.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:56:35 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

1. Load serve with cc and get cash back (on your CC).
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.
What, the midnight hour strikes, and we discuss the taboos here? Please cease discussing MS how tos. Back in the day, they allowed me to pay off car with CC.

i suggest you google, there are other boards for this type of discussion.
I fail to see how paying your auto loan with a CC is MS. It is a purchase.
But the thread denotes using another prepaid card funded with a reward card (either for rewards or to meet minimum spend), to pay. In my case, I swiped the actual card at the dealership.

if you can't swipe a card at the dealership, or online to pay, then this qualifies as a verboten topic.

Unfortunately, continued debate is not an option.

Hmm. I suppose.

It is really gray area. Where it goes full tilt is when you're using said prepaid card to actually pay your CC bill back and claim reward as might have been mentioned in that other post. This practice I disagree with because it seems like a waste of time for quite literally...pennies on the dollar.

But paying bills that don't normally take CC that you will incur anyway by way of a service or checking account (or similar) that can be funded by CC, Is not the full defenition of MS because there is nothing manufactured about it.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

mickmatt8 — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 17:14:07 GMT

@bch238 wrote:
I fund my Serve with my AmEx BCP so I can pay my kids' allowance. They both have Serve cards because (a) it makes paying allowance convenient for me and (b) it teaches them about personal finances. I would think, but don't know, that eventually the credit card issuers will treat this kind of thing as a cash advance with attendant fees. AmEx won't do that because Serve is an AmEx company, they have assured me. I do not receive any points or cash back, just the convenience.

First off, GREAT STATS. It is my goal to have a fico score of 770 by the end of this year.

But I guess I should load my Serve card with AMEX lol so I don't piss off Chase, huh? I wouldn't want them to close my account because I'm earning rewards on a purchase they do not deem "acceptable".

I think it's stupid IMO but I guess I understand. Bad people have ruined the use of credit for people who actually pay their credit cards. As one poster stated there was a point in time where people could make auto payments with their credit cards much easier.

One of the major reasons for using this tactic is to 1) Keep my AMEX card active by actually using it, more and 2) Tame the interest on my auto loan by consistently making a payment.

I've done really good and I will pay the loan off way early (I don't owe a payment till next year) but that interest just keeps coming. It's annoying AF! lol

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

mickmatt8 — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 17:43:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Are you really paying your car payment with your credit card?

1. Load serve with cc and get cash back (on your CC).
2. Use serve bill pay function to pay your car.
3. Use checking account to pay your credit card.
What, the midnight hour strikes, and we discuss the taboos here? Please cease discussing MS how tos. Back in the day, they allowed me to pay off car with CC.

i suggest you google, there are other boards for this type of discussion.
I fail to see how paying your auto loan with a CC is MS. It is a purchase.

What exactly is a MS...

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

bch238 — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 18:10:42 GMT

@mickmatt8 wrote:
@bch238 wrote:
I fund my Serve with my AmEx BCP so I can pay my kids' allowance. They both have Serve cards because (a) it makes paying allowance convenient for me and (b) it teaches them about personal finances. I would think, but don't know, that eventually the credit card issuers will treat this kind of thing as a cash advance with attendant fees. AmEx won't do that because Serve is an AmEx company, they have assured me. I do not receive any points or cash back, just the convenience.

First off, GREAT STATS. It is my goal to have a fico score of 770 by the end of this year.

But I guess I should load my Serve card with AMEX lol so I don't piss off Chase, huh? I wouldn't want them to close my account because I'm earning rewards on a purchase they do not deem "acceptable".

I think it's stupid IMO but I guess I understand. Bad people have ruined the use of credit for people who actually pay their credit cards. As one poster stated there was a point in time where people could make auto payments with their credit cards much easier.

One of the major reasons for using this tactic is to 1) Keep my AMEX card active by actually using it, more and 2) Tame the interest on my auto loan by consistently making a payment. .

I've done really good and I will pay the loan off way early (I don't owe a payment till next year) but that interest just keeps coming. It's annoying AF! lol

Thanks, lots of hard work over the years with my wife and I paying off grad school loans and scraping by. We made some good decisions, learned from bad ones, and we're at the point where the hard work is being realized. :-)

I think of it this way: when you fund a Serve card with a credit card, you are able to go to an ATM and pull cash out. There must be some transaction costs involved in funding the card, payable either by the credit card or by Serve (and I would presume the latter); who pays that? Not me, because I only pay Serve $2 per month in service charges. A system of no-cost transfers isn't sustainable for the credit card industry so I must assume that all, if any don't, will charge cash advance fees eventually. I was concerned about this from the start, so I called both Serve and AmEx and was assured that if I used an AmEx card to fund Serve, there would be no cash advance fee and it woudl not be considered inappropriate in any way, i.e., it isn't manufactured spending.

The beauty of the Serve card to me is the sub-accounts, which lets each of my kids have their own card, and the convenience of never dealing with cash, banks, or money jars. You can fund it with a bank account, credit card, or take cash to CVS to load the card. It isn't for earning points on those bills traditionally not payable by credit cards, e.g., car loans and mortgages. Best $24/year I have ever spent.

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

thelethargicage — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:02:12 GMT

@bch238:

The question is, do you get Rewards from loading Serve with an Amex card?

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

mongstradamus — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:32:51 GMT

@thelethargicage wrote:
@bch238:

The question is, do you get Rewards from loading Serve with an Amex card?

You don't the only reason you should ever use amex with serve is if you are having trouble hitting min spend. A bit off topic but you do get points last time i checked if you do loads of redbird with amex

Re: Serve or Bluebird?

bch238 — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 06:15:53 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@thelethargicage wrote:
@bch238:

The question is, do you get Rewards from loading Serve with an Amex card?
You don't the only reason you should ever use amex with serve is if you are having trouble hitting min spend. A bit off topic but you do get points last time i checked if you do loads of redbird with amex

There isn't any downside to using Amex to fund Serve. It isn't less desirable than funding with a bank account, and it is a lot more convenient than taking funds to CVS to load the card. I did some light surfing and found instances where Chase and others charged cash advance fees or where charges were declined.

I frankly don't want to be bothered gaming the system over a few points, especially if it means I get hit with an unexpected cash advance fee. I just want to pay my kids' allowance.

Edit: removed link --Revelate, myFICO moderator