Testing the waters

[Whitney]

I thought I would share my experience so far…. About 2 months ago, I began testing Evolvemoney. I loaded small amounts ($50 gift cards) and paid my utility bills Worked great! So, the next month, I got a little bolder…I bought 2 $500 gift cards, planning to load them in and pay part of my mortgage. The first $500 went in just fine. The second $500 card would not load. I called Visa and they said it happens sometimes. They are sending me a new $500 card that should arrive next week.

I used the $500 that did load to make a partial mortgage payment and paid the remainder the old fashioned, regular way. So, I was able to pay a few bills with Evolve. But now that they will be charging 3%, I don’t think I will be using it much anymore.

So, I am experimenting with Bluebird. I went to Walmart. Bought a Bluebird card and loaded a $50 gift card onto it. Everything seems to have gone smoothly. So, now I think I will go back to Walmart tomorrow and get a money order with the $50. I can deposit that in my banking account and use it to pay the credit card charge for buying the gift card.

If that all goes well, I plan to take advantage of the discounted Staples Visa gift cards next week. Wish me luck!

 

[Matt]

I thought I would share my experience so far…. About 2 months ago, I began testing Evolvemoney. I loaded small amounts ($50 gift cards) and paid my utility bills Worked great! So, the next month, I got a little bolder…I bought 2 $500 gift cards, planning to load them in and pay part of my mortgage. The first $500 went in just fine. The second $500 card would not load. I called Visa and they said it happens sometimes. They are sending me a new $500 card that should arrive next week.

I used the $500 that did load to make a partial mortgage payment and paid the remainder the old fashioned, regular way. So, I was able to pay a few bills with Evolve. But now that they will be charging 3%, I don’t think I will be using it much anymore.

So, I am experimenting with Bluebird. I went to Walmart. Bought a Bluebird card and loaded a $50 gift card onto it. Everything seems to have gone smoothly. So, now I think I will go back to Walmart tomorrow and get a money order with the $50. I can deposit that in my banking account and use it to pay the credit card charge for buying the gift card.

If that all goes well, I plan to take advantage of the discounted Staples Visa gift cards next week. Wish me luck!

Good luck! Its great to see you starting small and figuring it out.

 

[InstinctX]

FYI: if you haven't done Staples rebates before, be aware that the $20 Visa rebate is PIN-less. You can use it for everyday expenses or load it to RedBird. But you can't load the $20 Visa rebate to BB or Serve at WM.

 

[Whitney]

latest developments....I tried to get a money order today. But, since I just got the Bluebird card earlier this week, Ionly have a "temporary" one. They are mailing the "permanent" one to me. And, it turns out, you can only get a money order with the permanent one. Another reason it is good to start with small dollar amounts.

 

[Tom Capone]

Whitney - No need to get a money order with Bluebird. Log in to your bluebird account and it acts like a checking account. You can send payments to your credit card company, utilities, etc. When/if you start getting into the hobby more seriously and you load $5,000 onto your bluebird in a month (the maximum), then you might consider money orders with gift cards to go beyond the $5,000 per month. A lot of people get bluebird accounts with family members information (and permission) in order to do more than $5K/mo.

 

[InstinctX]

In addition, you cannot purchase a MO with BB, e.g. at the local grocery store. They are processed as credit. And you can't get cashback.

The other reason people do MO's -- particularly at places other than WM -- is to liquidate Vanilla-branded GC's such as OneVanilla (OV) which do not work at WM. I purchase OV's at d/s for 5% CB with my CC's.

 

[Whitney]

Thanks, Tom! I didn't realize I could pay bills directly from Bluebird! That makes it even better! I just tried -- it seems to be saying that I need my permanent

Whitney - No need to get a money order with Bluebird. Log in to your bluebird account and it acts like a checking account. You can send payments to your credit card company, utilities, etc. When/if you start getting into the hobby more seriously and you load $5,000 onto your bluebird in a month (the maximum), then you might consider money orders with gift cards to go beyond the $5,000 per month. A lot of people get bluebird accounts with family members information (and permission) in order to do more than $5K/mo.

card before I can activate the bill paying functionality. But as soon as I get that card, I will try it out. If it works, I am going to gift card heave - Staples!

 

[nickelfish1]

Whitney,
In case you didn't know you can click under settings and just transfer the money back to your standard bank. I usually pay bills I can't pay by cc. Like, Gap, Victoria's Secret, water bill and my mortgage. After that I transfer the remainder into my regular bank account. I don't pay Chase or Citi out of BB but I do pay Barclays.

 

[Brit]

Whitney, glad to see things are working for you at WM. I had a real issue this week with WM. I purchased a SM,VGC and tried to use it to pay my MC at Walmart. Seems that the WalMarts in Central NJ have coded their registers to treat GCs as credit and not debit. I tried all the workarounds (e.g. pushing the yellow button immediately to change the payment type) but nothing worked.

So, I tried to buy a MO. Same deal. Wouldn't let me purchase a MO with the VGC.

Luckily, I have the Target Redcard (just got it) and so I was able to liquidate it that way.

Bit of a bummer that WM is not playing ball anymore in my backyard. Oh well!

I am fairly new to MS (as are you!) and so I will stay with the 3 RedCards I have for the next couple of months until I am comfortable with the cycle of load and repay the CC. Then I will venture into trying to buy the VGC and unload somewhere else for MOs.

