Bluebird Raises Daily Load Limit to $2500 from $1000
I just learned from Frequent Miler that Bluebird has changed its terms and conditions yesterday to increase the daily load limit. Up until now, it has always been $1000 a day and $5000 a month. However, as of yesterday, the limits have changed to $2500 a day and $5000 a month. Frequent Miler’s post and comments have a good discussion on the topic, including what’s happening with the Serve card as well.
Bluebird can be loaded either with Vanilla Reload cards or with prepaid gift cards at Walmart registers and Walmart Moneycenter ATMs. For full instructions on how to load at Walmart, you can read: How to Load Bluebird With Prepaid Debit Cards at Walmart.
Vanilla Reloads
Vanilla Reloads have become cash-only at CVS since the beginning of April. However, a few people have been able to find them at gas stations or local grocery stores. While I have not found any myself in my area and don’t know which gas stations or supermarkets these are, it makes sense to keep an eye out for opportunities.
Loading at Walmart
For the rest of us for whom Vanilla Reloads are no longer an option, prepaid Visa and MasterCard gift cards would still be the way to go. The increased limit definitely makes the Walmart visit far more efficient, lowering it to twice a month to load the full $5000. While Vanilla branded prepaid Visa gift cards sold at CVS and many drugstores no longer work to load Bluebird at Walmart, there are still a few options left:
- Visa prepaid gift cards purchased at Staples/OfficeDepot/OfficeMax ($6.95 fee for $200)
- Non-vanilla Visa prepaid gift cards purchased at grocery stores or gas stations ($5.95 fee for $500)
- Simon Mall prepaid gift cards ($2.95 fee for $500)
The terms and conditions for Bluebird still state that the maximum load at a Walmart register is $1999.99, although that’s always been the case due to the Walmart compliance limit. I haven’t tried this out myself yet, but I suspect you should be able to load up to $2500 if you just go to two different registers.
Please tell us WHICH Non-Vanilla Prepaid Gift Cards work?? Unfortunately, I got stuck with $1000 of Vanilla One Visa’s on the weekend WalMart shut that down—-and hope to not have that happen again. I want to make doubly sure that I buy the correct product that works…. Thanks!
The Metabank ones are reported to be working and the MasterCard ones although you have to do the ‘Change Payment’ workaround for MasterCard… however, every Walmart may be unique and I recommend trying out with one card or small denomination to make sure it works before going all in. :)
Everything except Bancorp works fine. For Serve you don’t have to go to WM though
Do you know if simon malls code as department stores? Would be useful for rotating categories on Discover and Freedom. I plan on checking that out this month if you are unsure.
I have not bought any Simon Mall gift cards so, if you do find out, definitely let me know!
Will do!
What’s your experience, if any, with Visa debit cards sold in Macys??
I am not familiar at all with those, unfortunately.
Well, as long as it is relatively easy to buy a few $500 debit card with a $3 activation fee, it looks like Evolve does not accept it/read it as debit. Even at the postal service I was not able to swipe it to pay for MO’s.
it coded as others – Business service
I just got a targeted 5x on groceries, gas, and department stores on TYP. Max is 2,500… so 1 $500 GC at a grocery store should do it.
Do you know of any grocery stores in NYC that sell $500 GCs?
I do not, unfortunately. I found one at a Gristedes once a few months ago, but haven’t seen any at any Gristedes since then.
So Meta Bank is still good to go? Amex also have $10 sync promo for grocery stores. May need to find one that sells these.
Do you know if you could load the $2500 at a single WM kiosk? I’m wondering if you would have to wait 10 minutes to load the last $500.
When I buy Simon Mall gc’s it codes as “MISCELLANEOUS AND SPECIALTY RETAIL STORES.”
The terms say maximum $1999.99 load at Walmart so you definitely cannot do it at once. However, I do suspect that if you wait the 10 minutes, it will work… not confirmed yet.
I’ve been doing 2 accounts at 1,000 each per day. I do 3 $500 loads and wait 10 minutes from the time I did the 1st load to complete the 4th $500 load. It definitely works.
No, we’re talking about putting $2500 on each account, per day.
No, we are talking about the kiosk locking up if you deposit more than 1,999.99 in less than 10 minutes.
I’ve been loading $1,500 at the kiosk then walking over to a cashier and loading the last $1,000 there. No need to wait the 10 minutes.
Do you load $1000 as one or 2 transactions at the register ? Newbie here. Thanks.
I usually do in two transactions and say I want to load $1000, but “think” I have to do it $500 at a time.
Just loaded 12x$200 & 1x$100 at a WM Kiosk.
Thanks for confirming! I guess the advantage of $200’s and $100’s is you don’t have to walk await for 10 minutes to pass there :)
For those of us using the Staples VGC via INK method it reduces the trips to Wally World from 5 to 3 per month. Since the GC are in $200 increments, you can’t load $2500 (only $2400). I’ll likely do an $1800, $1600, $1600 split. Luckily, my local WM has a Moneypass ATM that always works…
You can load $2500 if you do $100 on one of the loads and use the same gift card next time for the other $100 :) Good find on that ATM!
I found Moneypass ATM at Walgreens close to me. Will it work there? Or it has to be Walmart’s ATMs only?
Bluebird only has a relationship with Walmart, unfortunately.
