Amex Bluebird and Serve Account Shutdowns
Well, it appears to be happening again, Bluebird and Serve accounts are being shut down. Some people are receiving emails saying their accounts have been closed. There’s been two or three waves of shutdowns a year for the past few years.
People who use these accounts to generate spend are always in danger of being shut down by Amex. Basically, they load the cards with gift cards and pay bills- which is a prohibited use of the account. Cardholders who report surviving shutdowns generally report staying under certain dollar amounts in addition to using the card for legitimate purchases.
If you do get shutdown, you are permanently stripped of your ability to load more money into your account. You still have access to the money in your account and any sub-accounts.
Conclusion
If you value your account for some other purpose, then it’s best to not use it to generate spend to avoid losing it completely. But there’s really not many other benefits on these cards.
Note that once you get shutdown you cannot get the card again. Amex Bluebird and Serve are no longer viable methods to create spend in the long term because they will eventually cut you off. I have been shutdown long ago myself.
Did you get shutdown today? Let us know in the comments. Did you survive despite “prohibited activity”? Let us know in the comments.
HT: Reader Brett
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My spouse BB was shut down as well. My BB was shut down about 3 years ago, I opened a BB in her name hung in there near a good 2 years and shut it down last week. I probably also screwed up my chance to try to open a 2nd card since I never officially closed the card under my name, my account has been sitting with a $0 balance for 3 years but I finally clicked on the close account button last night which it should be official after 90 days, maybe ill give it a try then.
Has anyone ever tried to open an account using a “mistyped” SS# 1 digit off? I wonder if I use a different email account (maybe new phone #) and mistype the last digit of my SS# if I would get lucky to activate another account. If not I have to start looking for some friends and/family let them know all I want for x-mas is for them to open a BB account in their name and let me manage it 🙂
I got my BB shut down in original crackdown round two or three but been ok on Serve for the last few years. Very low MS and I leave a decent balance. I relarely spend anything, and use bill pay to drain. Once in a while I’ll make a small purchase while I’m at Walmart.
How does one shut down their Bluebird account? What is the process?
TIA
Dave I just did this its easy, After your account is $0 balance log in. Click on the 3 lines at the upper right of the screen. Goto Settings, Profile scroll down to the bottom and there is a link to close account. Once you click on it will tell you that your account can not be used but your able to logged in and the data is still active for 90 days after the card will be closed and it can no longer be accessed.
Good info.
Shut down yesterday, been MSing about 3-5k the last few months.
I got shutdown yesterday. I had been shut down many years ago. I just got a new card a few weeks ago. Just used it a few times to load at Walmart and paid credit cards with it and it got shut down.
“Note that once you get shutdown you cannot get the card again”
I think people might be surprised at the results if they test this theory….
I was shutdown around three years ago, and haven’t been able to get another one, despite trying at least twice.
The people like yourself that were banned three years ago were able to get back in in the past couple weeks. Additionally, those like me who got the emails yesterday afternoon were able to immediately close our affected accounts and reapply for new ones, both Serve and BB. You can read the reports on Reddit. Coincidentally, I had a new BB arriving yesterday that I was able to successfully activate and load at WM today as usual. Basically, it was not a SS# wide shutdown, just cards people already had active. So, as I was saying, “once shutdown” does not equal forever. Hope it works out for you.
I closed my account and then tried to sign up for another BB using the same SS and email. didnt work. Is there another way I should try and sign up or should I wait a certain amount of time?
I’ve been camped out on a Bluebird for a while now. I originally just valued it for the ability to load walmart saving catcher funds to it but that no longer works (thanks walmart). Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t make a run at MS on my account until they shut me down but I don’t know the best basic approach. I don’t have the business cards that earn so much on office supply GC’s. Any advice.