@Anonymous wrote:Well it has been almost a week and I have to say I am impressed with how BlueBird handled this. I read HORROR stories galore online about this sort of thing happening and folks never getting their money back (of course it is possible they DID get their money back but weren't motivated to go online and update their posts).
But in 6 days of the $92 that was stolen, $79 has been restored, and $13 remains "on hold." I've been able to transfer $325 out of BlueBird and into my regular banking account. The only frustration was the need to call them each day to report each individual transaction as it went from pending to posted (but I THINK you have to do that with a regular bank/credit card too...wait for it to post, and not be in pending status). The phone reps I spoke with didn't have the best English, but they were all (all but one) courteous and helpful.
And thus if someone found him/herself without a credit card and no desire to risk their own bank debit card with online shopping, ubers, subscriptions, etc, I suppose I would recommend a BlueBird debit card with one caveat, always keep MOST if not all of the balance in the "set aside" portion of the account. Then ONLY transfer it over to the main account when you're ready to use it, as jjmac10 suggested.
I'm glad to hear they were able to take care of things for you! 
I have a Serve account that I send $10 each month to waive the monthly fee (it's an OBS/Old Blue Serve). I used to use it to keep my credit card cash back (like a savings account) but I realized that should it be compromised it might be a hassle to work things out, and I transferred my "savings" to an otherwise unused WF checking account.
I picked up my Serve back when my only other major cards were an Orchard Bank MC and a HSBC Discover, and I have to say that they've always been nice to deal with, if sometimes uninformed.
I hang on to it since it's easy to do transfers with others who have a BlueBird/Serve, but anytime the balance gets to around $100 I empty it out and start over.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
@jjmac10 wrote:Keeping a higher balance in the set aside account and moving funds into the main account when needed is a reasonable way to reduce the risk of a drained account in a fraud situation.
This is the same concept that I use with USAA, my main bank. I carry a debit card with only $100 balance. I can swipe (on the app) more immediately if needed from my higher balance account. If someone is still using debit as their main card (bad credit) or chooses to carry a debit card, this is the way they should be doing it to limit exposure.
