End of Credit Card Reload of Target Red Card

[BCBiker]

The rumor of the day is that Redbird cc reloads end today.

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/64598

http://travelcodex.com/2015/05/today-the-last-day-to-load-redbird-with-a-credit-card/

I just wanted to let people know if they have any last minute plans to load up for this months mortgage payment or student loans.

There is a little bit of confusion as not all Target stores have received these memos so it might not be a true end but it is a sign the end is near...

[milesdividendmd]

Redbird was quite simply too good to last for too much longer.

On the other hand there are still multiple ways for a couple to manufacture >15K in spending a month with just a little bit more effort, at a 1% cost.

Off the top of my head...

Reloadits to serve
Reloadits to evolve
visa gift cards to serve/bluebird/(+/- Target)
PayPal axis>money orders

And this little bit of effort is a $10,000/per year after tax bonus to yourself, if you are already a traveler.

I am happy to answer to answer any questions here for anyone here about how to proceed should Redbird die tomorrow.

And as always if anyone is interested in a more well curated and systematic approach, feel free to enroll in our free travel hacking course.  (Next one starts 6/1.)

http://www.travelmiles101.com/travel-rewards-course-registration

AZ

[Mother Fussbudget]

So Debit cards and/or PIN enabled gift cards might still be loadable?  [I guess we'll know for sure tomorrow.] 
Assuming that's the case, any examples of scenarios on how this might work? 

I'm really going to miss getting the grocery store Visa bonus and pay my mortgage all from the Target prepaid Redcard.

Sad day

[milesdividendmd]

Mother FB,

Sad day indeed.  But there are other good options.  Like buy Visa gift cards with a PIN using your credit card at a grocery and then load them onto your Redbird, and then doing the same thing.

A little less convenient, but all is not lost...

[greenmimama]

Wait, there is a way I can pay my mortgage with my rewards card?

[milesdividendmd]

There are any ways. It just requires an extra step, and a 1% purchase fee.

You buy a PIN enabled visa gift card with your credit card and then load your redbird using the visa gift card as a debit card to load your Redbird, (or serve or bluebird).

[randymarsh]

Damn! I just opened a CC and need to "spend" $2,000 in the next 60 days. I was planning a trip to a Target to get one this weekend.

[milesdividendmd]

There are still lots of great options.

[Mother Fussbudget]

The Target I've been using seems oblivious to any changes in the process - they were training a new cashier in how to do the reload when I loaded $2,500 from my Visa last night.  I'll try again later in the week to verify.  Of course our left coast stores were slow to come-up-to-speed on RedBird when it first came out...  perhaps they'll be slow to come-up-to-speed with updated policy.

[BCBiker]

The Target I've been using seems oblivious to any changes in the process - they were training a new cashier in how to do the reload when I loaded $2,500 from my Visa last night.  I'll try again later in the week to verify.  Of course our left coast stores were slow to come-up-to-speed on RedBird when it first came out...  perhaps they'll be slow to come-up-to-speed with updated policy.

I had the same experience yesterday in Colorado.  It could be just rumor mill or it could be select areas where folks are abusing it too much.  I couldn't believe on one of the threads I linked to above, there are people who churn >$40 per month by using family members etc.  to increase their throughput.  That has to be costly to Target if they pay the standard 2-3% cc processing fees.

I will go to Target later in the week and see what happens.

[KiloRomeo]

Side note: I had a $1200 bill pay come out of my Amex Serve account and it was LOST. Serve is investigating but it's going to take 45 days. Anyone have any experience with something like this? It's becoming quite a pain.

[milesdividendmd]

Last night was no problem. By all reports today it is dead. (Haven't tried yet, personally)

The good news is that you can still load with PIN enabled debit cards at target, including vanilla visas!

[milesdividendmd]

Kilo, that's too bad. I've heard of that happening, particularly when addressing items to PO boxes. 

The easiest way to get money out of serve is to just withdraw it directly to your linked bank account.

[KiloRomeo]

Kilo, that's too bad. I've heard of that happening, particularly when addressing items to PO boxes. 

The easiest way to get money out of serve is to just withdraw it directly to your linked bank account.

