American Express® Serve is offering $50 Bonus when you set up direct deposit by 8/31/2013. It’s a great alternative to debit and other prepaid cards that’s loaded with great features. Account holders enjoy no credit checks, no monthly fees, and no annual fees. It has given PayPal some real competition and is seriously challenging the lucrative prepaid credit card market. While American Express Serve is primarily a type of prepaid card, it has extra features that make it a hybrid. There are many good reasons why you would need a prepaid credit card these days.
American Express Serve Card Features:
- Get American Express Serve and you could get $50 when you use Direct Deposit. Must enroll in Direct Deposit by 8/31/13.*
- No credit check. No minimum balance. No activation fee.
- Manage your money with the prepaid card, online account, and mobile app.
- Shop online or off and get access to membership benefits like Purchase Protection.*
- Enroll in Direct Deposit to get your paycheck in your American Express Serve Account on payday.
- No need to use a check. Email money to anyone no matter where they have a bank account.
- The safety and security of American Express.
- The 24/7 customer service you expect from American Express.
- *Terms, conditions and exclusions apply.
Summary of American Express Serve:
- What is Serve? Serve is a digital prepaid account that gives you a safe way to pay in stores, online, and on your mobile phone. It’s free to sign up.
- Serve is from American Express: Get a Serve® prepaid card to use everywhere American Express® Cards are accepted in the U.S.
- Benefits of membership: Get access to benefits like 24/7 customer support, Purchase Protection, Roadside Assistance, and Entertainment Access.
- Security: Serve uses advanced technology from American Express to keep your information and transactions safe and secure.
- Get the app: Download the mobile app for iPhone®, Android™, and Windows® Phone to move money or split the bill on the go.
- Link your bank account or card: Add money to your account with a bank account, debit card, credit card, or MoneyPak®.
- Get cash at ATMs: Use the Serve® Card to get cash at ATMs. Serve will waive its $2 fee for your first withdrawal each month. ATM owner fees may apply.
- Additional features: Send or request money with a wall post on Facebook, create subaccounts for family and friends, and use widgets to sell items online.
The biggest reason is to make online purchases. People who want to stay clear of using their Visa, MasterCard or American Express for online transactions have an ally in the American Express Serve. As a consumer, you want to have the option to use your regular plastic only for sites that you trust. For anything else, it’s safer to go the prepaid way.
While most credit cards protect your purchases, a prepaid version like the American Express® Serve is able to provide an added layer of protection. However, unlike the typical prepaid plastic, the Amex version does not have an activation fee. To illustrate, the Vanilla prepaid MasterCard will charge you a $5 activation fee on your first transaction.
This amount is deducted from the amount available on the card, which is a major annoyance for first time users of this type of plastic. Just imagine if you paid $20 for the card over the counter. Theoretically, you can only use $15. Worse, most providers will bar you from doing any further transactions, once the balance left is only 15% of the total value of the card.
As a result, there is about 30% right there that you, the card owner never get to use, which is a significant waste. Of course, this amount returns to the card provider. Another major annoyance is that prepaids expire. You may have like four months to use up the balance, or the money gets taken once again by you know who. The American Express Serve eliminates all these annoyances, which is definitely a big relief.
You will only need one card which you can keep filling up over time with money from your bank account or a major credit card. In this area, American Express Serve upstages PayPal because you don’t have to keep withdrawing from your funding sources every time you need to load up. With American Express Serve, you get to automate the process, which is a major convenience.
Just like PayPal, you can send money by email through American Express Serve, but the latter takes the convenience further by allowing you to do this via text messaging and Facebook as well. With its handy features, the American Express Serve has managed to bring back the power to the consumer with regards to the usage of the prepaid mode. Credit card providers tend to forget the fact that in going this way, you are actually using your own money, not theirs.
Hence, you deserve every bit of extra courtesy accorded by the American Express® Serve. Prepaid providers tend to emphasize the fact that getting the card does not require a credit check, without realizing that in going their way, you, the consumer is actually the one who’s fronting the money.
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 American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card offers 25,000 membership rewards® points for spending $2,000 within the first 3 months. The 25,000 bonus membership rewards points can be redeemed for $250 gift cards of your choice. You'll also earn 15K points after you spend $30,000 within one calendar year. Cardholders earn fast with 3X points for flights booked with airlines, 2X points at US gas stations and US supermarkets, 1X points on other purchases. You can use points for gift cards for dining, entertainment, and to shop over 300 of some of your favorite brands. Full Review |
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