But I believe Serve can be any moneypass ATM…but you can only load it at wm or FD likely via gc
I had a very bad time yesterday at a Simon Mall where I had previously bought gift cards. I had intended to buy 5K on a business card and 5 k on a personal card. The clerk had to keep calling his boss for approvals and information. First they would not let me use a business card because my business had no relationship with Simon Malls. So I was down to 5K on my personal card. I had to complete a form and I have abbreviated my signature from my full name on my drivers license to an abbreviated version I use on all my credit cards. Finally the boss came out and she said that since the signatures were different she could not complete the transaction. Between the stupid clerk and the intransigent boss, I wasted 45 minutes and came out empty.
To TMP
Which WM do you usually go to when you go when you are in NYC? Westchester NJ or Long Island?
Because of the Office Max Promo we went to Long Island and then went to WM there in Valley Stream. Working ATM, it was heaven!
Our local WM (MI) has been limiting reloading to $500 per day for each BB. CS says registers have been coded to do that now.
Great timing on this post! Just went to a Simon Mall and bought $4k worth of gift cards. They’re so friendly where I am that they gave me a really nice travel bag for spending $750 with a Mastercard, a couple of coupon books and some lollipops. Then went to the kiosk at WM and was able to put $1999.99 on both of my Bluebirds.
GC from Simon mall earns 5x on Amex Hilton Honors card.
What spending category (MCC) does Amex Hilton consider Simon Mall to be? I believe 5x is on gas, supermarket and restaurant.
https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/hilton-hhonors
Worked at the $2000 level this morning at WM. Loaded $500 x 2 at two separate registers. Maybe it was just my WM but I noticed the load limit on the register said $2k. Next time I will push the issue to $2.5k.
Loaded $2,100 in VGC onto BB at a WM ATM today without a problem.
So is it correct to say “You can now load up to $2,500 at Kate but still have to wait 10 minutes in between transactions if you load more than $1,999.99”? I don’t mind doing $1,500 and then $1,000 ten minutes later but if I can spend less time in WM i’ll be happier.
I think that’s correct
Is there a process on how to add funds to the Bluebird account at Walmart using Visa gift cards? I would really appreciate if somebody can point out the steps or if this has already been explained, a link to the post would be fine as well. Thanks
Yes, here is the process: Just remember, any Vanilla cards no longer work! http://milesprof.wpengine.com/2014/04/29/load-bluebird-without-vanilla-reloads/
Ok – just looking for tips here…
Went by CVS – plenty of gc but only visa gift cards they have are Vanilla (bancorp)..no other “model”
Went by staples – They actually had no 200’s…only ones they had were a package of 4 50’s but it was 14 buck fee..no way.
Went by Walmart itself -nothing but vanilla.
Went by local grocery store – had gift cards but nothing over 100.
I did see 200’s in Mastercard though at both CVS and Staples. Is MC possibly going to work? saw some people had issues but i dont know where else to find none vanilla gc’s that will take a credit card for purchase.
Any suggestions on finding none vanilla visas that would work to load bb? Especially that allow variable load up to 500?
I just went to a local walmart to try to load $500 visa gift card to my BB account. Apparently, I was told by the customer service staff that they can only load Bank ATM cards or personal checks to BB. It’s a recent new policy, no more gift or other none bank cards. This walmart is based in San Jose, CA. I wonder if others have similar experience.
They are probably reading it incorrectly and thinking that “no vanilla gift cards” means ALL gift cards. Good luck trying to educate. I am not fortunate enough to have a kiosk and even when loading $600 get “the look” like ‘aren’t you special that you can load that much’…then they look at the balance on the card and get another look. One time, perhaps innocently, the person forgot to hand back my BB card. Just yesterday got the “we’re not suppose to take GCs any longer, like she was doing me a favor, I nicely mentioned that it was the Vanilla Card which no longer worked and “suddenly” the next card didn’t work (only loaded $400 at that point). Kept saying “see it won’t work”. In short, use the kiosk as much as possible
As of today, my WM still has hard coded limit of $1000 for Bluebird load.
Not hard coded according to other posts here. Maybe you just mean the policy at your WM is such and such.
I DO mean hard coded into the terminal. The employee types in $1500 to load, and the terminal responds “Maximum load $1000.”
It is interesting. I was assuming hard coded meant Walmart wide. According to posts above, one WM terminal limit is $500 and another said $2,000 so wonder how there can be such variance. Manager possibly given system authority to reduce the maximum limits as set by the software. Just a guess. If each WM has it’s own rules that may be a good thing if you have multiple WM options in your area. Looks like Kate wins though when she is operating.
On Friday I had luck buying the $500 visa gift card at Safeway ($5.95 fee) and using it to load at Walmart. I had to call and setup a pin first, then click ‘change payment type’ to debit at the cashier so it prompted me for a pin. There was no fee charged by Walmart.
Yup, those still work along with M/C but you must know what type you are buying. You should be safe buying from grocery stores and office supply stores…..for now. Stay away from drugstores as they typically only carry the Vanilla gift cards which are reported not to work at WM. I know the visa gc you bought at Safeway is not Vanilla because they do not sell Vanilla there.
Hi!
I am new here and was thinking about opening the Bluebird account. However something came to my mind: if I pay $7 in fees for every $500 on gift cards that I buy (Considering that I could find those easily), then I will end up spending $490 in fees ($7 for 70 gift cards to get 35,000 miles) for going to the Caribbean.
Is this really worth? Am I missing something? Then if I considering that going to Europe is twice as many miles, then I do not really see the savings – and domestic flights do not make sense at all.
Thanks for sharing the tricks!
JD