Alternate Prepaid Card To The Bluebird By American Express
Compare it to the Walmart MoneyCard®
If you regularly shop at Walmart and want to earn rewards for doing so, the Walmart MoneyCard® could be a good alternative. The card offers 3% cash back at Walmart.com, 2% cash back at Murphy USA and Walmart fuel stations, and 1% cash back at Walmart stores. Maximum of $75 cash back per reward year.
The Walmart MoneyCard® does, however, charge a monthly fee of $5.94 which can add up to $71.28 per year. But if you direct deposit $500 or more during the previous monthly period, the fee will be waived.
Other benefits of the Walmart MoneyCard® include up to $200 in overdraft protection, up to four additional accounts for family members age 13 or older and the ability to manage your money via the MoneyCard app. Plus, get free access to ASAP Direct Deposit, which allows you to receive your paycheck up to two days before payday.
In addition to a monthly fee, the Walmart MoneyCard® charges a $1 card purchase fee, $3 to deposit cash at Walmart registers and up to $5.95 at other locations , a $2.50 ATM withdrawal fee , a $2.50 teller cash withdrawal fee, $15 overdraft fee and a 50 cent ATM balance inquiry fee. Plus, the card charges foreign transactions fees of 3% of the amount of each transaction and a card replacement fee of $3 for standard delivery and $15 for expedited delivery.
Best For Business Owners On The Road: Discover It Secured
Another personal card that could be a good option for business owners is the Discover it Secured card. It offers a cash back rewards program with increased rewards at gas stations and restaurants up to a quarterly limit. All other purchases earn 1% cash back. At the end of your first year, Discover will match the cash back youve earned.
As a personal card, you wont build business credit with the Discover it Secured card. However, you can build your personal credit. This could lead to increased opportunities to use your personal credit to secure business funding through loans.
What Is The Best Reloadable Gift Card
Best Reloadable Credit Cards Online in 2021
- PayPal Prepaid Mastercard®: Best for Direct Deposit. …
- NetSpend® Visa® Prepaid Card: Best for Everday Use. …
- NetSpend® Visa® Prepaid Card: Best for Flexibility. …
- BlueBird® by American Express®: Best for Budgeting. …
- American Express® Serve®: Best for Onsite Shopping.
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Whats A Secured Credit Card
Secured credit cards require a cash deposit from the cardholder as collateral. This security deposit ensures you have the money to pay your balance if you were to miss payments. In the event you cant pay off your card balance, your credit card issuer could use your initial deposit to cover the amount.
Unlike secured credit cards, unsecured cards dont require a deposit cash to get a card. However, unsecured cards usually require a fair or higher credit score. Secured cards can help subprime borrowers, such as those with no credit history or bad credit, get a credit card. Secured cards report payment activity to the major credit bureaus, so on-time payments can improve or build your credit score.
Using The Bluebird Mobile App
Available through the Apple App and Google Play stores, the mobile app provides a convenient way to manage your account. Like the online registration form, app setup takes under a minute. Simply download and log into the app, follow a brief tutorial and youre all set.
The app home screen will show your current balance and recent transactions, giving insights into your account at a glance. A dropdown menu provides access to key features such as adding and transferring money, paying bills and initiating a cash pickup request. However, you must activate your personalized card before you can access these app features.
If youre looking for an ATM, the app links to an external site at which you can search for nearby MoneyPass ATMs to avoid withdrawal fees. Theres also an option to search for out-of-network ATMs if no MoneyPass machines exist in your area.
The app is intuitive and user-friendly, and the simplicity of the design makes it quite functional for the cards purposes. But its less sophisticated than financial apps that allow for budgeting and other money management features.
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American Express Mycredit Guide
Available even if you are not an American Express customer. All for free.
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Why MyCredit Guide?
We believe everyone should know their credit score and have the tools to understand it better. That’s why we’re giving you;VantageScore® 3.0 by TransUnion, and the key factors that affect your score.
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Use it as often as you like, it wont affect your credit score.;
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MyCredit Guide offers you tools and information to help you take charge of your credit.
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Alerts
We will let you know if there are any changes to your TransUnion credit report to help detect identity theft. Alerts include address updates, new inquires on your credit report, new accounts opened, and more.
See how different actions like paying down debt or opening a new account, could affect your score.
Best For High Credit Limits: Business Edition Secured Visa Card
Local banks and credit unions offer the Business Edition Secured Visa Card. The card is issued by First Bankcard, which partners with hundreds of financial institutions across the country. Youll need to check online or with your local bank to learn if its offered in your area. Business owners with accounts at a local bank may be able to easily apply for the Business Edition Secured Visa Card from a local branch.
The Business Edition Secured Visa card is excellent for business owners who need a larger credit limit than many secured cards offer. Based on your security deposit, you could potentially receive a credit limit from $2,000 up to $100,000 for your business. The Business Edition Secured Visa Card requires a security deposit of 110% of your requested credit limit, subject to approval.
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Reporting Identity Theft By Someone You Dont Know
According to the Federal Trade Commission , you should start by in this case, the credit card issuer. Explain to the credit card issuer that someone opened an account in your name and that they are trying to steal your identity. From there, ask them to close the account or freeze the account so no one can add new charges unless you agree. Also, take time to change the logins and passwords on all your other online accounts, just in case the thief has more of your information.
Your next step in preventing credit card fraud is placing a fraud alert on your credit reports, which you can do for one year without any charge. You can place a fraud alert using the following contact information for each of the credit bureaus:
- Equifax.com800-525-6285
Next, youll want to report the identity fraud to the FTC, which you can do with this online form or by calling 877-438-4338. The FTC suggests you may want to take the additional step of filing a police report in your municipality.
