Many tears have been shed with the death of Amazon Payments. But all is not lost. There are still some good options to help you meet minimum spending requirements and earn a reward mile or point for every dollar you spend.
Here are a few of those:
Target Amex Prepaid
American Express and Target have a co-branded prepaid card and it’s glorious. Problem is, not all Target stores carry them and even when they do, they can be hard to snag. Check to see if your local Target store carries this card here.
Image may be NSFW.
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You can load the American Express for Target card at Target store registers in $1,000 increments for a maximum of $2,500 on your card. You can use rewards credit cards or some gift cards (bought with rewards credit cards) to load your Amex Target card. The initial load allotment is $500 on the temporary card, but you will receive your permanent card in 7-10 business days. After you have your permanent card, you can load $1,000 at a time and also withdraw funds from an eligible ATM. Boom.
There’s a $3 fee to load your Target card and $3 ATM transaction fee, but you receive 1 free ATM withdraw per month.
I’ve been playing around with this card for a few months now, and it’s really easy to use after the initial set up that seemed to take a few minutes at the register. But after my permanent card came in, it’s been uber easy to run a couple thousand or more if needed through the card.
Tip: There’s also a prepaid Target Red card that I haven’t been able to find yet.
Evolve Money
Evolve Money is a free online app that lets you pay your bills much like Bluebird.
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Evolve Money Announcement
Unfortunately, Evolve Money recently announced on September 1, 2014 that you will only be able to make one payment per billing account each month. This means you can’t make multiple payments to a larger bill like your mortgage, since the largest increment most gift cards come in is $500. However, you can find some gift cards that have a $1,000 limit, which is also the daily max for Evolve Money. But even then, most peoples’ mortgage is over $1,000 a month.
BUT, Evolve Money also just announced that you can now pay bills online with your Discover credit card. That’s nice, since until now you would have to buy gift cards with a credit card to pay your bills online with Evolve Money. And according to the press release, they have plans to add Visa and Mastercard credit cards as well. This definitely gives us another solid option.
Serve & Bluebird
American Express Serve and American Express Bluebird are online bank accounts where you can bay bills, send & receive money, etc. It’s also a prepaid card that allows you to withdraw funds from an ATM.
Image may be NSFW.
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Important: You can only have 1 of these American Express accounts
I have had a Bluebird account for about 3 years now, and it’s been a steady go-to for me. You can load these accounts with gift cards that have pins at your local Wal-Mart. I’m lucky to have Money Center Express machines at my local Wal-Marts to make the loading easier.
You can load $1,000 a day and up to $5,000 a month.
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Wal-Mart Money Center
There aren’t a lot of difference between Serve and Bluebird. Here they are:
Serve Differences
- charges a $1 monthly fee (waived if you loaded $500 the previous month to your Serve account)
- allows you to load $1,000 via a credit card online per month ($200 at a time)
Bluebird Difference
- ability to write checks
- no foreign transaction fees
Both Serve and Bluebird allow you to withdraw money for free at ATMs in their network, sync a bank account for transfers, and they use the same user friendly online payment technology. It’s really a toss up on which is best for you. Since I have a Bluebird account for Jordan and me, I don’t plan on switching to Serve anytime soon.
I’ve been loading Bluebird with gift cards issued by Metabank or US Bank that I purchased at Staples or Randalls. Unfortunately, you can no longer use Vanilla Reloads or One Vanilla gift cards to load your accounts. Those were the glory days.
The Bluebird online payment system is very user friendly and has enabled me to earn miles and points on bills that I couldn’t have otherwise.
Honorable Mentions
I’ve written about ChargeSmart and William Paid before, but I only suggest using them to pay your mortgage or rent if you’re needing help meeting a large minimum spending requirement since the fees can be hefty.
Closing Thoughts
It really hurt when Amazon Payments quit allowing person to person payments. An easy $2,000 each month option gone instantly. But we will live, and as is always true in this hobby- on to the next one. I don’t go crazy trying to maximize these programs to their fullest potential. I just don’t have the time/energy. But even using them casually for $3,000 – $7,000 each month has been a huge help to me. It’s all in moderation, imho.
I hope this helps if you’re looking for ways to help ease the pain of losing Amazon Payments.
— Geoff Whitmore