Yeah this was for a rent payment. Does it seem like it normally gets resolved correctly?

[milesdividendmd]

It will definitely get resolved, the problem is if you incur fees due to late payments in the meantime.

[surfhb]

I knew it!    Tried to load my card today and it was denied.   No one knew why

[surfhb]

There are any ways. It just requires an extra step, and a 1% purchase fee.

You buy a PIN enabled visa gift card with your credit card and then load your redbird using the visa gift card as a debit card to load your Redbird, (or serve or bluebird).

So youre saying:   Go to Target.....load a gift card...load the red card with the gift card?

[squatman]

There are any ways. It just requires an extra step, and a 1% purchase fee.

You buy a PIN enabled visa gift card with your credit card and then load your redbird using the visa gift card as a debit card to load your Redbird, (or serve or bluebird).

So youre saying:   Go to Target.....load a gift card...load the red card with the gift card?

Yeah. Apparently some Targets have $400 pin-enabled visa gift cards you can buy to load RB.

[Mother Fussbudget]

Q:  do you get the 5% RedCard DISCOUNT when buying Visa GC's?

[surfhb]

Oh well.....it was cool while it lasted.    I'm going to get off the train until something else comes out that is easy and reliable as the Redcard. 

[fiveoh]

Redbird was quite simply too good to last for too much longer.

On the other hand there are still multiple ways for a couple to manufacture >15K in spending a month with just a little bit more effort, at a 1% cost.

Off the top of my head...

Reloadits to serve
Reloadits to evolve
visa gift cards to serve/bluebird/(+/- Target)
PayPal axis>money orders

And this little bit of effort is a $10,000/per year after tax bonus to yourself, if you are already a traveler.

I am happy to answer to answer any questions here for anyone here about how to proceed should Redbird die tomorrow.

And as always if anyone is interested in a more well curated and systematic approach, feel free to enroll in our free travel hacking course.  (Next one starts 6/1.)

http://www.travelmiles101.com/travel-rewards-course-registration

AZ

I have no idea what redbird is/was but I just signed up for your travel rewards course and am excited about it.  :)

[yoga mama]

Darn... I knew it was too good to last.  Well, we were able to use this while it was here.  Thanks for the update.

[milesdividendmd]

Q:  do you get the 5% RedCard DISCOUNT when buying Visa GC's?

It should, but then you are unloading the redbird without paying your bills. (Not that there's a problem with that.)

[milesdividendmd]

Redbird was quite simply too good to last for too much longer.

On the other hand there are still multiple ways for a couple to manufacture >15K in spending a month with just a little bit more effort, at a 1% cost.

Off the top of my head...

Reloadits to serve
Reloadits to evolve
visa gift cards to serve/bluebird/(+/- Target)
PayPal axis>money orders

And this little bit of effort is a $10,000/per year after tax bonus to yourself, if you are already a traveler.

I am happy to answer to answer any questions here for anyone here about how to proceed should Redbird die tomorrow.

And as always if anyone is interested in a more well curated and systematic approach, feel free to enroll in our free travel hacking course.  (Next one starts 6/1.)

http://www.travelmiles101.com/travel-rewards-course-registration

AZ

I have no idea what redbird is/was but I just signed up for your travel rewards course and am excited about it.  :)

In 30 days you'll be an expert I'd wager!

Excited to have you in the course. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime.

[SenoritaStache]

Alright milesdividendmd you've convinced me!! I just signed up also!!! I'm excited!!

[sallyanne]

Any reason why it's better to buy Visa gcs with pins at groceries vs. just buying from giftcardmall.com?

[milesdividendmd]

Any reason why it's better to buy Visa gcs with pins at groceries vs. just buying from giftcardmall.com?

Not really, other than convenience.

I don't like dealing with waiting for the cards to arrive, worrying about whether or not I need to insure the mail delivery, etc.

On the other hand using cashback portals and online ordering can allow you to completely offset card purchase fees.

In the end it's just a matter of preference.

[milesdividendmd]

Alright milesdividendmd you've convinced me!! I just signed up also!!! I'm excited!!

Bienvenidos!