Once you have taken these initial steps, you need to follow up to make sure the identity theft is stopped in its tracks. Additional steps you should take include:
Closing new accounts opened in your name. With your FTC Identity Theft Report in hand, you need to call each company with fraudulent accounts in your name and ask for them to be closed. Make sure to keep track of who you spoke to and when, and keep any letters associated with the closures.
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Re: American Express Arbitrarily Closed My Bluebird Card
I’m confused, I thought the purpose of those reloadable amex’s was to load cash onto or am I missing something?
wrote:
I’m confused, I thought the purpose of those reloadable amex’s was to load cash onto or am I missing something?
The product was aimed at the unbanked/underbanked, and is much cheaper fee-wise than most alternatives. ;; So you get $50 in cash, load it onto your card, and either use it where Amex is accepted, or use the bill pay feature to pay small bills.
Withdrawing funds to your “real” bank account means they don’t get to make any debit swipe fees, and so may be inappropriate use
That said, long threads on this didn’t find any certain pattern: people who did a lot of MS, those that did no MS, those that bought things using the card etc, some set got shutdown whereas other similar people didn’t.
Best Overall: Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card
There arent a lot of options for secured cards specifically for business use. Luckily, one stood out among the limited choices. The Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card is ideal for business owners looking to build business credit and earn rewards. Its also the only business-specific secured card available nationwide.
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The Top Reasons To Get Bluebird From American Express
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Update: You can no longer purchase Vanilla Reload cards with a credit card.
The Bluebird from American Express is a checking account/debit card alternative with a lot of great features that can save you money and earn points in the process, and for all you new readers out there, I thought it was about time for a quick refresher post on Bluebird and all the ways it can help you maximize your points especially as tax season approaches.
There are several ways to fund your Bluebird account including direct deposit, cash deposit refills at Walmart, and also by buying Vanilla Reloads cards that some merchants ;allow you to purchase with points-earning credit cards.
As you can read below, there are a number of uses for the Bluebird card such as paying bills that you normally cant use a credit card for, like rent, car payment or a mortgage. So without further ado, here are the top reasons you should have an Amex Bluebird card.
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Debit Cards Vs Prepaid Cards
Cardholders may use their pre-funded Netspend Visa Prepaid Card or Netspend Prepaid Mastercard for purchases and payments as they would a debit card. The difference is that debit cards are often backed by a line of credit or overdraft protection, and those are considered forms of credit that can be reported to credit agencies.
Using Netspend cards won’t do anything to build or hurt cardholders’ credit because it doesn’t extend any credit to them. Cardholders are responsible for loading their own money into their accounts before they use their cardsotherwise, they’ll be declined.
The company does offer a Netspend Premier card for those who want to enroll in their Direct Deposit program. That means users’ payroll or government payments go directly into their NetSpend accounts each month.
The company offers a “purchase cushion” of up to $10 with its Netspend Premier card. However, it’s still not considered a line of credit. The company is just allowing users’ accounts to have a negative balance of up to $10 in the event; they don’t have enough to cover a purchase or payment. Any money they deposit afterward will go toward paying back that amount first.
What To Do If You Get An Unsolicited Credit Card
Don’t just throw an unsolicited card in the trash. Unfortunately, it’s possible that someone applied for the credit card in your name, which means you’re a victim of identity theft. If that’s the caseor you have any other reason to suspect identity theftyou’ll need to take steps to prevent further fraud on other accounts. For one thing, you should immediately place a freeze on your credit files.
Also, you’ll need to close the account. If you don’t, your credit file might show that you have an account with an open line of credit. Some creditors won’t extend credit to people they believe already have too much credit. Having an unused account could be grounds for denying you future credit or limiting increases on existing accounts.
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Re: Bluebird: Effect On Credit Score
Doesnt the AMEX Pre-Paid card help you begin some type of history/relationship with them?
wrote:
Doesnt the AMEX Pre-Paid card help you begin some type of history/relationship with them?
The BlueBird is designed for the unbanked/underbanked, and not, AFAIK, intended to build any useful relationship .
As it is totally prepaid, there is no credit extended, unlike Amex charge cards, where even without the pay over time option, you have up to 30 days credit given to you.
The major use of the card for people on this forum, I would expect, is for cashing out manufactured spend.
Cryptocom Rewards Visa Vs American Express Bluebird*
The American Express Bluebird card is similar to Serve, and even issued by the same bank, but there are a few minor differences. For one, Bluebird has no fees despite how much you deposit to your account each month. Free ATM withdrawals are allowed when retrieving funds from MoneyPass ATMs. The card does not earn any rewards. Bluebird also gives the ability to write checks unlike the Crypto.com Rewards Visa.
Once again, for those wanting a way to use their traditional cash funds in electronic form, the Bluebird card can be a great option, particularly compared to Crypto.com Rewards Visa, which lacks the ability to load cash directly or write checks.
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Alternatives To Help You Build Credit
If you can’t get a regular unsecured credit card but would still like to build credit, here are two alternatives that offer convenient ways to pay with the added benefit of reporting payments to the credit bureaus.
- Get a secured credit card.Secured credit cards work like regular credit cards, except that you put down a refundable security deposit that serves as collateral and reduces the lender’s risk. Your security deposit generally determines the card’s credit limit. Choose a card that reports to at least one credit bureau, use it for small purchases, and pay your bill on time to potentially give your credit score a lift.
- Become an authorized user. If you have a family member with a good credit score, becoming an on one of their credit cards allows you to benefit from their positive credit history. You’ll be authorized to make purchases with the card, but the primary account holder is ultimately responsible for payments. If the card issuer reports authorized user activity to the credit bureaus, the account will appear on your credit report and potentially help improve your credit score.