The other week, I used my American Express Campus Edition card to reload it, take cash out of an ATM, and reload my Starbucks card.
Of the three activities, I was only successful in the latter two. This is the most comprehensive list of Campus Edition details that I know of:
- Max limit at any time is $1000
- Max load per transaction is $500
- Load fee is $3.95
- Can be loaded with MoneyPak
- First ATM withdrawal of the month is free, thereafter AMEX will charge $2, ATM owner will charge a fee
- Can be loaded with any credit card, including prepaid gift cards for this step you need to tell the cashier how much to charge on the split tender
- $1000 limit within 28 days, on a non rolling calendar basis
- $6000 annual load limit, not based on a calendar year. 12 months of account opening. For instance, if you opened your account in November, it is November to November of the next year
Besides using my Citi Forward to load the CE card, I will also use this method:
- Buy Office Depot prepaid cards using a Chase Ink card at max value, $500 per month – fee is $4.95
- Big side note, 3 weeks ago I was at Office Depot and saw $500 max Vanila prepaid cards. However, I noticed the max was $200 today.
- Load Campus Edition – $3.95 fee
- After all the fees, it is $8.90, this becomes 1.78%, but I will be making 5% from the Ink Bold, thus I will be profiting 3.22%
This method will allow me to hit the $6000 every year, netting 30,000 Ultimate Reward points. Profit will be $193.20 per year.
With all that being said, if you receive prepaid non store specific gift cards, like Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, or Discover consolidate them all onto your Campus Edition. As mentioned above, max load is $500 per transaction and the fee will be $3.95, but at least you’ll be able to go to the ATM and take out the cash.
