DW was denied a BCE the other day. This morning, this arrived in her inbox (see photo). Never heard of an Amex debit card. Is this a checking account?
@Anonymous wrote:This is an American Express Debit Card. It is an online checking account. There are websites that discuss the differences between AX Serve card and AX Bluebird card, both are debit cards.
+1
The Bluebird (and Target "Redbird") runs on the Serve platform - you can only have one or the other - and there are now several different "flavors" of Serve, each with different fees and benefits. I have an old (grandfathered) Serve card that I use to keep my credit card cash rewards instead of a savings account.
It works well for me for this purpose, but the newer versions have fees that would frankly make me hesitant unless I specifically needed a prepaid card. Unless you have a need for an online pseudo-checking account or a prepaid debit card I would look elsewhere.
FWIW, I don't think having Serve makes a difference one way or another when it comes to future Amex approvals, and it doens't report to the credit bureaus (since it's not a credit product).
Just my 2¢. 