 

[Brit]

Not sure I would be comfortable purchasing from something like [deleted name of site]. I understand, though, that if you don't live in an area where you can easily pick up a Redcard that it may be the only option to get one.

I am often in Baltimore on business. I think next time I am down there, I may just Uber out to a Target store and pick up a handful to give to people who need them. You don't even need to actually register them on the spot. I picked up 4 last time, and loaded 2, and brought 2 home and set them up and loaded them in NJ.

 

[Brit]

Also, my Proof of Concept (as Rich, the Points Jock advised us to do) worked for me.

I loaded my Redcards with my SPG AMEX card and also a Simon Mall Visa Gift Card that I had purchased with my Chase Pres Plus MC (and had an aborted attempt to liquidate at WM).

A few days later I made Bill Payments to the AMEX and MC. Those payments hit the cards yesterday. Waiting for one more to hit today.

Then I will wash, rinse and repeat for my second round of $2,500 loads for the month.

 

[Brit]

I have 4 cards, Eric, and that's all I can use at the moment. I have one for each member of my family. Being a transplanted Brit I don't have extended family here that I can "manage" a card for!

 

[raenye]

I loaded my Redcards with my SPG AMEX card and also a Simon Mall Visa Gift Card that I had purchased with my Chase Pres Plus MC (and had an aborted attempt to liquidate at WM).

Why pay Simon a fee? you can load your RB directly with your Chase card.
The only reason to involve VGCs is if you get a bonus for purchasing them (e.g., at a gas station).
Even then, personally I wouldn't "waste" RB load capacity on VGCs. These can often be liquidated for cheap. If not WM, try a grocery store.

 

[Brit]

Why pay Simon a fee? you can load your RB directly with your Chase card.
The only reason to involve VGCs is if you get a bonus for purchasing them (e.g., at a gas station).
Even then, personally I wouldn't "waste" RB load capacity on VGCs. These can often be liquidated for cheap. If not WM, try a grocery store.

Completely agree. Buying the SMVGC was my first foray into MS, and I fully expected to be able to liquidate it at WM. However, I found out, through trial and error, that my local WMs have hard coded their registers and MC to treat VGC as credit only. Couldn't bill pay with it or buy a MO. I didn't try any other outlets at that time but there may well be grocery stores when I could potentially have liquidated it.

So, once I had picked up my Redcards and registered them, I liquidated the VGC . Will not use VGC as a matter of course now, as I know I can load directly onto the RC via CC!

All part of the learning curve!

 

[raenye]

Next step: if you don't get a category bonus at Target, buy AGC via portal and load this to RB. Another 1%-2%.

 

[Matt]

I've reason to suspect that Redcard Resales is not what it appears. I would advise you to not purchase from this site.

 

[Brit]

Next step: if you don't get a category bonus at Target, buy AGC via portal and load this to RB. Another 1%-2%.

AGC? Amazon gift cards???? Which portal? So much to learn ....

 

[Brit]

I've reason to suspect that Redcard Resales is not what it appears. I would advise you to not purchase from this site.

Thanks, Matt, for the heads up. I am always just a little bit suspicious of sites like this so have never purchased anything unless I know people well who have had success.

 

[Matt]

Thanks, Matt, for the heads up. I am always just a little bit suspicious of sites like this so have never purchased anything unless I know people well who have had success.

I'm suspicious of people who sign up for new accounts here and drop the name of such a service in every post..

 

[Brit]

I'm suspicious of people who sign up for new accounts here and drop the name of such a service in every post..

You don't need to be suspicious of me .... First, I'm a Brit ... hahahaha, Second, Rich, the Points Jock, can vouch for me! I am in his Travel Hacking class and he sent me here! And third..... I'm a Jersey Girl now, after having lived in Central NJ for almost 20 years...ROFL...

 

[Matt]

You don't need to be suspicious of me .... First, I'm a Brit ... hahahaha, Second, Rich, the Points Jock, can vouch for me! I am in his Travel Hacking class and he sent me here! And third..... I'm a Jersey Girl now, after having lived in Central NJ for almost 20 years...ROFL...

Nah I checked your join dates already. I meant Eric since he joined today and posted about his site 18 times in 6 posts.

 

[Brit]

Nah I checked your join dates already. I meant Eric since he joined today and posted about his site 18 times in 6 posts.

And I notice his posts have disappeared!

I will edit the name of the site out of my posts, too.

 

[Whitney]

Whitney,
In case you didn't know you can click under settings and just transfer the money back to your standard bank. I usually pay bills I can't pay by cc. Like, Gap, Victoria's Secret, water bill and my mortgage. After that I transfer the remainder into my regular bank account. I don't pay Chase or Citi out of BB but I do pay Barclays.

no, I didn't know. I just paid Citi from Blue bird --- was that a mistake?

 

[Haley]

no, I didn't know. I just paid Citi from Blue bird --- was that a mistake?

No worries.
Some people feel it is safer to do it the other way, and transfer to a checking account as a middle step, I think it is just an unnecessary extra step. Just be sure to use a spread sheet or something like that to keep track of things.

 

[nickelfish1]

I personally don't pay Citi or Chase while others do.
I have no reference point other then I ms on those cards and I want to pay from my real bank only, that's all.