[BCBiker]

I just got the T Mobile reloadable card and successfully purchased Reloadit cards at Safeway by cc.  The awesome thing about T Mobile/Reloadit combo is they refund all of the fees when you load >$300 to your T-mobile card.  It is almost as good as the Target card, especially if you have a 6% grocery card.

[Ricky]

Reloadits to serve

Serve has been dead a while?

[MrSal]

I was one that signed up for milesdividendmd course in March!

At first everything seem complicated and my thought was to be on the conservative side...

Well, I ended up opening 10 credit cards and MS about 20k in less than three weeks. So much for the conservative I thought I was going for.

It's been worthwhile and now both my wife and I have thoiusands upon thousands of miles that I can use to visit my home town - Lisbon and some other destinations we are looking into.

[milesdividendmd]

I was one that signed up for milesdividendmd course in March!

At first everything seem complicated and my thought was to be on the conservative side...

Well, I ended up opening 10 credit cards and MS about 20k in less than three weeks. So much for the conservative I thought I was going for.

It's been worthwhile and now both my wife and I have thoiusands upon thousands of miles that I can use to visit my home town - Lisbon and some other destinations we are looking into.

MrSal,

You are an honors student, that's for sure.

You're  not the only Mustachian who will be wandering the streets of Lisbon in 2016, I'd wager!

AZ

[optionsguy]

So I don't understand how this works. Can someone better explain it?

Is the idea that you're spending on your credit card and getting airline miles? What is the redbird and where does it come into play?

Sorry for the newb questions.

[Pooperman]

Basically, you 'spend' to hit the sign up bonus. But what if you signed up for 20 cards and need to spend $30k in 3 months when you usually spend $30k a year? That's where this stuff comes in. You 'buy' gift cards and then load them onto a debit card that you can put the money back into your bank account with. In essence, you only pay the fees for buying the gift cards. The reason you do this is that you are getting 20% back on the entire purchase of the gift card (including the fee) but only paying the fee. So buying a $400 gift card for $415 gets you $83 in rewards. $83 - $15 = $68 profit. Do this for about $40k/yr and you get $6,800 you didn't have before.

[milesdividendmd]

So I don't understand how this works. Can someone better explain it?

Is the idea that you're spending on your credit card and getting airline miles? What is the redbird and where does it come into play?

Sorry for the newb questions.

Does this help explain the role of the Redbird in the miles game?

http://www.milesdividendmd.com/so-pseudo/

[tvan]

What's the latest churn method?  I wanna earn some points for my rent payments.

[Turkey Leg]

My understanding, although I have yet to try it, is to buy PIN-enabled Vanilla Visa gift cards using a credit card, wherever you can find this is allowed (many report success at SOME, NOT ALL, grocery stores, CVS stores, Walgreens stores, office supply stores).

Then you go to Guest Services at MOST Targets and tell them you want to load your prepaid Redcard. I think you hand them the Redcard, then swipe your debit card and enter the PIN when prompted.

More details: http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/the-complete-guide-to-redbird-the-target-prepaid-redcard/

[BCBiker]

My understanding, although I have yet to try it, is to buy PIN-enabled Vanilla Visa gift cards using a credit card, wherever you can find this is allowed (many report success at SOME, NOT ALL, grocery stores, CVS stores, Walgreens stores, office supply stores).

Then you go to Guest Services at MOST Targets and tell them you want to load your prepaid Redcard. I think you hand them the Redcard, then swipe your debit card and enter the PIN when prompted.

More details: http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/the-complete-guide-to-redbird-the-target-prepaid-redcard/

This is now officially shut down as well. Only cash reloads at Target now. NO debit cards, no gift cards. Sad week for sure.

[vanhekkm]

What type of visa gift card OR mastercard gift card will work to load money onto my One VIP Serve card at Walmart?  I have a $500 vanilla visa card that no longer works.  Any suggestions?

[Rubic]

What type of visa gift card OR mastercard gift card will work to load money onto my One VIP Serve card at Walmart?  I have a $500 vanilla visa card that no longer works.  Any suggestions?

Family Dollar will accept the Vanilla VGC if you have one near you.